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 For sale \>y all Booksellers. 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PUBLISHHRS, 
 
 Philadelphia.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE 
 
 AND 
 
 SERGEANT CROESUS 
 
 TWO NOVELS 
 
 BY 
 
 CAPTAIN CHARLES KING 
 
 U. S. ARMY 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL S DAUGHTER," "MARION S FAITH," 
 "UNDER FIRE," ETC. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 1895
 
 Copyright, " Captain Close," 1894, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 
 Copyright, " Sergeant Croesus," 1893, by J. B. LIPPINGOTT COMPANY. 
 
 PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 I. 
 
 FTIHE conductor had eyed Lambert curiously as he punched his ticket. 
 JL He held it a moment and edged his lantern around so that its 
 feeble light could reinforce the glimmer from the bleared and smoky 
 globe above Lambert s curly head. The train had started from the 
 junction with that quick series of back- wrenching jerks which all 
 veteran travellers remember as characteristic of American railways 
 before the introduction of " coupler buffers." It was a shabby, old- 
 fashioned train, one whose cars had " seen service," and not a little 
 of it, during the long and eventful war so recently closed. It had a 
 baggage-car behind the wheezy old wood-burner that drew the rickety 
 procession out into the dim, starlit aisle through the eastward forest, 
 and, for the first time in a week, that baggage-car contained a trunk. 
 It had a " smoker," in which three or four negroes were soundly sleep 
 ing on the worn cushions at the forward end, and three or four lank, 
 shabbily-dressed whites were consuming tobacco and killing time under 
 the single lamp at the other. It had a " ladies car," so called, in 
 which no ladies were visible, and which differed in appointments from 
 the smoker only in the facts that its seats were upholstered in dingy red 
 plush instead of blackened canvas, and that both its lamps could be 
 induced to burn, however feebly, instead of only one. It was a for 
 lorn, hangdog, shamefaced sort of train, that seemed oppressed with 
 sense of its own disrepute, a train that kept in hiding during the 
 broad light of day and ventured to slink forth only aft^r nightfall, like 
 some impoverished debtor, not loving the darkness better than light 
 because of evil deeds, but hating it as it hated its own shabbiness, and 
 accepting it as only one plane above total decrepitude, the junk-shop 
 and the poor-house. Starting at dusk from a populous station on a 
 north-and-south " trunk" line, it turned and twisted through red clay 
 
 1* 5
 
 6 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 cuttings, jolted over mud-covered ties and moss-grown trestles, whis 
 tling shrill to wake the watchers at cross-country stations on the way, 
 and finally, after midnight, rested an hour at a prominent point, a 
 " State centre," where, sometimes at one o clock but generally long after, 
 the night express came glaring up from the South along the glistening 
 rails of another " great northern" route, and three nights in the week, 
 perhaps, gave it a sleepy passenger or two to trundle away westward 
 towards the big river town it managed to reach by sunrise, once more 
 to slink out of sight until dark, when again it crept forth and stole 
 away on the return trip over its clanking road, unresentful of comment 
 on its loneliness and poverty, and proud, if anything, of the fact that 
 this way, at least, it ran " right end foremost," according to the Ameri 
 can idea, with the baggage- instead of the ladies car next the strug 
 gling engine. 
 
 It was a clear, starlit night, sharply cold, and the planks of the 
 platform at the junction had snapped and creaked under their glisten 
 ing white coat of frosty rime. The up train came in even later than 
 usual, so much so that the station-master had more than once asked 
 his friend the conductor of the waiting " Owl" whether he really 
 thought he could " make it" over to Quitman in time for the down 
 express at dawn. " You d better pull out the minute she gits hyuh," 
 was his final injunction when at last her whistle was heard. 
 
 A lithe, active young fellow in a trim suit of tweed had sprung 
 from the sleeper before the incoming train had fairly stopped, and, 
 hailing the first man he saw, asked, "Train for Tugaloo gone yet?" 
 which so astonished the party addressed that he simply stared for a min 
 ute without reply. A voice crying in the wilderness, apparently, was 
 heard above the hissing of steam and the loud mouthings of the negro 
 porters of the two rival hotels. " All aboard for Quitman," it said, 
 and, abandoning his apparent purpose of repeating the question in 
 sharper tone, the young fellow turned and ran nimbly across the dimly- 
 lighted platform in the direction of the hail. 
 
 " Quitman train? Tugaloo?" he asked of a dark form standing 
 above the tail light of the car. 
 
 " Quitman it is. Anybody else thar?" And the interrogative went 
 off in a shout. No answer. 
 
 " Aw, Hank ! Anybody else ?" Still no answer. Two or three 
 dim figures were by this time clustered around the flaring torch of a
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 7 
 
 coffee-stand at the edge of the platform. The conductor got off and 
 walked impatiently towards them. 
 
 " Any you gentlemen for Quitman?" he asked. 
 
 " Quitman ? Hell, no ! What s any man want to go thar for 
 night like this ? Pull out with your old sneezer, Jimmy, nless you ll 
 stop and take a cup coffee." 
 
 " Oh, that you, cap ? Ain t you got anybody for us ? Thought the 
 judge was comin up to-night." 
 
 " Warn t on my car," said the brakeman of the express, possessively. 
 " Young feller n the sleeper all / know of." 
 
 " Got him" answered the conductor as briefly as possible for a man 
 long attuned to the soft Southern drawl, and whose " got" was more 
 like " gawt." " Reckon we might as well git, then," he continued, re 
 turning to the colloquial present indicative of a verb of manifold mean 
 ing and usefulness. " Tell Hank, will you ? Let er go, Jack," he 
 shouted to the engineer with a wave of his lantern. A yelp from the 
 whistle was the answer ; the fireman crawled out from a warm corner in 
 the baggage-car and shambled drowsily forward to the cab. Sudden jets 
 of steam flew hissing out on the frosty air. One after another the three 
 cars lunged sharply forward and then slowly rolled forth into the night. 
 The conductor clambered up the rear steps with parting wave of his 
 lantern, slammed the door after him, and came up the narrow aisle to 
 look at his passenger. Before he had time to speak, however, his atten 
 tion was attracted by a succession of yells from the track to their rear. 
 Giving an angry yank at the bell-rope, he whirled about and hurried 
 to the door. The train came willingly to a sudden stand, and Lam 
 bert, stowing his hand luggage on the empty seat before him, heard the 
 following lively colloquy, as did everybody else who happened to be 
 awake and within a radius of two hundred yards : 
 
 "Whatd you want?" 
 
 " Come back hyuh, I say." 
 
 " What d you wa-a-nt ? I ain t goin to back in thar now." 
 
 "Hyuh sa trunk." 
 
 "Wha-at?" 
 
 " A tru-u-unk." 
 
 " Why in hell didn t you sling it abawd fihst off?" sung out the 
 conductor, disgustedly. " Ain t you felluhs got any brains ? Back 
 up, Jack !" he shouted forward, signalling with his lantern again. 
 "Somebody s left a band-bawx, by criminy !" And so, growling volubly,
 
 8 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 the custodian of the " Owl" swung himself out from the steps, hanging 
 by the left hand to the iron railing and holding extended his green and 
 white lantern with the other. A couple of stalwart negroes came 
 panting forward to meet them, the offending trunk on their shoulders, 
 and went stumbling up the sloping embankment towards the slowly 
 backing baggage-car. The light from the lantern fell on the new can 
 vas cover and on the fresh brown finish of the straps and handles, then 
 on the inscription in bold black letters at the end : 
 
 I. N. LAMBERT, 
 
 U. 8. ARMY. 
 
 At sight of which the conductor checked the half-jocular, half- 
 resentful tirade he was composing for the benefit of the station-master, 
 and abruptly asked, 
 
 " Whuh s it goin ?" 
 
 " Tugaloo, suh," said the rearmost negro. 
 
 " Well, hump it abawd, V be quick about it." Then, raising his 
 voice, he shouted across the platform, " Shuah you ain t gawt a feedin - 
 bawtle or a cake o soap or sW other truck to fetch me back again, 
 Hank? Dawg gawn f I reckon we ever will get to Quitman, t this 
 rate!" 
 
 The darkies about the coffee-stand gave a guffaw of sympathetic 
 rejoicing over the official s humor. The conductor was evidently more 
 popular than the station-master. One of the two trunk-bearers came 
 lunging in at the front door of the car, and, humble yet confident, 
 appealed to Lambert: 
 
 " Little somethin , suh, fur totin de trunk ? Bin los , mos like, f 
 it had n bin f r us. Thanky, suh. T/ianky." And the negro s eyes 
 danced, for the douceur handed him by the young owner of the vagrant 
 baggage exceeded his hopes. He strove, indeed, to turn and renew his 
 thanks at the rear door, but was collared and hustled unceremoniously 
 off the car. 
 
 "You ain t goin to git off at Tugaloo this time o night?" asked 
 the conductor, finally, and with that odd emphasis expressive of doubt 
 as to a passenger s knowledge of his own intentions so often heard in 
 our thinly-settled districts. Lambert interpreted it to mean "Any 
 body else, perhaps, but not you." He was already cogitating as to 
 whether or not the conductor had intended some covert sneer in his
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 9 
 
 recent reference to "feeding-bottles," for Lambert was but one-and- 
 twenty, and youthful-looking for his years. The tone of this inquiry 
 and the look which accompanied it after deliberate pause and study of 
 the proffered ticket, however, were far from aggressive or discourteous, 
 yet the unintentional misplacing of the emphasis, following an allu 
 sion equally hapless and alike unintentional, had given umbrage to the 
 boy. " You must expect to hear no end of unpleasant things," he had 
 been told at department head- quarters, where he had received orders to 
 go on and join his company, then in camp at Tugaloo. " Everybody 
 is mighty sore yet over the late unpleasantness. Hold your tongue and 
 keep your temper," were the parting injunctions ; and he meant to do 
 both. All the same he did not intend to allow people to treat him with 
 discourtesy, certainly not a conductor of a public railway. Lambert 
 was on his dignity in a moment. He looked the railway man straight 
 in the eye and replied, with all the calm and deliberation he could 
 master, " My ticket would seem to indicate that such was my intention," 
 and almost immediately regretted it, for the conductor looked up in 
 sudden surprise, stood one instant irresolutely, then saying, " Oh ! 
 All right," turned abruptly away, walked up beyond the stove, and, 
 roughly shaking the elbow of a snoring passenger, sung out, " Coates- 
 ville," and let himself out with an emphatic bang of the door. 
 
 Two days later, when asked at Quitman what sort of a fellow the 
 new lieutenant seemed to be, Mr. Scroggs, the conductor, himself a sol 
 dier of large experience and no little ability, a man who had fought 
 his way from the ranks to the command of the remnant of a regiment 
 that laid down its battered arms among the very last, a man not five 
 years Lambert s senior in age, but lustrums ahead of him in the prac 
 tical details of his profession, Mr. Scroggs, the conductor, promptly 
 said, ft He s a dam little foci," and never dreamed how much he should 
 one day deplore it. 
 
 " Newt" Lambert, as he was known among his intimates, was far 
 from being a fool. He had seen very little of the world, it is true, 
 and, until this December night, next to nothing of the sunny South, 
 where at this particular period in our national history it was not every 
 man who could so conduct himself as not to fall into error. More 
 especially in the military service was an old head needed on young 
 shoulders, and a strong head between new shoulder-straps, for army 
 life so soon after the great war was beset by snares and temptations it 
 rarely hears of now, and many a fellow, brave and brainy both, in the 
 A*
 
 10 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 days that tried men s souls twixt Big Bethel and Appomattox, or Bel- 
 mont and Bentonville, went down in the unequal tussle with foe far 
 more insidious than faced him in the field, but which met him day and 
 night now that peace had come. It was at a time when the classes 
 graduating from the Military Academy were being assigned mainly to 
 the staff corps and to the artillery and cavalry regiments. Lambert 
 fancied that he should prefer the associations and much prefer the 
 stations of the artillery to those of any other corps, but an old friend 
 of his father s, himself a veteran gunner, advised the young fellow to 
 seek his fortune elsewhere. " If you are commissioned a lieutenant of 
 artillery," said he, " it may be twenty years before you see your cap 
 taincy." And, though this was within three years after the reorgani 
 zation of the army in 66, not one of Lambert s contemporaries who 
 trusted to luck and applied for the artillery had yet come within hope 
 ful range of the double bars. Lambert amazed them all when he 
 asked for the infantry arm and took his commission thankfully. 
 
 He had been detailed for summer duty at the Point, as was then a 
 custom, so that his leave of absence of three months did not begin 
 until the 28th of August. He had been assigned to a regiment whose 
 ranks were sadly depleted by the yellow fever, and which was still 
 serving in the South. " You won t have to hoof it out to Idaho or 
 Montana, anyhow," said a sympathetic friend, "and you ll have no end 
 of fun at New Orleans." 
 
 But Lambert s company was not at New Orleans. Under recent 
 orders it had been sent up into the heart of the country, where some 
 turbulent spirits, so it was alleged, had been defying the civil officers of 
 the general government, and by the time the short Southern winter set 
 in more than half his regiment, together with three or four others, had 
 been distributed by companies or detachments all over the Gulf States, 
 and experienced officers were scarce as hens teeth. The duty was un 
 welcome and galling. Lambert s captain lost no time in getting on 
 staff duty, and " G" Company went into camp at Tugaloo under com 
 mand of its first lieutenant. Arriving at New Orleans, Lambert re 
 ported himself at the head -quarters of the general commanding, who 
 knew the boy s father, welcomed the son for old friendship s sake, and 
 told his chief of staff to keep him there a week or so, that he might 
 see something of the Southern metropolis and of his friends down at 
 the barracks before going to his exile " up the road." Dining the very 
 next evening at Captain Cram s, with Waring and Pierce of the light
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 11 
 
 battery, and perhaps rather ruefully agreeing with them that he had 
 "made a beastly fluke of it, going into the doughboys," Lambert was 
 asked, " Who s in command of your company now ?" 
 
 " Our first lieutenant," said he. " I don t know much about him, 
 Brevet Captain Close." 
 
 Whereupon Waring laid down his knife and fork. " Angels and 
 ministers of grace !" he exclaimed. " Well, if that isn t the oddest 
 contre-temps 1 ever heard of!" And then they all began to laugh. 
 
 " You evidently know him," said Lambert, somewhat nettled and 
 a trifle ill at ease. " Why did you ask me about him ? Somebody 
 told me he had been commissioned for heroism special bravery in 
 action, or something of that kind during the war." 
 
 " Gospel truth," said Pierce. " Close is the most absolutely fear 
 less man I ever met. Nothing even Waring could ever do or say 
 would ruffle him." And then, though Mrs. Cram declared it a shame, 
 she too joined in the general laughter. Close was evidently a celebrity. 
 
 And now, as Lambert found himself within a few miles though 
 it might be several hours of his destination, he was thinking not a 
 little of the officer to whose presence he was so soon to report his own, 
 and whose companionship and influence, for good or for ill, he was 
 bound to accept for the simple reason that, so far as he could learn, 
 there was absolutely no one else with whom he could associate, except, 
 possibly, the " contract doctor." 
 
 Quitting New Orleans after a long day s sight-seeing with his 
 friends, he had sought a berth in the Pullman and slept soundly until 
 aroused by the porter after two o clock to change cars at the junction. 
 Now he was wide awake, and, after the first few miles of jolting and 
 grinding through the darkness, was becoming chilled and lonesome, 
 perhaps a trifle home-sick. Twice had the conductor bustled through 
 the train, rousing sleeping passengers and seeing them safely off at dark 
 and mysterious stations where hardly a glimmer of lamp or candle 
 could be seen away from the mere shanty which served as a waiting- 
 room and office. A heap of wood was stacked up near the stove, and 
 Lambert poked the waning embers and piled on fresh fuel, whereat a 
 young man who had got on at Coatesville with a shot-gun and a big 
 bottle for luggage, and who had for nearly an hour been singing senti 
 mental snatches to his own deep satisfaction, now smiled maudlin ap 
 proval and companionably held forth the bottle. " S good," said he,
 
 12 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 in loyal defence of the stimulant most courteously declined. " Bes 
 thing you can take these co mawnin s. Live bout hyuh an where ?" 
 
 "No," said Lambert, civilly, yet hoping not to be further ques 
 tioned. He busied himself again with the fire, then, rising quickly, 
 sought his seat. 
 
 But the young man with the flask was gregarious and bubbling 
 over with the milk of human kindness. He promptly lurched after, 
 and, flopping down into the opposite seat, sending some of Lambert s 
 belongings clattering to the floor, held out his hand. 
 
 " Scuse me, suh," he stuttered. " I hope I ain t fended you. My 
 name s Potts, Barton Potts. We ain t what we were befo the wah, 
 you know. But I know a gen l m n every time. Hope I ain 
 suited " 
 
 "Not by any means!" protested Lambert, loudly and heartily. 
 "Don t think of such a thing! I simply didn t feel like drinking; 
 but I m a thousand times obliged to you." 
 
 " Tha z right. Tha z all right," said Mr. Potts, grasping Lambert s 
 hand and shaking it impressively. "I hello! Wha z that?" 
 
 Lambert s sword, encased in chamois-skin, had come in contact with 
 the stranger s elbow and gone rattling under the seat. Potts made a 
 precipitate dive and fished it out, regaining his equilibrium after some 
 little struggle. 
 
 " Goin to Quitman too ? Tha z my home. An I m glad meet 
 
 you. I know a gen l m n, an I ll stan your frien 1 mean it. 
 
 Missur Missur " 
 
 " My name s Lambert," said the lieutenant, quietly essaying to 
 relieve Mr. Potts of the sword. 
 
 " Lammert ? Glad meet you Missur Lammert. Where d you 
 say you b longed ?" 
 
 " I m going to Tugaloo." 
 
 " Tu-gloo? Tha z no kin of place. C mawn to Quimman. Come 
 to my house. What n ell s thiz?" he broke off suddenly. 
 
 " My sword," said Lambert, simply. 
 
 "Sword? sword ?" exclaimed Potts. "You goin Tu-gloo with 
 sword? You Yankee ofF cer like that wha z name? Close?" 
 
 " A Yankee officer certainly," laughed Lambert. " I ve never met 
 Captain Close." 
 
 The effect of this announcement on Mr. Potts was surprising. It 
 well-nigh sobered him. He slowly drew back until he sat erect, his
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 13 
 
 head wobbling a bit in spite of his efforts at self-control. Presently he 
 began to speak, slowly and impressively at first, then winding up in a 
 verbal entanglement : 
 
 " Missur Lam-p-bert, I didn t know I was talkin to Yankee 
 officer but I m a gen l m n, suh, an I stan by wh-wha I say. I 
 mean to stan your frien , suh ; but as fo that oth felluh Close I ll 
 see m in ell first." 
 
 II. 
 
 It was sun-up and snapping cold when the brakeman shouted 
 " Tugaloo," and gratefully Lambert stepped from the train and felt 
 free air. Mr. Potts was sleeping soundly, doubled up in one of the 
 seats. The only wakeful bipeds in sight were the conductor and his 
 trainman. Unseen hands forward had shoved the trunk out upon the 
 frosty boards. The sun was just peeping over a low wooded ridge 
 before them. The track wound away among some desolate fields xvhere 
 tiny flakes of cotton still clung to the brown and withered stalks. In 
 a cloud of steam the train pulled away, leaving Lambert and his trunk 
 to look after each other as best they might, and as the cloud lifted the 
 young officer looked curiously around him. 
 
 He was standing on a rude wooden platform whose shrunken planks 
 left black, gaping seams between their upper faces, now, at least, beau 
 tiful in their thick coat of sparkling white. Except where the foot 
 marks of the trainmen marred the smooth expanse, and where in two 
 or three places the planks were gone entirely, this gleaming sheet 
 stretched the length of the platform to where the white bulk of his 
 trunk stood on end at the eastern edge. The charred and blackened 
 relic of a flight of stairs led from the platform to the sloping ground 
 some five feet below, but not even a hand-rail warned the unwary 
 against a breakneck plunge into space. Part of the platform itself 
 had been burned away, and some charred and blackened posts, sticking 
 bolt upright from the ground in the shape of a narrow rectangle, 
 showed that a wooden building of some kind had formerly stood along 
 the rear of the rickety staging. Midway along its length, on the 
 southern side, a shed with sloping roof had been loosely thrown to 
 gether, and the end nearest him, boarded in and pierced for a door and 
 a couple of windows, bore over the threshold in black stencil the 
 legend " Ticket Office." Under the shed were a couple of ploughs 
 
 2
 
 14 CAPTAIN CLOSE 
 
 and some boxes. Out on the bare slope, midway between the track 
 and a " snake " fence that paralleled it some twenty yards to the south, 
 a dozen bales of cotton were huddled, three of them partially covered 
 by old war-worn paulins and ponchos, the others entirely exposed to 
 the rain of sparks to be expected from any passing engine when the 
 wind happened to blow from across the track ; and all of them, evi 
 dently, defenceless against the predatory hands of pilferers, for jagged 
 rents were torn in the coarse sacking of each, and huge fistfuls of the 
 white staple had been dragged from a dozen gaping wounds in every 
 bale. 
 
 The red soil, showing here and there through the scant and with 
 ered herbage, was seamed with mule- and wheel-tracks, and a few rods 
 away a broken-down farm -wagon lay with a spoke-bristling hub close 
 by its shattered axle, while the tire, rolling away from the general 
 wreck, seemed to have crawled off to die by itself, and leaned rusting 
 against one of the charred timbers. The southward view was limited 
 to a long, low ridge of ugly, white-flecked cotton-stalks. Eastward the 
 sun was breaking a pathway through the fringe of trees along another 
 ridge, and a faint line of mist, rising sluggishly in the intervening 
 low ground, with the hollow rumble of the train crossing an invisible 
 bridge, told of the presence of some slow-moving stream. West 
 ward the track came into view around a thinly wooded hill-side, with 
 a clearing here and there, in which some low cabins were scattered. 
 
 With this cheerful outlook to greet him at three points of the com 
 pass, Lambert turned him to the north. There was a siding with a 
 switch at each end, but, as three or four rails were missing opposite the 
 west end of the platform, it stood to reason that the railway company 
 found the other all that was necessary to the traffic of so bustling a 
 place as Tugaloo. A brown freight-car stood on the siding with wide- 
 opened doors, and some household goods loomed in plain sight. "There 
 is more honesty in this community than the United States marshal 
 would give us to believe," thought Lambert, as he recalled the extract 
 from a recent report which was shown him at department head-quar 
 ters. He laid his satchel and sword upon the platform, and, wrapping 
 his blue circular about his shoulders, took a few steps forward and 
 a peep into the interior of the car. From the midst of bedsteads, 
 bureaus, and cheap, old-fashioned furniture, a quantity of bedding had 
 been hauled out upon the floor, and from the midst of the bedding a 
 woolly head protruded, that of a negro fast asleep.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 15 
 
 Beyond the car stood a dusty open square, bordered on three sides 
 by dingy wooden structures, some of two stories, but most of them only 
 one in height. A wooden side-walk framed the square in some places, 
 and in others only indications of its former presence were to be seen. 
 The side-walk was bordered by a rude railing, to which, it was evident, 
 horses and mules were tethered during business hours, for at one of the 
 rails, even now, sprawled upon the soft, hoof-pawed dust, a long-eared 
 quadruped was half hanging by the bridle-rein, while the dilapidated 
 saddle had worked around during the night until it settled upon the 
 animal s side. 
 
 Judging from such signs or legends as were visible over the door 
 ways of Tugaloo, Lambert s impressions were that the vending of in 
 toxicating drinks was the principal industry, as there were three saloons 
 to one store devoted to general merchandise, which establishment, 
 painted white and with an air of prosperity and a flock of cotton-bales 
 around it, bore the sign of I. Cohen, and told pathetically that the 
 pioneers of a relentless and one-sided trade had already made their 
 lodgement in the midst of a helpless community. 
 
 It was sunrise, and not a soul was apparently astir. A street led 
 away northward at right angles to the main front of the square, and 
 straggling houses lined it at intervals on either side. One of these, 
 with a belfry, at the corner of the plaza, seemed to be a meeting-house 
 of some kind, possibly the pro tempore substitute for the county court 
 house, thought Lambert, for the centre of the square was still heaped 
 with charred and blackened beams and bricks where once the court 
 house stood. 
 
 As for the camp or quarters of his future comrades and associates, 
 Lambert could see nothing that in the least resembled a military station, 
 and, do what he could, the boy found it impossible to down the faintly 
 heartsick, homesick feeling that speedily took possession of him. A 
 dog would have been welcome as companion, but there was not even a 
 stray dog. For a moment Lambert thought of arousing the negro, but 
 after one glance at the wide, red cavern of his mouth and the emptied 
 flask lying close to the frowzy head, he decided in favor of the mule. 
 
 A short walk brought him to the side of the prostrate creature, and 
 a long pull induced his muleship to stagger to his feet, but in his strug 
 gles he snapped the old headstall, and the remnant of the bit and bridle 
 dropped into the dust. It was not until the vagrant stood erect that 
 Lambert discovered from the U. S. brand that he was, or had been,
 
 16 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 government property. The saddle, too, turned out to be one of the 
 old-fashioned, black-skirted, pig-skin McClellans, so familiar during 
 the war days. As the mule seemed only half awake and unaware 
 as yet of his freedom, Lambert first essayed to reset the saddle, to which 
 he submitted without objection, and then to replace the bridle, to which 
 he would not submit at all, but with lowered front and menacing hoof 
 turned him about and jogged over to where some wisps of hay lay 
 scattered in front of a shanty labelled " Post-Office." For ten minutes 
 Lambert exercised his arts in vain effort to recapture that mule, and 
 then, in sheer disgust, threw the bridle on the side-walk, picked up an 
 abandoned half-brick, and let the mule have it in the flank. He 
 merely twitched his scraggy hide, raised one instant the nearmost hoof, 
 but never lifted his head. The brute was hungry from long fasting, 
 and did not mean to be disturbed, and Lambert, who had eaten nothing 
 since the previous day, was presently in full sympathy. Once more he 
 looked around in search of some human being, and found himself con 
 fronting a citizen in shirt-sleeves and a tangled head of hair, who, lean 
 ing out of a second-story window, was nevertheless not twenty feet 
 away. For a moment each regarded the other without a word. Then 
 the native spoke : 
 
 " What ye tryin to do ?" 
 
 " I was trying to catch that mule." 
 
 " Want him f r anything ?" 
 
 " No : only I found him tangled in his reins, and he got away 
 after I loosed him." 
 
 The native regarded the new-comer curiously. Lambert had slung 
 his blue cape over the hitching-rail during his brief pursuit of the un 
 grateful beast, and his neat-fitting suit of tweed was something new to 
 Tugaloo eyes. So was the jaunty drab Derby. 
 
 " You don t b long roun yere, do you ?" queried Tugaloo next. 
 
 " I don t ; and the Lord knows I don t want to ; and I d be glad 
 to find some way of getting myself and my trunk, yonder, out to camp. 
 Can you suggest any ?" 
 
 " We-ell, you might walk. Don t reckon your trunk kin, though. 
 Know the way ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Foller the track down thar a piece, an you ll come to a path 
 along the branch. It ll take you right in mongst the tents. Tain t 
 more n a few rawds."
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 17 
 
 " Thank you, my friend. You re the first live man I ve found. 
 I suppose I can send in for my trunk." 
 
 " Reckon ye can. They ve gawt mules an wagons enough." 
 
 Lambert gathered up his belongings and trudged away. He did 
 not mean to yield to the feeling of depression that was struggling to 
 possess him, yet the blue devils were tugging at his heart-strings. 
 Wasn t this just what his classmates had prophesied would happen if 
 he went into the infantry ? Could any service be much more joyless, 
 uneventful, forlorn, than this promised to be ? " Mark Tapley him 
 self would go to pieces in such a place," he had heard some one at 
 head-quarters say of Tugaloo, but he meant to out-Tapley Mark if 
 need be, and nobody should know how much he wished he hadn t been 
 assigned to this sort of duty and this particular regiment, certainly 
 not his classmates, and, above all, not the loving mother at home. 
 Heavens ! how unlike was this bleared, wasted, desolate land to the 
 sweet and smiling New England vale where his boyhood had been 
 spent, to the thickly-settled, thrifty, bustling shores of the Merrimac! 
 
 He had walked nearly a mile and had seen no sign of camp or 
 sentry, but on a sudden the path left the brushwood beside the sluggish 
 " branch," rounded a projecting knoll, and was lost in a rough, red 
 clay, country road. A fence, with a thick hedge of wild-rose-bushes, 
 was to his left, leaves and roses long since withered, and over the 
 tops he caught sight of the roof and upper story of some old Southern 
 homestead, at which he had a better peep from the gate-way farther 
 along. A path of red brick led to the flight of steps, broad and 
 bordered by pretentious balustrades. Dingy white columns supported 
 the roof of a wide piazza. Smoke was drifting from a battered pipe 
 projecting from the red brick chimney at the north end, and the morn 
 ing air was faintly scented with a most appetizing fragrance of broiling 
 ham. It made Lambert ravenous. 
 
 Somewhere around the next bend in the road, beyond the northward 
 extremity of the old fence, he could hear the sound of voices and a 
 splashing of water. Hastening on, he found himself overlooking a 
 level " bench" surrounded on three sides by a deep bend of the stream 
 and partially separated from the red roadway by a fringe of stunted 
 trees and thick, stubborn bushes ; and here, in an irregular square, 
 Lambert came face to face with the encampment of the first company, 
 outside of West Point, it was ever his luck to join. At that particular 
 moment he was just about ready to resolve it should be the last. 
 
 2*
 
 18 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 On two sides of the square, facing each other and perhaps twenty 
 yards apart, were the " A " tents of the company, ten on a side. At 
 the flank farthest from the road and pitched so as to face the centre of 
 the enclosure was a wall tent, backed by one or two of the smaller pat 
 tern. Nearest the road was a second wall tent, used, possibly, by tlie 
 guard, though no guards were visible, the white canvas cover of an 
 army wagon, and a few more scattered "A" tents. Cook-fires had been 
 ablaze and were now smouldering about the wagon. Several men in 
 gray woollen shirts were washing their faces at the stream ; others, in 
 light-blue overcoats, were sauntering about the tents, some of whose 
 occupants, as could be easily seen, were still asleep. 
 
 Standing at the edge of the winding road, and thinking how easy 
 a matter it would be to toss a hand-grenade into the midst of the camp, 
 Lambert paused a moment and studied the scene. Resting on his 
 sword, still in its chamois case, with his cloak and satchel thrown over 
 his shoulder, the young officer became suddenly awan of a man wear 
 ing the chevrons of a corporal who, fishing-rod in hand, was standing 
 just beyond a clump of bushes below and looking up at him with an 
 expression on his shrewd, " Bowery-boy" face in which impudence and 
 interest were about equally mingled. So soon as he found that he was 
 observed, the corporal cocked his head on one side, and, with arms 
 akimbo and a quizzical grin on his freckled phiz, patronizingly in 
 quired, 
 
 "Well, young feller, who made them clothes?" 
 
 Lambert considered a moment before making reply. One of his 
 favorite instructors at the Academy had spoken to the graduating class 
 about the splendid timber to be found among the rank and file of the 
 army. " They are like so many old oaks," said he, and some of Lam 
 bert s chums had never forgotten it. Neither had Lambert. " This," 
 said he to himself, " is possibly one of the scrub oaks. I assume he 
 doesn t imagine me to be an officer, and, in any event, he could say so 
 and I couldn t prove the contrary. Ergo, I ll let him into the secret 
 without letting him imagine I m nettled." 
 
 " They were made by my tailor, corporal," said he. "He also made 
 the uniform which I, perhaps, should have put on before coming out to 
 camp." (" That ought to fetch him," thought he.) " Where will I 
 find Captain Close?" 
 
 "He s over there," said the corporal, with a careless jerk of the
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 19 
 
 head in the direction of the opposite wall tent. "Then I s pose you re 
 the new lieutenant the fellers have been talking about?" 
 
 " I am ; and would you mind telling me how long you ve been in 
 service ?" 
 
 " Me ? Oh, I reckon about two months, longer n you have, 
 anyhow. You ain t joined yet, have you ?" And the corporal was 
 nibbling at a twig now and looking up in good-humored interest. 
 Then, as Lambert found no words for immediate reply, he went on, 
 " Cap s awake, if you want to see him." And, amazed at this recep 
 tion, yet not knowing whether to be indignant or amused, Lambert 
 sprang down the pathway, crossed the open space between the tents, a 
 dozen of the men starting up to stare at but none to salute him, and 
 halted before the tent of his company commander. 
 
 Sitting just within the half-opened flap, a thick-set, burly man of 
 middle age was holding in his left hand a coarse needle, while with 
 the right he was making unsuccessful jabs with some black thread at 
 the eye thereof. So intent was he upon this task that he never heard 
 Lambert s light footfall nor noted his coming, and the lieutenant, while 
 pausing a moment irresolute, took quick observation of the stranger 
 and his surroundings. He was clad in the gray shirt and light-blue 
 trousers such as were worn by the rank and file. An ordinary sol 
 dier s blouse was thrown over the back of the camp-stool on which he 
 sat, and his feet were encased in the coarse woollen socks and heavy 
 brogans with leathern thongs, just exactly such as the soldier cook was 
 wearing at the hissing fire a few paces away. His suspenders were 
 hung about his waist, and in his lap, seat uppermost and showing a 
 rent three inches in length, were a pair of uniform trousers with a 
 narrow welt of dark blue along the outer seam. They were thin and 
 shiny, like bombazine, in places, and the patch which seemed destined 
 to cover the rent was five shades too dark for the purpose. His hands 
 were brown and knotted and hard. He wore a silver ring on the third 
 finger of the left. His face was brown as his hands, and clean shaved 
 (barring the stubble of two days growth) everywhere, except the heavy 
 " goatee," which, beginning at the corners of his broad, firm mouth, 
 covered thickly his throat and chin. His eyes were large, clear, dark 
 brown in hue, and heavily shaded. His hair, close-cropped and 
 sprinkled with gray, was almost black. 
 
 The morning air was keen, yet no fire blazed in the little camp- 
 stove behind him, and the fittings of the tent, so far as the visitor
 
 20 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 could see, were of the plainest description. Not caring to stand there 
 longer, Lambert cleared his throat and began : 
 
 " I am looking for Captain Close." 
 
 Whereupon the man engaged in threading his needle slowly opened 
 the left eye he had screwed tight shut, and, as slowly raising his head, 
 calmly looked his visitor over and at last slowly replied, 
 
 " That s my name." 
 
 III. 
 
 Newton Lambert has more than once in the course of his years of 
 service been heard to say that of all the odd sensations he ever expe 
 rienced that which possessed him on the occasion of his reporting for 
 duty with his first company was the oddest. Accustomed during his 
 four years of cadet life to behave with punctilious respect in the pres 
 ence of officers, young or old, and accustomed also through his two 
 months detail at the Academy that summer to be treated with even 
 the exaggerated deference which the old non-commissioned officers 
 seemed to delight in showing to young graduates, Lambert was un 
 prepared for the hail-fellow-well-met nature of his reception by the 
 enlisted men and the absolute impassiveness of his one brother officer. 
 That it was utterly different from the customs obtaining elsewhere in 
 the regular service he knew very well. In visiting classmates already 
 on duty with their batteries among the New York and New England 
 forts, as well as during his brief stay at the barracks, he had noted the 
 scrupulous deference of the veteran sergeants when addressing their 
 officers. He could understand awkwardness and clumsiness among 
 the recruits, but the idea of a corporal chaffing him on the cut of his 
 clothes and the idea of a two months recruit being a corporal, any 
 how ! Never in the tales told of the Fire Zouaves of 61 had he 
 heard of anything much more free-and-easy than the manners of this 
 camp of regulars. Never in his wildest dream had he figured such a 
 specimen of the commissioned officer as he had found in Captain Close. 
 In the contemplation of this character the go-as-you-please style of the 
 enlisted man sank into insignificance. Long years afterwards Lambert 
 used to go over this meeting in his mind, and for two years, often im 
 portuned, he would convulse his brother officers by vivid description 
 of it. But there came a time when they no longer laughed and he no 
 longer told the story save to those he loved and trusted utterly.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 21 
 
 Aroused by some unusual chatter among the men, the first sergeant 
 of Company " G," smoking a pipe while working over a ration-return, 
 stuck his head out of his tent and saw a young gentleman in a light- 
 colored suit, courteously raising a drab Derby in his kid-gloved hand, 
 while he stood erect with soldierly ease before the company commander. 
 Sergeant Burns also noted that some of the men were tittering and all 
 of them looking on. One glance was enough. The sergeant dropped 
 pen and pipe and came out of his den with a single bound, buttoning 
 his blouse and glaring about him as he did so. " Hush your d d 
 gab, you!" he fiercely growled at the nearest group. "Get into your 
 coats, there !" he swore at another, while with menacing hand he 
 motioned to others still, whose costume was even more primitive, to 
 scramble back to their tents. In ten seconds silence reigned through 
 out the camp almost as complete as that which was maintained, for 
 that time, at the tent of the commanding officer. Lambert actually did 
 not know what to say in response to his superior s announcement. It 
 was full ten seconds, or more, before he determined in what form to 
 couch his next remark. He had intended to say, " I have the honor 
 to report for duty, sir ;" but a vague suspicion possessed him that this 
 might be some game at his expense, some prank such as old cadets 
 played upon " plebes." He compromised, therefore, between his pre 
 conception of a strictly soldierly report and his sense of what might 
 be due his own dignity. " My name is Lambert," said he. " And I 
 am here for duty as second lieutenant." 
 
 Slowly the man in the camp-chair laid down his work, sticking the 
 needle into the flap of the tent and hanging the thread upon it. Then 
 he heaved up out of the chair, hung the damaged trousers over its 
 back, and came ponderously forward. Not a vestige of a smile light 
 ened his face. He looked the young gentleman earnestly in the eye 
 and slowly extended his big, brown, hairy hand. Seeing that it was 
 meant for him, Lambert shifted his hat into the left, leaning his sword 
 against the tent-pole, and his dainty kid a wild extravagance so soon 
 after the war was for an instant clasped, then slowly released. Cap 
 tain Close unquestionably had a powerful " grip." 
 
 " How d you come ?" he asked. " Kind of expected you Monday 
 evenin out from Quitman." 
 
 " The general kept me over a day or two to let me see New Or 
 leans. He told me that you would be notified, sir. I hope you got 
 the letter?"
 
 22 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 " Oh, yes. That was all right. There was no hurry. I didn t 
 know as they could get passes over the Northern. I s pose the chief 
 quartermaster fixed it for you, though?" And the brown eyes 
 searched questioningly the young officer s face. 
 
 " Passes ? No, sir ; I bought my ticket through " 
 
 " No ! Why, you needn t have done that. The Quitman road s 
 biddin for all the government freight it can get now. They d have 
 given you a pass in a minute. I s pose you want to be quartermaster 
 and commissary ?" And again the brown eyes looked almost wistfully 
 into the blue. 
 
 " I ? No indeed, sir : I don t know anything but a little tactics. 
 What I most want" with a glance around and an apologetic laugh 
 " is a chance to wash off the cinders and something to eat. I m 
 hungry as a wolf." 
 
 The captain looked troubled. " I ve had my grub ; so ve the men, 
 cept those that come back late in the night been up to Buckatubbee 
 with the marshal. Did you try over at Toog loo ?" 
 
 " Everybody was asleep over there. I left my trunk at the rail 
 way and walked out." 
 
 " Why, I told the sergeant to send a mule in last night on the 
 chance of your comin by the Owl. Didn t anybody meet you?" 
 
 " There was a mule, but no body," laughed Lambert, " except a 
 darky asleep in a freight-car. The mule was lying in the dirt, and 
 snapped his headstall when I tried to raise him." 
 
 " What became of him ? He didn t get away, did he ?" asked 
 Close, in great anxiety. 
 
 "He didn t try to," answered Lambert, in some amusement. 
 " Like the eminent head of the late unpleasantness, all he asked was 
 to be let alone. I left him browsing in the public square." 
 
 " And the bridle an saddle, too ? Great Peter ! That s bad. Some 
 lousy nigger s got him by this time, or his trappin s at least, an he ll 
 swear the Freedman s Bureau gave him the hull outfit, and it ll be 
 stopped against my pay. Sergeant /" he called : " wish you d go 
 right down town an catch up that mule an " 
 
 " / can t go, sir," promptly answered Sergeant Burns, his hand 
 going up in unaccustomed salute in deference to the presence of the 
 new officer. " I m busy with them ration-returns. Here, Finney, you 
 go." 
 
 " Go where ?" said a young soldier squatting at his tent door and
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 23 
 
 greasing a pair of shoes with a bit of bacon-rind. He hardly deigned 
 to look up. 
 
 " The captain wants you to go and get that saddle-mule he sent up 
 last night. Jake must have gone asleep and forgot him." 
 
 " Would it be possible to send a wagon for my trunk ?" interposed 
 Lambert at this juncture, appealing to his superior. Close hesitated 
 and made no immediate reply. It was the sergeant who took the re 
 sponsibility : 
 
 "PR tend to it, if you please, sir. The wagon s going up in ten 
 minutes to haul some grain. Be lively now, Finney. Drop them 
 shoes and start." And Finney, conscious, possibly, of some change in 
 the military atmosphere, gathered himself together and vanished. 
 
 Meantime, in his anxiety about the government property thus 
 placed in jeopardy, the captain seemed lost to all thought of the new 
 comer s comfort. It was Sergeant Burns who came forward with a 
 camp-stool and proffer of further hospitality. 
 
 " If the lieutenant can put up with such rations, I ll send some 
 thing from the cook-fire, sir," said he, doubtfully, looking at his com 
 mander very much as though he thought it high time for that official 
 to suggest something better. Lambert said he should be most grateful 
 if that could be done and if there were no objections ; and he, too, 
 looked expectantly at the senior officer. 
 
 "I guess that s about the best we can do," said Close, slowly. 
 " Tain t what you ve been accustomed to, but it s what / always eat. 
 Send us up somethin , sergeant, enough for two: I ll take another 
 snack with the lieutenant." 
 
 And in less than five minutes Lambert and his new comrade were 
 seated by a little fire on which a tin coffee-pot was hissing, and, with a 
 broad pine shelf upon their knees, from big tin mugs and broad tin 
 plates, were discussing a smoking repast of pork and beans, to the ac 
 companiment of bread and syrup and creamless coffee. " It s the way 
 I always prefer to live when I m in the field," said Close, " and it only 
 costs you nine dollars a month." 
 
 Lambert was too hungry not to relish even such a breakfast. He 
 fancied he heard something that sounded greatly like a suppressed 
 chuckle on the part of the soldier cook at his senior s remark upon the 
 cost of living in the field, but sensations and experiences were crowd 
 ing thickly upon him and there was little time for trifles. 
 
 Through the good offices of Sergeant Burns, a wall tent was pitched
 
 24 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 that morning for " the new lieutenant" to the left of the domicile of 
 the company commander; a wooden bunk was knocked up in an "A" 
 tent in the back, and Lambert began unpacking his trunk and setting 
 up housekeeping. 
 
 " I suppose I can get what furniture I want in town," said he to 
 Close. 
 
 "Depends on what you want," replied the senior, warily, "and 
 whether you care to throw away your money. What d you want to 
 get? They will skin the last cent out of you there at Cohen s." 
 
 " I merely want some cheap truck for camp, and some wash-stand 
 fixings," Lambert answered, falling into the vernacular of his comrade 
 with the ease of one just out of the national school, where every known 
 American dialect can be heard, " things I can throw away when we 
 leave." 
 
 Close was silent a moment. " / can let you have everything you 
 need, f you ain t particular bout their bein new. They re just as 
 good as anything you can buy, and won t cost you near so much." 
 Then, after a little hesitation, " They ain t mine to give, or I d let you 
 have them for nothing." 
 
 Lambert had precious little money left, even after drawing his 
 November pay in New Orleans ; but he had a big mileage account to 
 collect, for in those days nothing was paid to the young graduate in 
 advance, even though he had to find his way by the Isthmus to the 
 mouth of the Columbia. He thanked his comrade, and by evening 
 was put in possession of an odd lot of camp-furniture, some items of 
 which were in good repair and others valuable only as relics of the 
 war. A camp-mattress and some chairs bore the name of Tighe, and 
 the soldier who carried them in remarked to his chum, " They didn t 
 burn everything after the lieutenant died, after all, did they ?" From 
 which Lambert drew the inference that the property in question had 
 formerly belonged to an officer of that name who succumbed to the 
 epidemic of the previous year. 
 
 But the principal question remaining unsolved was that of sub 
 sistence. Waring and Pierce had told him that in all probability he 
 would find that Close was living on soldier fare and had no " mess 
 arrangements" whatever. This, as we have seen, proved to be the 
 case, and Lambert inquired if there were no possibility of finding 
 board. " Yes," said Close ; " Mr. Parmelee, the deputy marshal, lives 
 up the road about half a mile, and he told me to say he d be glad to
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 25 
 
 accommodate you." Lambert lunched in camp at noon, and about 
 three o clock came forth from his tent buttoned to the throat in his 
 handsomely fitting uniform, his forage-cap cocked jauntily over his 
 right eye, and a pair of white gloves in his hand. A soldier slouching 
 across the open space in front shifted to the opposite hand the bucket 
 he was carrying, and saluted. Close surveyed his trim subaltern with 
 out changing a muscle of his face. 
 
 " What do they charge you extra for them buttons ?" he finally in 
 quired. Lambert said he didn t know. They were on the coat when 
 it came from the tailor s. Would the captain kindly direct him to 
 Mr. Parmelee s and permit him to go thither ? The captain gravely 
 said he need not ask permission just to leave camp, even the men 
 didn t do that, and gave him the needed instructions, winding up by 
 saying, " Got your pistol ?" Lambert answered that he never carried 
 one. 
 
 " You ll have to, here," said Close, " or be out of fashion entirely. 
 I ain t got one to lend, but if you ve a mind to pay less than cost I ve 
 got one that ll just suit you, strap and holster complete." In five min 
 utes the trade was made, and Lambert had only eleven dollars left when 
 he started to hunt up Mr. Parmelee. 
 
 Close watched the erect figure of the young fellow as he stepped 
 briskly away. So did the first sergeant. Midway across the open 
 space between the tents half a dozen of the men were squatting, in the 
 bright sunshine, pipes in full blast, engaged in a game of cards that 
 looked suspiciously like draw poker, a gray blanket being outspread 
 and little piles of white field beans decorating its outer edge at different 
 points. Surrounding the players were perhaps a dozen spectators, in 
 various costumes more or less soldierly. At sight of Mr. Lambert in 
 his trim frock-coat, some of the number faced half towards him ; some, 
 as though embarrassed, began to edge away. The gamblers calmly 
 continued their game. If the young officer had looked as though he 
 did not notice them, the chances are that, though he passed within ten 
 feet of the group, no one of the party would, in proper and soldierly 
 style, have noticed him, but Lambert had seen enough "slouching" for 
 one day, and his youthful soul was up in arms. He looked squarely 
 at the two men nearest him as he rapidly approached, whereupon one of 
 them nervously tugged at the sleeve of a third. Others, after one fur 
 tive glance, pretended they did not see the coming officer and became 
 absorbed in the game. Ten strides, and he was opposite the group and 
 B 3
 
 26 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 not a hand had been raised in salute, not a man was "standing atten 
 tion." Then he halted short, saying not a word, but the two men 
 nearest knew what was lacking, and, in a shamefaced, shambling way, 
 brought their hands up to the cap visor. One of these was a corporal, 
 and two other non-commissioned officers were among the players. For 
 a moment there was an embarrassed silence. Then Lambert spoke, 
 rather quietly, too, for him: 
 
 " Corporal, have these men never been taught the salute, and when 
 to use it ?" 
 
 A sergeant among the players slowly found his feet. Others seemed 
 to try to slink behind their fellows. The corporal turned red, looked 
 foolish, and only mumbled inarticulately. 
 
 " What say you, sergeant ?" inquired Lambert. 
 
 " Why, yes, sir," said Sergeant McBride, uncomfortably. " So far 
 as I m concerned, I can honestly say I did not see the lieutenant 
 coming ; but, to tell the truth, sir, we ve got out of the habit of it 
 in the company." 
 
 " Then all these men who are still seated here know they should be 
 up and standing attention?" asked Lambert, as coolly as he could, 
 though his blue eyes were beginning to flash. He had heard some 
 tittering among the gamesters, two more of whom were now getting up. 
 
 " Yes, sir ; at least most of them do. Only, Captain Close don t 
 seem to mind, and " 
 
 " That ll do. I am waiting for you two," said Lambert. And the 
 two who, hanging their heads, had been tittering into each other s 
 faces, finding their time had come, slowly and awkwardly found their 
 feet, but not the erect position of the soldier. 
 
 " So far so good," said Lambert, calmly. " Now, sergeant, explain 
 the rest to them, as they seem to be uninstructed recruits." 
 
 There was a general titter at this : one of the two was an ex- 
 sergeant of ten years service, one of John Barleycorn s defeated 
 wrestlers. His eyes snapped with wrath, but he knew the lieutenant 
 " had the best of him." 
 
 " Don t make it necessary for me to repeat the lesson," said Lam 
 bert before moving on ; " especially you, sir." And the ex-sergeant 
 was plainly the man indicated. 
 
 Up at the end of the row Sergeant Burns brought his broad palm 
 down on his thigh with a whack of delight, then glanced over to see 
 how the captain took it.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 27 
 
 The captain was carefully counting over the " greenbacks" he had 
 just received, and, with these in hand, turned into the dark recesses of 
 his farther tent. The episode in front was of minor importance. 
 
 " You got a rakin down, Riggs," laughed some of the men as the 
 lieutenant was lost to sight beyond the wagon, while the victim of his 
 brief reprimand glowered angrily after him. 
 
 " Dam young squirt I" snarled the fellow. " I ll learn him a lesson 
 yet." 
 
 "No, you won t, Riggs," was the quick rejoinder of McBride. 
 " He was perfectly right, as you ought to have sense enough to know. 
 I m glad, for one, to see it, for this company has simply been goin to 
 the dogs for the last six months." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Lambert s nerves were tingling a trifle and his thoughts were not the 
 most cheerful as he went away. That he should find his company 
 commander a miser, a recluse, and something of a mystery, had all 
 been foreshadowed. But that discipline should have been abandoned 
 in " G " Company was quite another thing. Farnham, the captain 
 proper, was an officer who had held high command in the volunteers, 
 too high, indeed, to serve with equanimity under the field-officer now 
 at the head of the regiment, who had had no war service whatever. 
 Farnham was within a few files of promotion to majority, and there 
 fore despised company duty. So long as his company had been 
 stationed in the city, furnishing guards and orderlies for the various 
 officials then quartered there, he remained with it, and occasionally saw 
 a portion of it on Sunday morning. Then, after two years of this 
 demoralizing service, came the months of detachment duty up in the 
 interior, and Farnham s friends at court were glad to get him out of 
 such a mire as that. Ever since June, therefore, Close had been alone 
 with the men and they with him, and no one in authority had the faint 
 est idea how things were going. Inspectors were almost unknown in 
 those days, and so long as reports and returns were regularly received 
 at head-quarters, and no complaints came in from the civil authorities 
 of negligence or indifference on part of their military backers, all went 
 smoothly. Now, there had been not a few instances where civil and 
 military officials had clashed, but " Captain Close and his splendid com-
 
 28 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 pany" had been the theme of more than one laudatory report from the 
 marshal on the score of what he heard from his deputies. The general 
 commanding, indeed, had been much elated by high commendation 
 from the highest power in Washington, all due to services rendered in 
 running down Ku Klux and breaking up moonshiners by Captain 
 Close of Company " G," th Infantry. " It s just exactly what the 
 old duffer s cut out for," said the adjutant-general of the department; 
 " but I m sorry to have to see young Lambert sent into such exile." 
 
 He could hardly have been sorrier than Lambert was himself as that 
 young officer went briskly up the desolate road along the " branch." He 
 had never seen a landscape so dismal in all his life. How on earth was 
 he to employ his time? No drills, no roll-calls, no duties except the 
 sending forth of detachments at the call of this fellow Parmelee; no 
 books except the few in his trunk ; no companions except this heavy, 
 illiterate, money-grubbing lout who did not know enough to offer him 
 a seat or a cup of coffee after his long night ride ; not a soul worth 
 knowing nearer than Quitman and only the inebriate Potts there ! 
 Certainly, Mr. Newton Lambert felt at odds with fate this sunny De 
 cember afternoon. He had tried to persuade himself that the laugh 
 able stories about Close were grossly exaggerated ; but, now that he 
 had met that officer, the indications were in favor of their entire truth. 
 
 It seems that Close had been on some detached service in connec 
 tion with the Freedmen s Bureau, and had only joined his regiment 
 late in the autumn of the memorable yellow-fever year, when, had he 
 so desired, he could have remained away. His appearance at the 
 stricken garrison when the death-rate averaged twenty a day, when the 
 post was commanded by a lieutenant and some of the companies by 
 corporals, everybody else being either dead, down, or convalescent, 
 added to the halo which hung about his hitherto invisible head. There 
 was no question as to his consummate bravery. Grant himself had 
 stopped in rear of his regiment and asked his name after its dash on 
 the works at Donelson, and the unknown private was decorated with 
 sergeant s chevrons on the spot. Before he had opportunity to learn 
 much of his new duties, "the Johnnies jumped the picket" one night 
 and stampeded everybody but Close, who was given up for lost until 
 he came in two days later full of buckshot and information. His 
 colonel acted on the latter while the doctors were digging out the former, 
 and Close got a commission as first lieutenant in a new regiment for 
 his share of the resultant benefits. One bloody afternoon as they were
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 29 
 
 scrambling back, unsuccessful, and under an awful fire, from the works 
 at Vicksburg, the colonel was left writhing on the lead-swept glacis 
 with no shelter but the dead and dying around him, and Close headed 
 the squad that rushed out and fetched him in. Everybody at McPher- 
 son s side could see that the Rebs were firing high, when once the 
 daring survivors of the six who started reached their prostrate colonel, 
 but the bullets sounded just as deadly to the four who got back alive, 
 and McPherson sent for Close and wrung his hard brown hand and 
 looked admiringly into the sombre, impassive face with its deep-brown, 
 almost dog-like, eyes. Some of the Thirteenth regulars were the next 
 to report on Close, and these fellows, being at Sherman s head-quarters, 
 had influence. In the midst of so rough a campaign Close looked but 
 little worse for wear than did his associates, and when he brought in 
 ten prisoners with only two men at his back, turned them over to the 
 Thirteenth, and went in for more before anybody could thank him, 
 " Uncle Billy" swore that man was one of the right sort, and asked 
 him what he could do for him that very night. And then so the 
 story ran Close said he guessed he d like to be either a sutler or a 
 quartermaster, he didn t know which, and for once in his life the 
 popular general looked bewildered. 
 
 After Mission Ridge, where he got another bullet through him, and 
 one that would have killed an ox, they simply had to put Close on 
 quartermaster duty, he wanted it so much and had done such splendid 
 fighting and so little talking for it. That was the end of him until 
 near the end of the war. His train was captured by a dash of Forrest s 
 cavalry, and, though most of the guards got away, Close went with his 
 wagons. Andersonville was then his abiding-place for a time, but in 
 some way he turned up again during the march to the sea, which he 
 made on mule-back, and when Congress authorized the organization of 
 sixteen regiments of infantry as a part of the regular army in 66, the 
 great generals at the head of military aifairs were reminded of Close. 
 He wrote from somewhere far out West saying modestly that they had 
 told him to let them know if they could ever be of any use to him, 
 and the time had come. He had concluded to continue soldiering, and 
 wanted to be a quartermaster. He was offered a first-lieutenantcy in 
 the infantry, and accepted, though the examining board shook their 
 heads over his ill-written papers ; was applied for by the colonel whose 
 life he had saved at Vicksburg, and who was now on " bureau duty" 
 in the South ; and on that work Close remained, despite some rumors 
 
 3*
 
 30 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 of his unfit-ness, until the fever cut its wide swath in his regiment. 
 The adjutant and quartermaster were both down when Close arrived 
 and reported for duty. In his calm, stolid, impassive way, he proved 
 vastly useful. Indeed, at a time when men were dying or deserting by 
 scores, when even sentry-duty had to be abandoned, and when govern 
 ment property was being loaded up and carried away and sold in the 
 city, it is difficult to say what losses might not have been sustained but 
 for his tireless vigilance. He exposed himself fearlessly among the 
 dying. He said he had had a light attack of the fever at New Iberia 
 earlier in the season, and couldn t take it again. At all events, he did 
 not. He was probably the only officer who remained longer than a 
 week at the stricken post and escaped. 
 
 At last came the welcome frost, Yellow Jack s conqueror, followed 
 by new officers and recruits in plenty, and Close s occupation was gone. 
 He had helped to bury the adjutant, but the quartermaster proved 
 tough, and to Close s keen disappointment, as the boys began to say 
 with returning health, appetite, and cynicism recovered from his des 
 perate illness and resumed his duties. When December and the new 
 colonel came, drills and dress uniforms were ordered, and Close got 
 leave of absence and tried to get back to bureau duty, where they did 
 not want him. Then he appealed to Farnham, and through him to 
 General Sherman. His wounds made him stiff and sore: he couldn t 
 drill or parade. It transpired that he had no full uniform, and his 
 first and only frock-coat had been let out to the last shred and was still 
 too tight for him. Then some queer yarns began to be told. He was a 
 quasi executor for three officers who had died intestate, and who had 
 little to bequeath anyhow. He had nursed them in their last illness, 
 and such items of their property as had not by medical orders been 
 condemned and burned he had for sale. Under the regulations the 
 major was the proper custodian of the effects of deceased officers, but 
 the major was himself almost a victim and had been sent North to 
 recuperate after a long and desperate struggle. On an occasion when 
 he simply had to appear in full uniform, Close turned out in plumed 
 felt hat, sash, and epaulets which, when questioned, he said were the 
 late Captain Stone s, and so was the coat. If nobody could be found 
 to buy them, he would, but he did not mean to buy "such truck" until 
 it was absolutely necessary. 
 
 Respect for his fighting ability in the field and his fearless service 
 during the epidemic prevented any "crowding" of the old fellow,
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 31 
 
 though there was no little talk about the habits he was disclosing. The 
 bachelors and " grass widowers" of the infantry and battery started a 
 mess, but Close declined to join. He explained that he preferred to 
 board with a French Creole family a short distance away, as he " wished 
 to learn the language." They gave a big dance Christmas week and 
 taxed every officer ten dollars. Close had nursed Pierce through the 
 fever, and Pierce was treasurer of the fund. Close was accounted for 
 as "paid," both for the original ten and the subsequent assessment of 
 five dollars that was found necessary, but it came out of Pierce s 
 pocket, for Close begged off one and refused the other, and Pierce 
 would not tell until it was dragged out of him by direct questioning 
 months after. It transpired that Close went only once a day to the 
 humble dwelling, four blocks away, where he preferred to board. He 
 assiduously visited the kitchen of Company " G" at breakfast- and 
 dinner-time to see that those meals were properly cooked and served, 
 and there could be no question that he personally " sampled" every 
 thing they had. He wore the clothing issued to the men, until the 
 colonel insisted on his appearing in proper uniform, and then had to 
 rebuko him for the condition of the paper collar and frayed black bow 
 that were attached to the neck-band of his flannel shirt. He wore the 
 soldier shoe, and swore that no other kind suited his foot. He had to 
 write letters occasionally, but when he did so he repaired to the com 
 pany office or that of the post quartermaster, and not one cent did he 
 spend for stamps. 
 
 Indeed, it became a subject of unofficial investigation whether he 
 spent a cent for anything. He bought nothing at Finkbein s, the sut 
 ler s, where indeed he was held in high disfavor, his war record and 
 fever service to the contrary notwithstanding. He never touched a 
 card, never played billiards, and never invited anybody to drink, even 
 when his brother officers called upon him in squads of two or three to 
 see if he would. That he had no prejudice against the practice, then 
 as universal in the service as it is now rare, was apparent from the fact 
 that he never refused to take a drink when invited, yet never seemed 
 even faintly exhilarated. " You might as well pour whiskey in a knot 
 hole," said the sore-headed squad of youngsters that with malice pre 
 pense had spent many hours and dollars one night in the attempt to 
 get old Close " loaded." 
 
 He had to go to town occasionally on board of survey or similar 
 duty, and always sought a seat in somebody s ambulance to save the
 
 32 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 nickel charged for a six-mile ride in the tram-car. When he had to 
 take the car he would wait for some of the youngsters, well knowing 
 they would pay his fare. Once when three of them " put up a job on 
 him" by the declaration, after they were well on their way, that not a 
 man in the party had less than a five-dollar bill, he offered to change 
 the five, but refused to lend a nickel unless they gave their word, on 
 honor, that they were not striving to make a convenience of him. 
 
 But the " closest" figuring he had ever done was that which he 
 carried out for several months at the expense of a certain bank. Most 
 of the officers on getting their pay check towards the end of the month 
 would take it to the nearest bank or broker and get it cashed. Those 
 were easy-going days in the pay department. Many a time the impecu 
 nious subs would prevail on the major or his clerk to let them have 
 their stipend a week before it became due, and it would be spent 
 before it was fully earned. Close never spent a cent, that any one could 
 see or hear of, but he was on hand to draw it as early as any of the 
 rest. He would take his check and vanish. The total footing up of 
 his pay, rations, servant s allowance, " fogy," and all, was one hundred 
 and some dollars and sixty-eight cents. They used no coin smaller 
 than the " nickel" (five cents) in the South in those days, and it was 
 the practice of the banks and money-changers generally to give the 
 customer the benefit if the check called for more than half the value of 
 the nickel, otherwise to hold it themselves. If the amount were fifty- 
 two cents the customer got only fifty ; if it were fifty-three cents he 
 was paid fifty-five. Those officers who kept a bank account, and there 
 were three or four, perhaps, who did so, simply deposited their check for 
 its face value and had done with it. It was supposed that such was 
 Close s custom ; but he was wiser in his generation, as was learned later. 
 Close took his check to the paying teller and got one hundred and some 
 dollars and seventy cents. Then he deposited this cash with the clerk 
 at the receiving window and was two cents ahead by the transaction. 
 When it was finally discovered and he was politely told that hereafter 
 he would be credited only with the sum called for on the face of his 
 check, Close got it cashed elsewhere and deposited his seventy cents 
 regularly as before. " But what he does it for is a mystery," said the 
 bank official who let this sizable cat out of the bag, " for he never has 
 more than a few dollars on deposit more than a week. He checks it 
 out through some concerns up North." 
 
 No wonder the fellows wondered what Close did with his money.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 33 
 
 A soldier servant made up his room and blacked his boots ; a company 
 laundress washed the very few items sent to her each week, and de 
 clared that the captain stopped the price of two pairs of gloves out of 
 her wages because she wore the thumb off one of them scrubbing the 
 dirt off the other. He never went to theatre, opera, or other diver 
 sion ; never took part in any of the gayeties of the garrison ; never 
 subscribed for a newspaper or magazine, but was always on hand to 
 get first look at those service journals which were intended for the post 
 library. He smoked an old black brier-root pipe, which he charged 
 with commissary plug tobacco, preferring it to all others. He chewed 
 tobacco navy plug and did not care who knew it. He shaved him 
 self, and when his hair needed trimming it was done by the company 
 barber. He had no bills. He would be neither borrower nor well, 
 there was some talk about his lending money on unimpeachable se 
 curity and usurious interest, but to those officers who applied, either 
 in jest or earnest, he said he never had a cent to lend and wouldn t 
 lend it if he had. 
 
 Then what on earth did Close do with his money? 
 
 Much of this was told to Lambert in New Orleans. More of it he 
 learned later. On this particular day he was destined to have another 
 peep into the peculiarities of this most unusual character. 
 
 He had walked perhaps half a mile, revolving these matters in his 
 mind and keeping occasional lookout for Parmelee s (which was evi 
 dently farther away than he had been led to suppose), when he heard 
 some one shouting after him. It was a soldier, running hard, and in a 
 moment Lambert recognized in him the affable corporal who was the 
 first to receive him that morning. This time the corporal saluted as he 
 came, panting, to a halt. Possibly Sergeant Burns had been giving 
 the company a " pointer." 
 
 "Did anybody pass you, lieutenant? anybody on horseback?" 
 
 " No," answered Lambert, wondering what might now be coming. 
 
 " Well, cap says er rather the captain wants you to come back. 
 Didn t nobody go along here a-horseback ?" And the corporal was evi 
 dently perplexed as well as nearly breathless. " By gad, I thought 
 twas takin chances, even for the two of us. Two of em rode in an 
 sassed cap right to his face an were off before a man of us could draw 
 bead on em." 
 
 " Who are they ?" 
 
 " Some o the very crowd Parmelee nabbed last night. They must 
 B*
 
 34 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 have cut across at the ford. They ve finished him, I reckon, for one of 
 em was ridin his horse." 
 
 In ten minutes Lambert was back at camp, where all was bustle 
 and suppressed excitement. Close was seated at his tent, smoking 
 imperturbably, and listening to the tremulous words of a tall, sallow 
 civilian who was leaning against the shoulder of a panting mule. 
 McBride, rifle in hand and equipped for field service, was closely 
 inspecting the kit and cartridge-boxes of a squad of a dozen men 
 already formed. 
 
 " Lieutenant," said Close, " I ve got to send you with a detach 
 ment over to the county jail. How soon can you get read" 9 " 
 
 Lambert felt a sudden odd, choky sensation at the throat, ana was 
 conscious that his knees were tremulous. It was his first call, mind 
 you, and it was sudden and vague. The symptoms made him furious. 
 
 " I m ready now," he said, reaching for his handsome sash and belt, 
 and disappearing an instant within his tent door. 
 
 " Ain t you got some ord nery things ? You don t want to wear 
 such trappin s as them. I ve got a sash an belt an sword here plenty 
 good enough ; and you can have em for half what they cost." 
 
 " I prefer using these, captain," said Lambert. 
 
 " Why, you may not get back in a week," persisted Close. " There s 
 no tellin where those fellows have run to. You ought to have some 
 suitable clothes for this sort o work like mine." 
 
 " I ve got something different, but I thought we were needed at 
 once." 
 
 "So you be, cordin to what this gentleman says. It looks like 
 they must have stirred up quite a row ; but you needn t worry. 
 There ll be no trouble once they see the regulars, and if there should 
 be, you ve got me an the hull company to draw on." And Close s 
 face fairly brightened up for the minute. " There s your squad ready. 
 Parm lee 11 tell you what he wants done. Reck lect, if there s any 
 trouble you draw on me." 
 
 " I shall need some money, I m afraid, if we re gone any time. 
 That s the first thing I ll have to draw for." 
 
 Close s countenance fell. " Ten dollars ought to be nuff for you 
 anywhere here. I could get along with fifty cents," said he, slowly. 
 Suddenly he brightened up again. 
 
 " Just sit down an make out them mileage accounts o yours. 
 Here, sergeant, you and this gentleman go on with the squad. Take
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 35 
 
 the county road. The lieutenant 11 overtake you. Sit right down 
 over there in Sergeant Burns s tent, lieutenant : he s got all the blanks 
 and things. Never made out a mileage account? Here, I ll show you." 
 
 And while Close slowly began his calculations, the squad under 
 Sergeant McBride tramped out upon the dusty red road, most of the 
 men following as though to see them around the bend, while Lambert, 
 vaguely troubled, and feeling, somehow, that he ought to be with his 
 detachment even though his superior officer called him back, stood 
 looking anxiously after them. 
 
 " I thought you had twenty or so left in your wallet, lieutenant," 
 said Close. " Just look, will you? You needn t be in any hurry. 
 McBride knows just what to do. I d change them clothes if I was 
 you." 
 
 Lambert had slipped his hand into his breast-pocket, then began 
 searching the others. All in vain : the little, flat pocket-book was 
 gone ; and now it flashed across his mind that he must have whisked 
 it out with his handkerchief, which he carried, after the West Point 
 fashion of those days, in the breast of his coat, just after he started on 
 the run back to camp. Even as he began to t ell of his loss the men 
 came springing down the bank and bursting through the bushes in 
 their haste to reach their arms and equipments. 
 
 "What s up nowf hailed Close, still slowly writing and never 
 moving from his seat. 
 
 "Firing over near town, sir," called a sergeant. 
 
 " That so ?" asked the veteran, imperturbably. " Get em under 
 arms, sergeant. Guess you d better ketch up with McBride, lieuten 
 ant," said he to Lambert, whose boyish face could not but betray his 
 excitement. " Hold on a second," he called, for Lambert had darted 
 at the word. "Wait, lieutenant!" shouted Burns, and, wondering, 
 Lambert looked back. Close was holding out the pen to him. 
 
 " Sign these, first off, will you ?" said he. 
 
 V. 
 
 Long before they reached the public square the firing had ceased. 
 Overtaking his little command, which the sergeant had wisely halted 
 " for orders" as soon as the shots were heard, Lambert led them at 
 double time.
 
 36 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 " Put a stop to anything they re at. I ll be after you with the hull 
 company," Close had shouted after him. The deputy marshal had 
 disappeared. 
 
 " Mr. Parmelee somewhere ahead ?" panted the lieutenant to the 
 sergeant trotting by his side. 
 
 " Somewhere behind, sir. He ll come gallopin in after we get 
 there, perhaps." 
 
 The road led into town from the northeast. Lambert could see 
 the railway embankment and the old wooden bridge before they 
 rounded the turn from which they came in sight of the belfry and 
 the roofs. Somebody had begun to ring the bell, and there came the 
 sound of shouting, with an occasional shrill yell. Then more shots, 
 a short, sputtering fusillade, and more shouts, suggestively derisive 
 and farther away. 
 
 " What s going on, do you suppose?" asked Lambert of his bulky 
 second in command ; and McBride, with one hand steadying the absurd 
 long-sword then worn by our sergeants, and the other clamping his 
 rifle at the right shoulder, puffingly answered, 
 
 " Havin some fun with the sheriff. He had a nigger posse guardin 
 the jail. Folks wouldn t stand it." 
 
 Another minute of running brought them to the outskirts of the 
 straggling town. Women and children could be seen peering excitedly 
 towards the square. Two very small boys, hearing the heavy tramp, 
 tramp of the infantry, turned and scuttled away for the shelter of an 
 open door. Three hundred yards ahead a man in his shirt-sleeves 
 popped around a corner, looked keenly at the coming squad, and popped 
 back again. When Lambert, leading his men by a dozen paces, came 
 dancing around that same corner and found himself at the northeast 
 angle of the plaza, this same citizen was seated on the nearest porch, 
 placidly smoking a corn-cob pipe and reading a newspaper, his boots 
 braced against a wooden pillar and his chair tilted back against the 
 wall. In similar attitudes of exaggerated calm, farther along in the 
 direction of the post-office, were one or two other gentlemen of Tugaloo. 
 Only around Cohen s mercantile emporium was there faintest sign of 
 excitement. There one or two trembling, pallid clerks were bustling 
 about and putting up the shutters. The gang of negroes ordinarily 
 loafing around the plaza had totally vanished. Lambert, expecting 
 to find himself in the presence of a surging mob, came to sudden halt 
 in sheer surprise. The squad " slowed down" at a sign from their
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 37 
 
 sergeant, and then, closing up their rank, marched silently ahead in 
 quick time. 
 
 " Where s the jail?" asked Lambert of his subordinate. 
 
 " Round there behind the next corner, sir, where the bell is." 
 
 Three or four prominent citizens came strolling out of the saloon 
 nearest the post-office, their hands in their pockets and quids of ex 
 aggerated size in their cheeks. The bell, under the impulse of unseen 
 hands, was still violently ringing : otherwise an almost Sabbath still 
 ness pervaded the town of Tugaloo. At the corner lay a gaunt 
 quadruped, blood trickling from its nostrils and from a shot-hole 
 in the side, sole indication of recent battle. The jail door stood 
 obligingly open to the declining sun. The barred windows were 
 tightly closed. 
 
 " Put a stop to anything they re at, " repeated Lambert to himself. 
 "But what are they at? How on earth can I find out?" 
 
 Like those of the jail behind it, the windows of the little meeting 
 house were closed, and apparently boarded up from within. The 
 double doors in front were tight shut and decorated in one or two 
 places with bullet-holes. The bell kept up its furious din. "Hammer 
 the door with the butt of your rifle," said the lieutenant, annoyed to 
 see that such of the populace as began to appear were looking on in 
 unmistakable amusement. 
 
 "Guess they re all down in the cellar, lieutenant," said a tall civilian. 
 " Want any of em ? Reckon they ll come up f you ll tell Squire 
 Parmelee to shout. Don t seem to see him, though." And the grin 
 ning countryman was presently joined by one or two of his friends. 
 Lambert simply did not know what to make of the situation. Sergeant 
 McBride was going around hammering at one shutter after another 
 and muttering something about "dam fools inside." A corporal with 
 a couple of men had explored the two rooms of the primitive building 
 used as a jail, and now came out to say there was nobody there, which 
 seemed to tickle the fancy of the rallying populace. Still the bell 
 kept up its deafening clamor, and Lambert was waxing both nervous 
 and indignant. The absence of the civil officer of the law the 
 deputy marshal or sheriff rendered him practically powerless to act. 
 He could not pitch into the people for standing around with their 
 hands in their pockets and looking amused. There was nothing hostile 
 or threatening in their manner. They were even disposed to be 
 friendly, as, when they saw Lambert take a rifle with evident inten- 
 
 4
 
 38 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 tion of battering in the door, they shouted to him in genuine concern, 
 " Don t do that, lieutenant. Those fellows will be shootin up through 
 the floor next. The squire ll be along presently. Let him do it." 
 
 Presently the squire did come, still " white about the gills," as the 
 sergeant muttered ; and him Lambert angrily accosted : 
 
 " What do you want us to do, Mr. Parmelee ? We ve been here 
 several minutes now with nobody to report to." 
 
 " I s pose my poor fellows are murdered to a man," cried Parmelee, 
 sliding off his mule and handing the reins to a soldier, who coolly 
 transferred them to the nearest post. " Can t you make em hear, 
 McBride?" 
 
 " Not if they re all dead," answered the sergeant, disgustedly. 
 ".Which corpse is pullin the bell-rope?" At this unfeeling remark 
 the populace again began to laugh. 
 
 " Oh, you ll pay for this, you fellows !" tremblingly shouted Par 
 melee to the grinning group across the street. " If there s law in 
 Washington and power to back it, you ll ketch hell." 
 
 "Whawt s been the matter, squire?" asked a citizen, soothingly. 
 " Ain t anybody hurt, is there ? I ain t heard nothin of any row." 
 
 Parmelee pointed to the carcass of the mule and to some significant 
 shot-holes at the corner. " I s pose you ll deny shootiu or hearin 
 any shootin next." 
 
 " Shootin ? Shootin roun hyuh ? Why, doggone f that ain t 
 the queerest thing! I thought I heard somebody pullin off a pistol 
 awhile ago. Don t you remember, major ? I reckon twas you I was 
 talkin with at the time, I said there was a shot fired. P r aps that s 
 what killed Potts s ole mule out yuh." 
 
 " For heaven s sake, man," muttered Lambert, " stop that infernal 
 bell and your own jaw. Can t you see they re just laughing at you?" 
 And Parmelee evidently did. 
 
 " My God, lieutenant ! they ve mobbed the jail, let loose three 
 of the worst scoundrels ever went unhung, and killed the officers of 
 the law. They ought to be arrested right here, every one of them, 
 stead of standin there insultin the United States government. If 
 Captain Close was here he d have em in in less than a minute." 
 
 " He ll be here presently, if you want any arresting done. Mean 
 time, the only row is that which your people seem to be making. 
 Can t you stop that ?" 
 
 Parmelee looked helpless and despondent. " Somethin s got to be
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 39 
 
 done," he said, " or these rebels ll ride right over you. Why, every 
 man you see s had a hand in this jail delivery. We had great trouble 
 restin those three scoundrels : the marshal s been after em a month, 
 and he ought to have met us here, s I telegraphed him. We fetched 
 em here at four o clock this mornin , an not a soul in Tugaloo knew 
 anything about it, an the soldiers ought to have stood by us until the 
 marshal carue. Stead of that, they went on to camp and left us all 
 alone, and just as soon as these people found out who were jailed an 
 saw we had no soldiers to guard em, why, I couldn t do nothin . They 
 just took my horse and they d have hung me, I s pose, if I d been 
 fool enough to stay. I just scaped with my life. You ve just got 
 here, lieutenant. You don t begin to know what a hell-hole this is. 
 These people are the worst kind o rebs. Capt n Close even he 
 wouldn t b lieve it, but I reckon he does now, after the tongue-lashin 
 them fellers gave him " 
 
 But Mr. Par melee s description of the situation was interrupted by 
 the coming of Captain Close himself. Dressed precisely as when Lam 
 bert had last seen him at camp, with no more semblance of rank or 
 authority than was to be found in a weather-beaten pair of shoulder- 
 straps on his cheap flannel blouse, without sash or sword, but with a huge 
 army " Colt" strapped about his waist, the commander of the company 
 came strolling around the corner of the jail, looking curiously about its 
 door and windows as though in search of signs of the recent affray. 
 
 " Thought you told me they d shot the door into tooth-picks," said 
 he. " I don t see no signs of bullets." 
 
 " Come round here an you ll see em. / wasn t goin to let my 
 men be shot like cattle in a pen. I got em out o there soon s we saw 
 the crowd a-comin ." 
 
 " Then you didn t even show fight, didn t even attempt to hold 
 your prisoners ?" exclaimed Close, in high dudgeon. " Why, great 
 Peter! man, your birds just walked out without any one s helpin em. 
 You and your cowardly gang walked off and let em go; an they ve 
 taken our mule. That s the worst of it, taken our mule to replace 
 that dam carcass there, that b longed to the father of one of the boys 
 you brought in this mornin . He told the truth bout it then, when he 
 rode into camp an said your posse had shot his mule an threatened 
 to shoot him. What sort of a sand-heap were you raised on, anyhow? 
 Why, f a baby in the town I come from had shown as little grit as
 
 40 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 you and your folks have, its own mother would have drowned it in the 
 mill-race." 
 
 The effect of this unexpected tirade was remarkable. The knot of 
 civilian listeners, who had come to get such fun out of the situation as 
 the circumstances would permit, and who had been indulging in no 
 little half-stifled laughter, were evidently amazed at this new side to the 
 Yankee officer s character, and stood silent and decidedly appreciative 
 listeners to his denunciation of the luckless Parmelee. The soldiers, 
 who had for some months been tasting the comforts of military service 
 under civil control, and trudging all over Chittomingo County, day in 
 and day out, on the mysterious mission of "serving process," were evi 
 dently tickled that their commander should at last have seen for him 
 self what they had more than half suspected all along, that Parmelee 
 was an arrant coward, who had held his position and made his record 
 for efficiency in enforcing the laws only when a big squad of regulars 
 was at his back. 
 
 As for Lambert, whose sole knowledge of affairs in the South was 
 derived from the accounts published in the Northern journals and 
 inspired almost without exception by " carpet-bag" politicians, and who 
 fully expected to find himself pitted against a determined array of ex- 
 Confederates engaged in the slaughter of Federal officials, white and 
 black, the young New-Englander began to look upon the whole affair 
 as another practical joke devised by his new associates simply " to test 
 his grit or gullibility." This, at least, was his first impression, until 
 the sight of the main body of the company swinging into the square 
 under command of the first sergeant, and another look at Close s burn 
 ing brown eyes and Parmelee s hangdog face, convinced him that so 
 far as they were concerned there was no joke. 
 
 But how about the chuckling natives now augmenting their number 
 every moment? Certainly there could be no doubt as to the contempt 
 they felt for " the Squire," as they facetiously termed Parmelee, or the 
 ridicule which Close s appearance had excited until he had well-nigh 
 finished his denunciation of the civil officer. Then for an instant there 
 was almost a ripple of applause. They watched him as, in his uncouth, 
 ill-fitting, unsoldierly garb, the commander strode angrily back and 
 began searching the walls and window-shutters of the jail for sign of 
 bullet-marks. 
 
 Meantime, gradually recovering confidence or hope, the besieged in 
 the cellar of the meeting-house began to parley. The bell ceased ring-
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 41 
 
 ing, and humble voices were heard asking who were outside. A brusque 
 order in Close s gruffest tones to " Come up out of that hole and account 
 for your prisoners," seemed to cause unlimited joy. There was sound 
 of unbarring doors and scrambling on wooden stairs, and presently the 
 portals opened an inch or two and cautious peeps were taken. The 
 sight of the blue uniforms was enough. The defenders, white and 
 colored, to the number of six, dusty but uninjured, came gladly forth 
 into the afternoon sunshine. "By gad, fellows, we had hard work 
 standin off that crowd till you come," began the foremost, another of 
 the Parmelee type. " There must ha been half Chittomingo County 
 in here, and the bullets flew like " 
 
 But here a guffaw of derisive laughter from across the street, the 
 crestfallen face of Parmelee, and the quizzical grin on the sun-tanned 
 features of the soldiers, put sudden check to his flow of words. There 
 stood Close, glowering at him. 
 
 "Flew like what, you gibberin idiot? The only bullet-hole in 
 the hull square that hasn t been here for six weeks is the one in that 
 wuthless mule there. You dam cowards ran for shelter an let your 
 pris n^rs loose : that s plain as the nose on your face. I don t care for 
 the pris ners, that s your bus ness ; but what I want s our mule. 
 Lieutenant Lambert," he continued, addressing his silent junior, " I m 
 as ready as any man to fight for the flag, but for six months now I ve 
 been sittin here furnishin posses to back up these fellers makin 
 arrests all over the country, because them was my orders, /haven t 
 seen a nigger abused, /haven t seen the uniform insulted, /haven t 
 seen a sign of Ku-KIux : nothin but some contraband stills. I ve 
 obeyed orders an helped em make arrests of people I don t personally 
 know nothin about, an you see for yourself they dasn t lift a hand to 
 hold em. I m tired o backin up such a gang of cowards, an I 
 don t care who knows it. March the men back to camp, sir. I m 
 goiii after that mule." 
 
 VI. 
 
 With the going down of that evening s sun Lieutenant Newton 
 Lambert had finished his first day of company duty in the sunny 
 South, and found himself commanding the temporary post of Tugaloo. 
 The responsibility now devolving upon him was the only thing that 
 enabled him to resist an almost overwhelming sensation of depression 
 
 4*
 
 42 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 and disgust. Marching at route step back to camp, he had held brief 
 and low-toned conference with Sergeant Burns and learned something 
 of the circumstances that led up to the events of the day. " Old man 
 Potts," said the sergeant, was a character. He owned a place half-way 
 over towards Quitman and so near the county line that nobody knew 
 whether he rightfully belonged to Quitman or to Chittomingo. When 
 he was " wanted" in one he dodged to the other. Two of his sons had 
 been killed during the war, and the two younger were prominent both 
 as citizens and " skylarkers," for "there was no mischief or frolic 
 going on they weren t mixed up in." Sergeant Burns didn t believe in 
 Ku-Klux thereabouts, but the colored folks and the deputy marshals 
 did, and so the soldiers were kept " on the jump." Old man Potts 
 had " cussed" Parmelee off his place two weeks previous, but had 
 ridden in to Quitman and reported himself to Brevet Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Sweet, commanding the two-company garrison there, and said 
 that any time he or his boys were " wanted," just to say so and he 
 would come in and account for himself and them to an officer and a 
 gentleman, but he d be damned if he d allow that sneak Parmelee on 
 his premises. Then he had had high words with the marshal of the 
 district himself. His boys had harmed no one, he said. They were 
 full of fun, and perhaps of fight he wouldn t own em if they weren t : 
 but they did not belong to the Ku-Klux, if there were anything of 
 the sort around there at all, and they only fought when interfered 
 with. They might have expressed contempt for Parmelee, but that 
 wasn t law-breaking. The marshal told him that very serious allega 
 tions had been laid against both him and his boys, as well as against 
 friends with whom they forgathered, and warned him that arrest would 
 follow if more " outrages" occurred ; and the result was that only the 
 interference of Colonel Sweet prevented a shooting scrape on the spot. 
 Ever since then Parmelee had had some one watching the movements 
 of Potts and his boys. There was a young lady over at Clayton s 
 plantation to whom one of the boys was devoted, and Parmelee s spies 
 reported there was to be a dance there. That s how he came to go 
 over to Buccatubbee with the squad, but they only got Harry Potts 
 and two of the Scroggs boys ; Barton Potts wasn t there. They were 
 riding home to Quitman County after the dance and " making some 
 racket, as young fellers will, and Parmelee laid for em on the road." 
 They were brought in to the jail by Sergeant Quinn and the squad and 
 there left to Parmelee and his people. As for the rest, the lieutenant
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 43 
 
 knew as much as the sergeant, except that " old man Potts" with his 
 boy Hal suddenly rode into camp just after Mr. Lambert had walked 
 away, and the old man had given Captain Close a piece of his mind, 
 after which he and Hal with a couple of friends rode back townwards. 
 All the shooting that took place was probably a feu de joie to the 
 accompaniment of triumphant yells. 
 
 It was a fact that when old Potts with his friends, not more than 
 half a dozen all told, came riding in to offer bail for the boys, armed 
 only with the customary revolver, they were followed towards the jail 
 by a party of inquisitive and interested townspeople, at sight of which 
 array Parmelee s posse on duty at the jail had fired one volley from 
 that building and then rushed for the shelter of the cellar under the 
 meeting-house. They had killed Potts s mule and wounded another, 
 in exchange for which the Pottsites had ridden off with the first two 
 animals and all the prisoners they saw. There was no one to claim 
 the latter, and old Potts had coolly offered the former to the inspection 
 of Captain Close : one proved to be government property, the other 
 Parmelee s. "I ll just bawrow these two to take us back home, an 
 then you gentlemen can have em as soon as you ll send for em ; but 
 you ll hardly expect us to call again, after the reception accawded us 
 law-abiding and peaceable citizens to-day." This was the majestic 
 conclusion of Potts s remarks to the surprised but stolid captain. 
 Then they rode away, and, crossing probably at the ford, made a 
 circuit back through town, where they doubtless had a Tugaloo jubilee 
 with their friends and fellow-citizens, to the continued alarm and 
 dismay of the bell-ringers in the meeting-house, until warned that the 
 troops were coming, when they deliberately withdrew across the rail 
 way track, firing off a parting salute and a volley of thecharacteristic 
 Southern vocalisms known to fame as the u rebel yell." This was 
 injudicious. It was all well enough to ride away in company with 
 prisoners whom nobody claimed or appeared to care to hold, but they 
 should not have rejoiced thereat with riot and ungodly glee. It was 
 human and by no means divine. It gave the opposition too much to 
 tell about in the startling reports that went broadcast over the North 
 that very night and appeared with lurid head-lines in the morning 
 papers on the morrow. 
 
 Parmelee had not been seen from the moment of the initial appear 
 ance of Potts and party until he came scrambling into camp on a 
 borrowed mule. Later that afternoon, when matters had measurably
 
 44 CAPTAIN CLOSE 
 
 quieted down, he made his way westward in time to tell at the State 
 Capitol his story of the riot to his properly indignant chief, while, all 
 alone, Captain Close was jogging over to Potts s on the " day accommo 
 dation," little dreaming of the ill repute in which he and his youthful 
 subaltern would stand before the unthinking of their Northern fellow- 
 citizens on the morrow ; for, as was only natural, the deputy marshal 
 had squared accounts with Close by laying the blame for the escape of 
 the prisoners, the peril of the beleaguered posse, and the riot and in 
 surrection in Chittomingo County upon the captain and his lieutenant, 
 who, he said, though wearing the uniform and holding the commission 
 of the United States, had refused to come to the aid of the officers of 
 the law. 
 
 " I ought to be back by nine o clock," was the message the captain 
 told Corporal Cunningham to take out to camp; but Cunningham was 
 the ingenuous youth who first accosted Mr. Lambert on his arrival 
 that morning, and Burns had nearly shaken the life out of him when 
 he heard the story the men were passing from lip to lip. Cunningham 
 was a young fellow with a better opinion of himself than his employers 
 seemed to entertain, and, though fairly educated in the public schools 
 and in a business college of his native city, a fondness for Bowery life 
 and association with Bowery boys had undermined his usefulness. He 
 enlisted after losing his situation, and, coming to Close s company when 
 clerks were hardly to be had at any price, was put into the company 
 office instead of the awkward squad. Then came a vacancy among 
 the corporals; the young fellow, being a new broom, had swept clean, 
 and was so helpful about the books, papers, and the like for six weeks 
 that Close gave him the empty chevrons and gave Burns abundant 
 cause for anwther outbreak of blasphemy. There might have been 
 some way of licking Private Cunningham into shape, but there was 
 none whatever of reforming Corporal Cunningham. He was not all 
 bad, however, for by evening he began to realize the extraordinary 
 solecism of which he had been guilty in the morning ; so he was act 
 ually ashamed to go near the lieutenant, and never even repeated his 
 message to Burns until nine o clock had come and the captain hadn t. 
 Then Burns went over to the lieutenant s tent, where that youth sat 
 wrapped in his overcoat, trying gloomily and with stiffened fingers to 
 write some letters by the light of a single candle. 
 
 " I suppose, sir, the captain meant to ride the mule back himself. 
 He could have got to Potts s place before six and back here by eight,
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 45 
 
 easy. Tisn t likely they d ask him to stay to supper. I m only 
 afraid of his gettin into a row, and him all alone." 
 
 " I wish he could have been content to send for the mule instead 
 of going," said Lambert. " Any of the men could have gone, I 
 suppose." 
 
 " Well, sir, the trouble is that he d have had to send the men on 
 mule-back, or else pay their fare over on the ears. The captain has a 
 pass, and it doesn t cost him anything ; and he s afraid to let the mule 
 be gone over-night. It s mighty easy losin em among all these nig 
 gers, and they might charge it up against the captain s pay. The 
 captain has stuck close to camp so far as these night posses have been 
 concerned, but he d hunt the whole State for a lost blanket or bayonet. 
 And he always goes alone and gets what he s after, and he s had no 
 trouble worth mentionin ; but that fellow Potts was impudent to him 
 to-day, and he was slow bout seein it at first; now, though, he s got 
 his mad up and gone over there to get the mule and satisfaction both : 
 that s what I m afraid of, sir. He lashed Parmelee to-day for bein a 
 coward, and beggin your pardon, lieutenant though the captain 
 ain t much on military, he fires up like a flash at anything like insult 
 to the flag." 
 
 "Do you think it advisable to send after the captain?" asked 
 Lambert, after a moment s reflection. 
 
 " There s no way we can send, sir, cept afoot or behind a four- 
 mule team in an army-wagon. We only had that one saddle-mule." 
 
 Lambert stepped to the tent door and looked out. The sky was 
 overcast and the darkness thick. A wind was rising and whirling the 
 sparks from the cook-fire over by the road, and from the pipes of the 
 men sitting smoking and chatting in little groups about camp. Some 
 had come to him at nightfall and sought permission to go in to the 
 village, and he had felt obliged to refuse. After the events of the 
 day it seemed wisest to hold them at camp, and he had so informed 
 Sergeant Burns. As he stood there now looking uneasily about, first 
 at the dark and threatening sky, then at the darker shadows about 
 camp, Lambert thought he caught sight of three or four forms, vague 
 and indistinct, hurrying along the bank beyond the fire. 
 
 " Who are those men ?" he asked. 
 
 " I don t know, sir. I warned the company to remain in camp. 
 I ll see." And Burns turned quickly and made a run for the opposite 
 end of the company ground. Some of the men started up and stood
 
 46 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 gazing expectantly after him, and the chat and laughter suddenly 
 ceased. The shadowy forms had disappeared : so, by this time, had 
 Burns. Then there came the sound of his powerful voice, out by the 
 road : 
 
 " Halt there, you men ! Come back here !" 
 
 Then followed a rush and scramble in the bushes, and the sound 
 of footfalls, rapid and light, dying away in the darkness. Then some 
 low laughter and comment among the men. Then Burns came back, 
 and, without waiting to report, sternly ordered, " Fall in !" 
 
 Knocking the ashes out of their pipes and buttoning their over 
 coats, a thing they might have overlooked before the lesson of the 
 day, the soldiers slowly obeyed the unusual summons. Burns got 
 his lantern and quickly called the roll. Four men failed to respond. 
 Leaving the company still in line, the sergeant hastened to the tents 
 for the absentees. Two of the number were found placidly sleeping. 
 Two were away entirely, Privates Riggs and Murphy. 
 
 "If I m not mistaken I saw three shadows," said Lambert, as the 
 sergeant made his report. " What would the captain do if he were 
 here ? send a patrol ?" 
 
 " The captain never had a night roll-call, sir ; but he wouldn t send 
 a patrol. That s only a good way of not ketch in men, unless they re 
 too drunk to run. It wouldn t be of much consequence, only for that 
 man Riggs bein one of era. He s a troublesome case. If the lieu 
 tenant approves of it, I ll send Sergeant Watts and a couple of good 
 men without arms. They can find whoever s out. What I don t like 
 about it is that somebody jumped the fence and into the Walton place." 
 
 " The old homestead across the road ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir. There s been some trouble between the captain and the 
 Walton family. He ordered the men never to enter the enclosure on 
 any pretext, the old lady made such a row bout it." 
 
 "Who live there? Surely they ought to welcome our sending 
 responsible men over to drive off our renegades." 
 
 " Well, I don t know bout that, sir," said the sergeant, with a ner 
 vous laugh. " If there s anybody on earth the captain s afraid of, its 
 old Mrs. Walton. She s a terror. Nothin of the unprotected female 
 about her, sir, though she and her daughters live alone there. Both 
 her sons were shot during the war : one was killed, and the other s in 
 Havana or Mexico ; said he d never surrender, and won t come home. 
 I reckon they re pretty hard up there, sometimes, but you should see
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 47 
 
 how the old lady rides it over the captain, sir. I wonder she hasn t 
 been over to pay you a visit. Shall I send after Riggs and Murphy, 
 sir? It s a little like sendin* good money after bad. They haven t a 
 cent, either of em, and if town was their object there s no use in their 
 goin ; nobody would trust em." 
 
 Then came interruption, the sound of a horn, an ordinary tin 
 horn, too, floating through the dark and muttering night. 
 
 " That s her, lieutenant. That s the old lady herself. She reads 
 prayers reg larly at half-past nine every night, and some of the niggers 
 are out yet. They used to have a conch shell that sounded pretty, but 
 Parmelee said they had to sell it. They ve had to sell pretty much 
 everything, tryin to keep alive." 
 
 Again the sound of the cheap and despised tin. Lambert recalled 
 it as a necessary concomitant of the street-boy and straw-rides about 
 the Christmas holidays, and its summons, he thought, was never to 
 prayer : it called for many a lively malediction. 
 
 " Send Sergeant Watts, if you think it advisable," said he, briefly. 
 " I m going up on the road a moment." 
 
 Again the blast of the horn, short, staccato, imperative, and then 
 an impatient, querulous voice at the north end of the porch, a voice 
 calling, " You Elinor ! you wuthless black gadabout ! \vh ah you ?" 
 
 And as Lambert scrambled up the steep path and reached the road, 
 another voice, low, tremulous, eager, close at hand, whispered, " Oh, I 
 thought you d never come ! Hyuh ! quick ! Leave the money, shuah, 
 and the pail, t maw ow night." 
 
 And then, with a rustle of feminine garments, bending low, a slen 
 der, girlish form shot across the beam of lamplight falling from an 
 east window. Another form, also feminine, scurried away from the 
 hedge-row, and something came rolling out into the road-way, clinking 
 against the stones. There was sound of voluble reprimand and flus 
 tered explanation at the north end of the building, a quick, kitten-like 
 patter of little feet up the rickety old steps in front, and in an instant 
 the girlish form seemed perched on the window-sill. There a second or 
 two it hovered, motionless, until a door slammed around at the north 
 side of the house. Then in popped the slender figure, out went the 
 light, and, but for the sigh and complaint of the night-wind in the 
 rustling branches of the old trees about the veranda, all was silence at 
 Walton Hall.
 
 48 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 VII. 
 
 It was after ten when Captain Close returned, and barely eleven 
 when he again set forth. This time a sergeant and ten picked men 
 went with him, nobody but Close knew whither. " I may be gone two 
 days, lieutenant," said he, in the laborious use of the title which among 
 regulars "to the manner born" had long been replaced by "Mr. ;" and 
 had not Lambert asked for instructions, none, probably, would have 
 been given. Of his adventures during the day he said not a word. He 
 brought back the mule, and that was enough. The first thing Lambert 
 and Burns knew of his return was the sound of his voice at the wagon, 
 informing the guard that he wanted coffee and something to eat. Then, 
 paying only vague attention to Lambert s congratulations on his safe 
 return, he told Burns to get a detachment ready at once, then disap 
 peared within the dark interior of his tent, leaving Lambert standing 
 in some embarrassment and chagrin outside. " Looking to see if his 
 strong box is all safe," whispered the first sergeant as he came up. 
 "It s under the boards under his cot and he never lets anybody 
 come in, not even the marshal." 
 
 It was full five minutes before the captain reappeared. He struck 
 no light meantime, but could be heard fumbling around in the dark 
 ness. When he came forth, he had some papers in his hands. " We ll 
 go to your tent, sergeant," he said. " Your desk is handier. How ve 
 you got along, lieutenant ?" 
 
 " Two men are out, sir ; Riggs and Murphy " 
 
 " Dam blackguards, both of em, specially Riggs ; almost the 
 oldest soldier in the company, too," said Close, wrathfully, seating him 
 self at the desk and beginning to arrange the papers for signature. 
 
 " I had been told I should find some splendid old oaks among the 
 rank and file," hazarded Lambert, after a pause, and thinking his com 
 mander should give some directions in the case. 
 
 "Old oaks? Old soaks, most like," was the disdainful answer, 
 " specially Riggs. He come from the cavalry. Why, I ve had them 
 two fellows tied up by the thumbs three times since last March ; and it 
 hain t hurt era no more n if they was cast iron. Better keep a guard 
 over the mules while I m away, sergeant or, rather, lieutenant : you 
 see, I ain t used to havin anybody but the sergeant. Oh ! Now
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 49 
 
 bout them mileage papers o yourn. You said not to send em. Why 
 not?" 
 
 " You ve made out a charge of some sixty-five dollars for transpor 
 tation of a servant, sir : I brought no servant with me." 
 
 "What s the difference? The law lows it. Every officer s en 
 titled to a servant. And if he does his own work he s entitled to what 
 his servant would get. You didn t black your boots on the way, did 
 you? You had a servant do it. He was with you on the train, 
 porter of the sleeping-car, wasn t he? / never go in the durn things 
 myself, but you did, I ll warrant. Well, you paid him out of your 
 pocket, every time you changed cars or boat." 
 
 " That may be, sir ; but I can t sign any such claim as sixty dollars 
 for transportation of servant when I paid no such sum." 
 
 "Then how re you to get your money back? the dimes and dol 
 lars you ve given to porters and waiters on the way ? Every officer 
 I know would sign that certificate without question, and every quar 
 termaster would pay it. Captain Warren came with you to head 
 quarters, at least. What d you bet he hasn t drawn servant s trans 
 portation ? You think it over, lieutenant. There s no sense in you 
 robbin yourself this way. Write down to barracks, f you like, and 
 see what they say at head -quarters. They ll tell you just what I do." 
 
 " I ll sign the accounts without that, and get the mileage for my 
 self," said Lambert. " I need the money. Then if it s allowable and 
 proper I can collect for servant later." 
 
 u Not much you can t. There s where you show your ignorance. 
 Then the government would make you fight ten years for it, even if 
 you d brought a servant with you. The way is to get it first and let 
 them stop it if it s wrong. But here, I can t fool away time arguin a 
 simple thing like that. I ve got to be miles away before midnight, 
 and, no matter who comes and inquires, you don t know where we ve 
 gone. Now you won t need any commissary funds or anything while 
 I m away. Just pay cash and take receipts if you buy vegetables for 
 the company." 
 
 " You forget, sir, that my money s gone." 
 
 "Sure you hadn t anything but what was in that pocket-book? 
 Then, sergeant, you do it, and keep account." 
 
 " But, excuse me, captain," said Lambert, flushing, " I myself will 
 need money. I must find some place to board. Keep those mileage 
 
 accounts as security, if you like, but let me have twenty dollars " 
 
 C 5
 
 50 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 "But you hain t signed them : they re no good." 
 
 "I ll settle that," said Lambert, sharply; and, taking a pen, he 
 drew a line through the item for transportation for servant and altered 
 the figures of the total accordingly, then, still standing and bending 
 over the desk, slashed his signature with a sputtering pen upon the 
 paper. Close carefully scrutinized the sheet, compared it with its du 
 plicate when that, too, was similarly finished, and stowed both away 
 in a long -envelope. " Sure you ve got to have twenty ?" he asked, as 
 a soldier stuck his head inside the tent door, retired precipitately at 
 sight of the junior lieutenant, and then, from without, announced that 
 the captain was served. " Well, I guess I can get it for you before 
 I go." Slowly he finished, slowly signed, after close study of their 
 contents, the papers placed before him, then slowly left the tent with 
 out another word. Not until he had buckled on his pistol-belt he 
 carried no sword and was about to start with his silent and yawning 
 squad, did he seem to awake from his fit of abstraction, and then only 
 when Lambert appealed to him for orders. 
 
 " Oh, yes. Well, just have an eye on them mules, will you, lieu 
 tenant ? Everything else, almost, is under lock and key. The quarter 
 master sergeant is pretty solid." 
 
 " But in case of disturbance, or demands for more detachments, or 
 men wanting to go away ?" 
 
 " There won t be nuthin now fur a week. Do s you like about 
 givin the men a little liberty. They ve had a good deal. Everything 
 around here will be quiet enough, and you ll hear what I m after 
 well, when I ve got it." 
 
 That night, though worn and weary and downhearted, Lambert 
 could hardly sleep. At eleven the little detachment had trudged away 
 into the blackness of the night, and the tramp of their march was 
 swallowed up in the rustle of the crisp brown foliage and the creak of 
 overhanging branches. The men remaining in camp crawled back to 
 their blankets ; the cook-fire smouldered away, only occasionally whirl 
 ing forth a reluctant flight of sparks in response to some vigorous puff 
 of the restless wind ; the sentry yawned and dawdled about the wagon 
 and the store tent ; even the mules seemed so sympathetic with their 
 recovered associate that no whisper of a bray came from their pen on 
 the bank of the stream. Lambert had received the assurance of his 
 sergeant that the missing men would surely turn up before breakfast 
 on the morrow, and had given permission to that harassed and evi-
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 51 
 
 dently disgusted official to go to bed. Then, after a turn around his 
 sleeping camp, the young fellow went to his lonely roost " to think 
 things over." 
 
 In the first place, as he lighted his candle, there was the tin pail 
 which had rolled out from the Walton hedge-row, and which, on in 
 spection, he had found to contain about two pounds of fresh butter, 
 very neatly packed in lettuce-leaves. That proved that the Waltons 
 still had something of their old garden left. Lettuce could surely be 
 raised only under glass at this inclement season. He had hitherto had 
 no time for close inspection of the contents. Now as he turned over 
 the leaves he found a little slip of paper on which, in a girlish and 
 somewhat " scratchy" hand, were penned the words, " Please send small 
 currency. It s so hard to get change. You can have buttermilk 
 to-morrow night if you ll bring a pitcher. Due, $5 T 1 Tr ( ^ r . You must 
 pay it this time. / must have it." 
 
 " Now, who on earth is this young lady s customer ?" thought 
 Lambert. " Surely not Close. He never spends a cent on butter. 
 Nobody else lives nearer than Parmelee s to the north or town to the 
 south. Can it be that some of the sergeants have been buying supplies 
 from this quarter and running up a butter bill ?" Burns had spoken of 
 trouble between the captain and the old lady and of all hands being 
 forbidden to enter the Walton grounds on any pretext whatever. That, 
 of course, did not prohibit the men from buying what the Walton ser 
 vants offered for sale outside the fence, and if they were so straitened 
 in circumstances they might be glad to find a market for their surplus 
 produce even among the Yankee invaders, provided Madam Walton 
 were kept in ignorance of the traffic. She was uncompromising. 
 No intercourse with, no recognition of, the barbarians, was her rule to 
 kith and kin, and the few negroes who still hung about the crumbling 
 old place repeated her words with the fear born of long-continued dis 
 cipline under her roof and rod in the days of their enforced and un 
 questioning servitude. 
 
 These and other items of information as to his surroundings the 
 young lieutenant had obtained from Sergeant Burns in the course 
 of their evening watch together. He had no other means of studying 
 the situation, and was but one of many new and comparatively inex 
 perienced officers thrown upon their own resources at isolated posts 
 among "the States lately in rebellion." Not yet twenty-four hours on 
 duty with his company, he had been ordered to proceed with an armed
 
 52 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 force to the succor of officers of law supposably besieged by a rebellious 
 mob, and now, at midnight, in the heart of a strange country and far 
 from the heart of its people he was commanding officer of his com 
 pany and camp, without definite instructions of any kind and only his 
 native common sense to guide him. 
 
 Lambert has since told two women his wife and his mother how 
 his thoughts wandered back to the peaceful old homestead in the far 
 Northland, and to the teachings of his boyhood days. He made a sturdy 
 fight against the feeling of loneliness that oppressed him. He wished 
 the wind did not blow so sulkily, in such spiteful, vicious puffs. It 
 seemed as though nature had combined with old Lady Walton to give 
 him ungracious welcome to this particularly shady side of the sunny 
 South. The wind itself was whispering sarcastic and withering remarks 
 to him, like those the sergeant repeated as coming from Madam Walton 
 to the defenceless captain ; and even Burns s sense of subordination 
 could not down his impulse to chuckle over some of them. What 
 would Lambert do or say if the prim and starchy darne were to call 
 upon him, as she occasionally had on his superior, driving him at 
 last to the refuge of the nethermost depths of his tent, whence, as 
 Burns declared, "the captain couldn t be induced to come out till the 
 old lady was back inside her own door" ? 
 
 The last time he " tied up Riggs" a punishment much resorted to 
 in the rough war days and those that closely followed them, especially 
 by those officers who were themselves graduated from the ranks or the 
 volunteers it was for trespass on the Walton place. The fellow had 
 climbed the fence and was pilfering among the old fruit-trees when 
 caught by Madam Walton. That was bad enough, but he had been 
 impudent to her, which was worse. The men themselves would proba 
 bly have ducked him in the stream the old, self-respecting soldiers, 
 that is had the captain not ordered his summary punishment. Lam 
 bert was wondering what steps he should take in the interests of dis 
 cipline, when he finally blew out his candle, determined, if a possible 
 thing, to get to sleep. It was just a quarter-past twelve when he 
 wound his watch and stowed it under his rude pillow. His revolver, 
 the day s purchase, lay, with some matches, close at hand. He had 
 even placed his sword and belt at the foot of his cot. The last thing 
 he thought of before closing his eyes was that he would have to get a 
 lantern on the morrow, even if he bought it of Cohen ; but it was also 
 the last thing he thought of when the morrow came.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 53 
 
 Was it the wind again, whispering ugly things, or the ghost of 
 Lady Walton, with her acidulated tongue, that roused him, he knew 
 not how many minutes or hours later? Something was whispering, 
 surely. The wind had been doing a good deal of that sort of thing 
 all the night long among the leaves, a good deal of snarling and growl 
 ing at times, and there was muttered snarling going on around him 
 now. That might be the wind ; but the wind would not trip up over 
 a tent-rope and say such blasphemous things about it, even if it did 
 nearly pull the flimsy structure down. In an instant Lambert was 
 wide awake. 
 
 " Who s there?" he challenged, sternly. 
 
 No answer, not in words, at least, but there was sound as of 
 stealthy yet hurried movement, more straining at the ropes on the side 
 nearest the captain s tent, and heavy, startled breathing. 
 
 " Who s there ?" he repeated, reaching for the revolver. " Answer, 
 or I fire." 
 
 Then came a mighty strain, a jerk, a stumble and plunge, the 
 sound as of a heavy fall, followed by instant scramble and a rush of 
 footfalls around the rear of camp. Lambert was out of bed and into 
 his boots in half a minute; but in his haste he upset the chair on 
 which lay the matches, and the box went rolling to the floor. Pistol 
 in hand, he darted out into the night, and found it black as Erebus. 
 Quickly he ran to the first sergeant s tent, but Burns was hard to 
 waken after the long day s work. Once roused, however, he was soon 
 out, lantern in hand, while Lambert hastily dressed, and then together 
 they scouted camp. A glance at their tent showed that Riggs and 
 Murphy were still absent. A peep at the watch showed that it was 
 almost two o clock ; a search around Lambert s tent revealed nothing 
 beyond the fact that the corner peg to which the tent-fly was guyed 
 was torn from the ground, and the soft, sandy soil showed that heavy 
 boot-heels had made their imprint. Then Burns, still lantern-bearing, 
 went crouching low around the back of Close s tent, while Lambert, 
 with straining ears, stood stock still an instant in front, then, of a 
 sudden, tore like mad through the rousing camp, out past the dim 
 white canvas of the wagons, out past the startled sentry, up the steep 
 pathway to the hard red road beyond, down which he ran on the 
 wings of the wind till he reached the gate-way to the forbidden ground, 
 for a woman s agonized shriek had rung out upon the night, and the 
 sound of blows, of crashing glass, of fierce and desperate struggle, of 
 
 5*
 
 54 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 muttered oaths, of panting, pleading, half-stifled cries, of wild dismay 
 and renewed screams for help, all came crowding on the ear from the 
 heart of the Walton place. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 As he rushed around to the southern side of the old house, the 
 side whence all this uproar proceeded, Lambert came suddenly upon 
 two dim, swaying figures. The one nearest him that of a man was 
 clutching, throttling, apparently, a slighter form in white, a woman. 
 The butt of his revolver straightened out the dark figure with one 
 crack, and then for a moment everything was darkness and confusion. 
 A lamp, held by some screaming female at a neighboring window, was 
 dropped with a crash. The screams subsided to scurry and chatter 
 and Ethiopian protestations and furious demands : " You Elinor ! you 
 black uigguh ! you let me out this room instantly /" Then rush of 
 footsteps to the window again, and tragic appeals : " Mamma ma-am- 
 ma ! Whut s happened? Do answer! Do make Elinor let me to 
 you, or Ah ll jump out this window. Ah m coming now." And in 
 deed a dim, slender form could just be descried, arrayed in white, bend 
 ing low from the casement, when Burns with his lantern came tearing 
 around the corner. Then a majestic voice, imperious even though 
 well-nigh breathless, was heard : " Katherine, return to your bed in 
 stantly. Do you hear? Instantly ! And send Elinor to me." 
 
 That Katherine shot back within the sheltering blinds was possibly 
 due not so much to the impetus given her by those imperative orders 
 as to that imparted by the sight of a pair of shoulder-straps and the 
 face of the young officer gazing in bewilderment about him. Well 
 might he look amazed ! At his feet on the pathway Private Riggs 
 was sprawling, still half stunned by the blow he had received. On 
 his back, amidst the wreck of a glass hot-bed, Private Murphy was 
 clutching at empty air and calling on all the saints in the Hibernian 
 calendar to rescue him from the hands of that old beldam. On the 
 pathway, in a loose wrapper, her bosom heaving with mingled wrath 
 and exhaustion, one hand firmly clutching a stout cane, the other 
 clasping together at her white neck the shreds of her torn and dishev 
 elled garb, her dark eyes flashing fire, her lips quivering, stood a woman 
 certainly not fifty years of age, despite the silver in the beautiful hair
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 55 
 
 streaming down upon her shoulders, and the deep lines of grief and 
 care in her clear-cut and thoroughbred face. She leaned heavily on 
 the stick an instant, but raised it threateningly as the luckless Murphy 
 strove to sit up and stanch the blood trickling from his lacerated hands 
 and face. 
 
 " Don t you dare to move, suh," she panted, " unless " And 
 
 the uplifted cane supplied, most suggestively, the ellipsis. 
 
 " Oh, fur the luv o God, ma-am, don t hit me ag in ! Sure I d 
 niver prezhoome, ma am " 
 
 " Shut up, Murphy !" growled Burns. " It s easy to see what 
 brought you here. Shall I let Riggs up, lieutenant? He s bleeding 
 a good deal." 
 
 But Riggs didn t want to get up. He flopped helplessly back upon 
 the grass-plot. Burns bent over and held his lantern close. " The 
 man s drunk, sir," he said, " and cut." 
 
 " / did that, I presume," said Lambert, still a little out of breath 
 after the dash to the rescue. " I found him daring to lay hands on 
 this lady. Madam, I sincerely hope you are not injured. It is im 
 possible for me to say how I deplore this outrage. These men shall 
 suffer for it, I assure you." 
 
 With rapid step the corporal of the guard, bringing with him a 
 couple of men and another lantern, came hurriedly to the scene and 
 stood silent and alert, glancing eagerly from face to face. Two or three 
 frightened negroes had crept around the rear portico and hung trembling 
 behind their mistress. With a shawl thrown over her head and shoul 
 ders, a quadroon girl halted half-way down the steps from the side 
 door, her eyes dilated, and her lips twitching in terror, until a low 
 voice from within bade her go on, and a tall, dark-haired, pale-faced 
 girl in long, loose wrapper fairly pushed her forward and then stepped 
 quickly to the elder woman s side. 
 
 " Go back to the house at once, my child. This is no place for you. 
 Go to Katherine and tell her I say she must not leave her bed. Go !" 
 And silently as she came, but with infinite and evident reluctance, the 
 tall girl turned and obeyed. Mrs. Walton had spoken slowly and with 
 effort. Of Mr. Lambert and his party she had as yet taken no notice 
 whatever. Again Murphy began to squirm in his uncomfortable couch 
 of mingled mud and broken glass and head-lettuce, and the crackling 
 accompaniment to his moaning once more made him the object of the 
 lady s attention."
 
 66 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 "Lie still, suh," she said, low and sternly. "You have broken 
 moh glass now, suh, than youh captain can replace. Lie still whuh 
 you are until my suh van ts lift you out. Henry !" she called. 
 
 " Ye-assum," was the answer, as one of the negroes came reluctantly 
 forward, humbly twirling a battered hat in his hands. 
 
 " Go fetch your barrow." 
 
 " Indeed, Mrs. Walton," interposed Lambert, " you need not trouble 
 yourself. The guard shall carry these two scoundrels to camp, and 
 prison life at Ship Island, or Tortugas, will put a stop to their prowl 
 ing. It is on your account I am distressed. We have no surgeon at 
 hand ; I will send at once for the doctor in town " 
 
 She raised a slender white hand, relinquishing her grasp upon the 
 cane, which now went clattering upon the gravel of the walk. It was 
 a sign to check him, and respectfully he broke off in his hurried words. 
 Then again she turned to the negro, who stood with twitching face, 
 irresolute, beside her. 
 
 " Did you hear me, Henry ? Go." 
 
 Again Riggs began to groan and stretch forth feeble hands. Burns 
 looked appealingly to his young officer, then as appealingly to the lady. 
 Clearly, she was the mistress of the situation. Lambert had quickly 
 stooped and picked up the cane, but she did not see, apparently, that 
 he wished to restore it to her. In the light of the lanterns the mark 
 of Riggs s clutch was plainly visible at her white and rounded throat. 
 
 " Two of you lift this fellow," said Burns to the corporal ; and 
 between them Riggs was heaved to his sprawling feet. " Get him over 
 to camp now and bathe his head. Put a bayonet through him if he 
 tries to bolt. I ll be there presently." 
 
 And of Riggs, her assailant, and of Riggs s removal under guard, 
 the lady of the Walton homestead took no note whatever. Rebuffed, 
 yet sympathetic, Lambert again essayed to speak, but the rattle of the 
 barrow was heard, and Henry once more loomed up within the zone of 
 lantern light. 
 
 " Lift that puhson out," she said. And when Burns would have 
 lent a helping hand, she interposed : " No, I beg you. My suh van ts 
 will attend to this." And neither Lambert nor his sergeant made fur 
 ther effort. Murphy, lifted from the wreck of the ruined hot-bed, 
 abject and crestfallen, scratched and bruised and bleeding, yet neither 
 so deadened by drink nor so stunned by the rain of blows which he 
 had suffered as not to appreciate the humiliation of his position, was
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 57 
 
 squatted in the barrow. At an imperious gesture from Madam Wal 
 ton, Henry started to wheel him away, the corporal of the guard in 
 close attendance. 
 
 And then, with calm dignity and recovered breath, the lady turned 
 to the boy officer : 
 
 " I have not thanked you yet " 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Walton, I beg you not to speak of thanks. If you 
 knew how how ashamed I am, and my regiment will be that any 
 
 of our men could have dared " The very intensity of the young 
 
 fellow s indignation choked him, and gave her the floor. 
 
 "Once before this they came, and then I warned. This time, 
 having no men to call upon" (negroes, it seems, could not be counted 
 as such), " I was compelled, myself, to chastise. May I ask the safe 
 return of our barrow, it is the only vehicle the war has left us, and 
 that we may now be permitted to retire ?" And she swept a stately 
 courtesy. 
 
 " But, madam " began Lambert, utterly chagrined at the attitude 
 
 of cold and determined avoidance in which she persisted, " you have 
 been brutally handled ; I insist on sending for our contract doctor : it 
 is the best we can offer to-night " 
 
 " Neither to-night, nor at any other time, would his suhvices be 
 acceptable, suh. I need no doctoh. We learned we had to learn 
 how to do without luxuries of every kind during the war ; and Dr. 
 Hand I think that is the name of the physician you refer to would 
 be too much of a luxury at any time. I regret that your men should 
 need his suhvices, but they brought it on themselves." 
 
 "They will need him more before the captain gets through with 
 em, ma am," said Sergeant Burns, seeing that his young superior was 
 at a loss what to say. As he spoke, the tall, dark-haired girl once 
 more appeared, and swiftly, noiselessly stepped to her mother s side. 
 "There d be no need of a court-martial or of your having to testify, 
 if Captain Close could settle this or let us do it." 
 
 " Mother, come in, please do, and let these gentlemen go," said 
 the girl. " Indeed, we are very much obliged to you," she continued, 
 addressing Lambert, " for coming so quickly. That one, who seemed 
 intoxicated, might have killed mother, who is far from strong. They 
 had opened the cellar door, you see." And she pointed to where the 
 broad wooden leaf had been turned back, leaving a black yawning 
 chasm. 
 
 C*
 
 58 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 "Your mother is faint," cried Lambert, springing forward just in 
 time, for, now that victor) 7 was perched upon her banners, the foe 
 soundly thrashed and driven from the field, nature woman-nature 
 had reasserted herself, and the lady of Walton Hall would have sunk 
 to earth but for the strong young arms that received her. Then came 
 renewed outcry from within-doors. Miss Katherine could not have . 
 obeyed the maternal mandate, for there she was at the window, insist 
 ent, clamorous. " Bring her right in hyuh /" she cried. " Do you 
 hyuk what I say, Estuh ? Oh, who day-uhd to lock me in this room ? 
 You Elinor ! open this do instantly, I tell you !" 
 
 A moment later, when, by the light of Burns s lantern, now in 
 Miss Esther s trembling grasp, the two men bore the limp and nerve 
 less shape into the nearest room and laid it reverently upon the sofa, a 
 wild-eyed and dishevelled young woman threw herself at her mother s 
 side and began chafing and slapping the slender white hands and 
 begging all manner of absurd and impossible things of the prostrate, 
 pallid, death-like form. Elinor, who had obeyed orders and locked 
 that impulsive damsel in, had now released her and then collapsed. 
 
 " Do not try to raise her head," said Lambert gently to the fright 
 ened child, who, having exhausted one effort, was now striving to revive 
 her mother with passionate kisses. " We must restore the circulation 
 to the brain. Pardon me : have you a little brandy? or whiskey?" 
 
 " There isn t a drop in the house," answered Miss Walton, pite- 
 ously. " We had some, that had been in the cellar for years, that 
 mother hid during the war ; but but it was being stolen, or some 
 thing and she sold what was left." 
 
 Burns quickly left the room. When he returned, a few minutes 
 later, he held forth a little flask. Mrs. Walton still lay senseless, and 
 her condition was alarming to one and all. Lambert poured out a 
 stiif dose. " Make her take it all, little by little," he whispered to 
 Miss Walton, and then, with calm decision, stooped, and, encircling the 
 slender waist of the younger girl with his arm, quickly lifted her to her 
 feet. A tress of her rich red-brown hair was caught in his shoulder- 
 strap, but neither noticed it. Such was the patient s prostration that 
 for a moment even brandy failed of its stimulating effect. Not until 
 several spoonfuls had been forced between her blue lips did there come 
 that shivering sigh that tells of reviving consciousness. The white 
 hands began feebly to pluck at her dress and the heavy eyelids to
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 59 
 
 open slowly. ; We will fall back," whispered Lambert. " I ll wait 
 in the hall." 
 
 But when he turned to tiptoe away, a very touzled, tangled, dis 
 hevelled, but pretty head had to come, too. There was too much of 
 that fine, shining, shimmering tress to let go. Burns was already creak 
 ing out into the dark passage. Miss Walton was absorbed in her 
 mother s face. Miss Katherine s rounded cheek had flushed as red as 
 the invalid s was white, and both her tiny hands were madly tugging 
 and pulling at the offending tendrils ; but who could work to advantage 
 with the back or side of one s head practically clamped to the work 
 bench ? Miss Katherine could not tear herself loose except at the risk 
 of carrying away a square inch or more of scalp, for the strap would 
 not yield, and its wearer could not help so long as her own hands were 
 tugging. There was every likelihood, therefore, that the tableau on 
 which Madam Walton s opening eyes should gaze would be about the 
 very last she would care to see, the bonnie head of her precious child 
 reposing, to all appearance, on a shoulder in Yankee blue, when 
 Lambert, alive to the desperate nature of the situation, quickly cast 
 loose the two or three buttons of the flannel sack-coat then so much in 
 vogue, and, slipping out of that and into the hall, rejoined his imper 
 turbable sergeant. 
 
 " I hope the lieutenant will pardon my taking his flask. I saw it 
 in the tent this evening, sir, and the captain didn t leave the key of 
 the medical chest, with me, leastwise." 
 
 " You did right. That was some good cognac they got for me in 
 New Orleans. I hope it will revive her. Ought we not to send for 
 Dr. Hand?" 
 
 "No, sir," whispered Burns. " She wouldn t have him for one of 
 her niggers and be damned to them. I know now where Riggs had 
 been getting his liquor, and where our coffee and sugar has been going. 
 He s bribed these thieving servants of hers to steal that precious brandy, 
 and those dam scoundrels broke into the cellar to-night to get more." 
 
 " But they must have been drinking in the first place. Where 
 could they have got that liquor? Hers was gone, sold." 
 
 " In town, somewhere. I ll find out " But here the lieutenant 
 
 checked him. A feeble voice was just audible in the adjoining room : 
 
 "Have they gone? Have I been ill? Esther daughter, see 
 that No ! /must see that young officer, at once."
 
 60 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 " Not to-night, mother," answered the elder girl, pleadingly. " Not 
 to-night. To-morrow : you ll be rested then." 
 
 "That may be too late. Whatever happens, there must be no 
 court-martial. He said /should have to testify; so would you. You 
 saw, Esther, and if under oath we should have to tell " 
 
 " Quick ! Come out of this I" whispered Lambert, hoarsely, and 
 dragged the sergeant after him to the dark and wind-swept shadows of 
 the yard. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Sunday morning came, gloomy, cloudy, with the wind still moan 
 ing among the almost leafless branches and whirling dust-clouds from 
 the crooked road. After a night of so much excitement camp slept 
 late. Lambert was aroused somewhere about seven by a scratching at 
 the tent-flap, and Sergeant Burns, answering the summons to " come 
 in," poked his freshly shaven face through a framing of white canvas 
 to ask if he might send the lieutenant some breakfast from the cook- 
 fire. It was barely twenty-four hours since his arrival in camp, and 
 so crowded had these hours been with event, experience, and novelty 
 that the young officer seemed to feel he had been a month on duty. 
 There lay his blue flannel blouse at the foot of his cot. Unseen 
 hands had tossed it from the window at which on his first appearance 
 the previous night a slender, white-robed form had been piteously crying 
 for help. He drew it to him and searched the left shoulder-strap. 
 Yes! Even now three or four long curling hairs were twining like 
 the tendrils of a vine about its dead-gold border and across the field of 
 sky-blue velvet, another vogue of the day. " She had time to dis 
 entangle the mass, but could not see these fine filaments in so dim a 
 light," he laughed to himself. " Only fancy what my Merrimac madre 
 would say if she were to hear that a pretty head a Southern girl s 
 head had been resting on my shoulder the very first night I got 
 here ! Only fancy what the damsel herself would say, if she had a 
 chance to say anything! And as for her mamma well, what wouldn t 
 she say ?" 
 
 Lambert had lots to think of as he made his soldier toilet and came 
 forth into the gloomy, moisture-laden air, for the southeasterly wind 
 was sweeping the rain-clouds up from the distant gulf, and nature 
 looked bleak and dismal. Two items occurred to give him comfort.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 61 
 
 No sooner had he stepped out into the open space than the one sentry 
 at the other end of camp shouted, "Turn out the guard commanding 
 officer !" which was unnecessary at the distance and under the circum 
 stances, yet clearly proved that the disposition among the men was to 
 " brace up" in recognition of the arrival of an officer who knew what 
 discipline meant. 
 
 And then, looking suspiciously as though he had been waiting for a 
 chance to undo the ill effect of his blunder of the previous day, there 
 in front of Burns s tent stood Corporal Cunningham, company clerk ; 
 and the salute with which he honored the camp commander was as 
 pregnant with good intent as it was clumsy in execution. Somebody 
 had placed an empty clothing-box by the side of his tent, covered it 
 with canvas fly, and set this improvised table for one with the best tins 
 the company mess afforded. Somebody else had carefully blacked the 
 lieutenant s boots and shoes, and presently up came a young German 
 soldier bearing the lieutenant s breakfast on the company cook s bread 
 board, which was covered with a clean white towel. 
 
 " Burns is one of the oaks, at any rate," thought Lambert, as the 
 sergeant followed to see that all was in proper order. Ham and eggs, 
 "soldier coffee," a can of milk, corn-bread and hard-tack, were set 
 before him with pardonable pride, and Burns explained that they 
 bought eggs, milk, and corn-bread of an old darky who came over from 
 the village almost every day. Then Lambert bethought him of his 
 captured pail of butter, and brought it from the tent. " This does not 
 belong to me," he said. " It rolled out from the Walton hedge last 
 evening. Do you know who their regular customer is?" 
 
 " I don t, sir. Yet I know McBride and others have sometimes 
 had butter, good butter too, like this. The captain doesn t buy any, 
 and wouldn t allow the company to buy any there. Not that he cared, 
 sir ; only the old lady was so uppish and made such a row when any 
 of our fellows were seen even talking to her people that he gave regular 
 orders forbidding it. No one from the Walton place dare set foot in 
 side camp, and he ll make it hot for Riggs when he gets back. Murphy 
 is less to blame, but will have to go to Ship Island all the same, I 
 reckon." 
 
 " How are those two this morning?" 
 
 "Riggs is stupid drunk yet, but Murphy swears he d only gone to 
 try to get Riggs out of trouble : he d hardly been drinking at all. He 
 begs to see the lieutenant, sir. He says he can explain the whole thing." 
 
 6*
 
 62 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 And so, later that morning, after Lambert had given his men a 
 further lesson by inspecting both company and camp and pointing out 
 no end of things which could not, he said, be tolerated in future, 
 Murphy was brought to his tent. His face and hands were badly cut 
 in places, but his bruises were of little account. With the best inten 
 tions in the world, the good lady had not the strength for the trouncing 
 the fellow had deserved at her hands. The story he told was hardly 
 credible. Lambert could have ordered him back with sharp rebuke 
 for his falsifications, but a glance at Burns s war-worn face, clouded 
 and perplexed, gave the young commander pause. " Do you really 
 expect me to believe this ?" he asked, and Murphy answered, " I m 
 ready to make oath to it before the praste, sorr." 
 
 And this, in effect, was the Irishman s tale. He had known his 
 "bunky" Riggs only since that worthy s enlistment in the company 
 the previous winter, but this much of Riggs almost everybody knew; 
 that he had been a sergeant during the war days, and was serving an 
 enlistment in the regular cavalry when deprived, for persistent drinking, 
 of his chevrons. The troop to which he was attached had been sta 
 tioned at Quitman and in this section of the South for a year or more, 
 but was ordered to the Indian country just about the time of Riggs s 
 discharge by expiration of term of service. Then, after a protracted 
 spree in New Orleans, he turned up at the barracks and " took on" 
 again in the infantry, and in the very company which, oddly enough, 
 was so soon ordered up to the region he knew so well. Indeed, Riggs 
 claimed when drinking to have acquaintance not only with the Walton 
 ladies, but with some of the most prominent men in Quitman County, 
 and frequently boasted of the good times he would have could he only 
 get over there. Another thing about Riggs : he had twice got Murphy 
 to go as his substitute on certain detachment or posse duty, offering 
 as excuse that marching wore him out, yet admitting to Murphy that 
 there were other reasons. " There are men in this section who d shoot 
 me on sight, get the drop on me, pick me off from the woods or 
 fences," he had explained. Murphy believed him, and believed, too, 
 his statement that he had powerful friends even among officers and 
 gentlemen who had fought through the war on the Southern side. "He 
 got money when he needed it, and spent it like a gentleman," said 
 Murphy ; which, being interpreted, meant that he liberally squandered 
 it on his comrades. 
 
 But Riggs had of late been out of money : he " couldn t hear from
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 63 
 
 his friends," said Murphy, and was getting in trouble. He owed poker 
 debts in the company and liquor debts in town. He couldn t get a 
 drink on trust, and the men were shy of playing with him ; but he 
 had always been liberal to Murphy when in funds, and Murphy stood 
 by him now. About nine o clock, therefore, the previous evening, he 
 noticed that Riggs was greatly excited when an old darky came sham 
 bling in and gave him a little note. The negro had occasionally come 
 before, and did not seem to belong either in town or at the Walton 
 place. Riggs stole out to the road, despite Murphy s warning, and 
 came back in less than ten minutes, bidding Murphy in eager whisper 
 to be quick and come with him. It was evident even then that Riggs 
 had had a drink or two. Murphy reminded him of the lieutenant s 
 orders and begged him to run no risk ; and then Riggs broke out and 
 told him that, come what might, he d simply got to go to town, and 
 Murphy with him. He would explain when they got out of camp, 
 but there wasn t a minute to lose; and Murphy went along, "just to 
 keep him out of trouble." Out in the darkness a stranger joined them, 
 gave Riggs some low-toned orders, but refused to let him have another 
 drink. They were stealing along the road together, trying to dodge 
 the flickering firelight, when it suddenly flared up and must have 
 betrayed them, for a moment later they heard Burns shouting after 
 them. Then the stranger " lept the fince" into the Walton place ; 
 Riggs darted away and ran like a streak : so he followed Riggs. 
 
 When at safe distance from camp Riggs slowed up and told what 
 he had agreed to do. At Cohen s store was a box containing some 
 expensive wine and cordials which had been prescribed for Mrs. Wal 
 ton two weeks before by their old family physician and ordered sent 
 from New Orleans. It was one of the sad cases common in the South 
 in those hard times. Miss Walton, who wrote the order without her 
 mother s knowledge, had no money to send, and the firm had none to 
 lose. She explained that the wine was needed at once, and the money 
 would be at hand in the course of ten days. The wine was sent, care 
 of Cohen & Co., with instructions to collect first ; and not until this 
 night had there been money enough to pay for it. Now " a gentle 
 man," whom Riggs knew well, had brought them help ; but he him 
 self could not go to Tugaloo because of certain past events with which 
 he was intimately connected, and none of the Walton servants dared 
 go, because of the tremendous stories in circulation concerning the
 
 64 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 events of the day. The gentleman had come a long distance at big 
 risk to see the lady, Riggs declared, and must get away that night. 
 
 In this dilemma Riggs was called on for help. His chivalric 
 nature was aroused presumably ; or possibly " the tiger had tasted 
 blood" and needed more. Riggs had got the gentleman s last drink, 
 and the money for more was now in his hands. But the gentleman 
 had stipulated that a reliable man must go with him to fetch the 
 precious packet in case Riggs " got full ;" and Murphy was the man. 
 " We got the box, sorr, an Riggs his bottle of liquor, an come back 
 all right, an we stole in there as we were bid, an raised the cellar 
 door, an I carried down the box to the fut of thim slippery steps me- 
 self, for Riggs was gettin noisy-like. An thin we stole away, niver 
 disturbin anybody, sorr, only doin the poor leddy a kindness, as we 
 were towld. We didn t see or hear annybody. It was afther it all 
 the throuble came." 
 
 There was pathos in Murphy s description of the "throuble." 
 Their task accomplished, Murphy sought to get Riggs to his tent, but 
 the man had drunk just enough to be rabid for more, and in the 
 struggle the bottle fell with the gill or two remaining and was smashed. 
 This was indeed a catastrophe. Riggs had that fearful craze for alcohol 
 which is satiated only when the victim lapses into drunken stupor. 
 Murphy got him to the tent and to bed, and thought he had him safe, 
 but awoke later to find him gone, gone for more liquor ; but where ? 
 None was to be had in camp, unless he broke into the captain s medi 
 cal stores, which, Murphy argued, he wouldn t dare attempt with the 
 lieutenant lying there alongside. All of a sudden it flashed over him 
 that his wretched " bunky," after having faithfully acquitted himself 
 of his trust before the fatal whiskey-logging of his moral sense, had 
 now stolen off in the darkness to rob the very household for whose 
 sake, or that of the bribing liquor, he had braved punishment. Riggs 
 had gone back for that wine. 
 
 The Irish soldier has his faults, God knows, but desertion of his 
 fellow, even in face of torture, is not one of them. Murphy stole 
 away, hoping it was not too late to recapture Riggs, and came upon 
 him, just as he feared, tugging at something at the foot of those dark 
 and slippery steps. Then came a struggle that, after at last he had 
 borne his fiercely battling comrade up into the night, left Murphy 
 breathless and exhausted. And then came the rain of blows that 
 toppled him, crashing, into the ruin of the hot-bed.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 65 
 
 "She came upon me that sudden and furious-like, sorr, I couldn t 
 explain ; an it was tryin to pacificate her I was, backin off, an niver 
 see the hot-bed behind me fur the hot batin I was gettin afront. An 
 thin whin she had me down on the flat of me back, an graspin at 
 thim glass works, poor Riggs, niver knowin what he was doin , sorr, 
 only to help me, grappled with the ould lady for the purpose of ex- 
 postulatiu , an thin that naygur wench run screech in into the house, 
 an the young lady came shriekin to the windy, an the stranger the 
 gentleman lept to the side door, an I a-callin to him to come an 
 square me an Riggs, whom he got into the scrape, an there was 
 more screanrin , an he niver so much as axed to shpake, but run fur 
 his life when the lieutenant jumped in an batthered Riggs, who was 
 only askin a chance to explain." 
 
 " Do you expect me to believe that any gentleman stood there and 
 saw Riggs grapple that poor lady and never raised hand to stop it?" 
 asked Lambert, almost angrily. 
 
 " It s God s thruth, sorr. He was makin motions, crazy-like, 
 but he niver came outside that door-way until he saw the lieutenant, 
 an then the lamp wint out, wid him a-runnin ." 
 
 The lieutenant pondered a moment. Had Sergeant Burns ventured 
 on an expression of doubt, the interview would have come to an end 
 at once, with Murphy in disgrace ; but Burns looked full of honest 
 perplexity and yet belief. 
 
 " You ought to have had sense enough to know I should be glad 
 to send to town for anything Mrs. Walton needed," said Lambert. 
 " Why didn t Riggs ask permission ? or why didn t you ?" 
 
 Murphy was certainly frank. "Sure we both knew it would be 
 anybody but Riggs the lieutenant would send. We were guilty enough 
 of going to town without permission, an drinkin ; but it was charity, 
 not thavin , sorr, that we entered the garden for." 
 
 " You may send Murphy back, sergeant. We ll have to hold him 
 until Riggs can tell his story. Of course," said Lambert, as the Irish 
 man was led away, " if there s anything in this story about the stranger, 
 it helps their case materially. There was certainly something queer 
 about the agitated words Mrs. Walton used just before we came away, 
 words about their testimony and preventing court-martial. You 
 heard, did you not?" 
 
 " Yes, sir, a little, anyhow." 
 
 6*
 
 66 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 "Can you imagine who the man is, or account for his strange 
 behavior ?" 
 
 " I can t, sir. It might have been one of those three or four that 
 Mr. Parmelee hauled in, one of the Potts crowd ; but the idea of his 
 standing back and letting the old lady have that tussle all to herself! 
 
 That couldn t happen, sir, North or South, unless " And Burns 
 
 stopped short. 
 
 "Unless what?" 
 
 " Well, sir, unless there were reasons he daren t let her know he 
 was there." 
 
 X. 
 
 At noon that Sunday it began to rain, adding to the gloom of Lam 
 bert s surroundings, and he sat listening to the steady downpour drum 
 ming on the tautened canvas of his tent, thinking of the odd contrasts 
 brought about by army life. This was his first Sunday with his com 
 pany, and in every possible way it was about as unlike every Sunday 
 of his previous life as it well could be. He was trying to write to 
 the mother far away on the peaceful banks of the Merrimac, where the 
 rolling hills were by this time wearing their early mantle of snow, and 
 old and young, farm-hands and mill-hands, a reverent populace, had 
 obeyed the summons of the solemn bells that found no echo among 
 these dripping woods, these desolate fields. 
 
 At intervals during the moist and chilly morning little squads of 
 negroes had hung about the westward end of camp. Something of the 
 events of the previous night had been put in circulation with the dawn, 
 and, growing as it rolled, had attained huge proportions by the time 
 it reached the outlying plantations five and ten miles away. This, 
 coupled with the tremendous story of the jail delivery at Tugaloo, had 
 been sufficient to draw the bolder of their number towards that centre 
 of interest, the Yankee camp, though farther they dared not go. At 
 times there would be some rude soldier chaff between the men at the 
 guard-tent and these curious visitors ; and no matter how poor the wit, 
 it never failed of its reward of abundant guffaw. The Southern negro 
 needs no visit to the Blarney stone : his flattery is spontaneous. 
 
 When Lambert had finished his conference with Burns, and, as in 
 duty bound, went over to the Walton place to inquire how its chdte- 
 laine had passed the night, he marched forth through a little congrega-
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 67 
 
 tion of shining black faces and obsequious and tattered forms, and had 
 to run the gauntlet of a chorus of personal remarks, all in high degree 
 complimentary, as to the style and fit of his uniform, as well as his 
 general appearance. In less than five minutes he returned, but with 
 such chagrin at heart that it must have been reflected in his youthful 
 face. Serene in the consciousness that he was doing a perfectly con 
 ventional and proper thing, he had bounded lightly up the broad 
 wooden steps and knocked at the door. It was opened almost instantly 
 by the colored girl whom he had seen the night before and heard apos 
 trophized as " You Elinor." The eager expression in her eyes gave 
 way at once to something of disappointment and certainly of doubt. 
 
 " I thought I thought it was Mars r Potts, suh," she stammered. 
 " I I don t reckon the ladies can see you." 
 
 " Will you say to Miss Walton that Mr. Lambert Lieutenant 
 Lambert, if you choose has called to inquire how Mrs. Walton is 
 to-day, and that, if possible, he would 6e glad to speak with Miss 
 Walton a moment?" 
 
 Elinor stood peering through about one foot of gap, the door she 
 had so promptly thrown wide open having been as promptly closed to 
 that limit. Lambert could not but hear other doors opening within, 
 could almost swear he heard the swish of feminine skirts, the whisper 
 of feminine voices, low and eager. The fact that the girl stood there, 
 barring the entrance and apparently afraid to go, added to his theory 
 that she was being prompted from behind. 
 
 " Ah dunno, suh. Ah ll see," she said at last, slow and irresolute. 
 " Whut, mum ?" she continued, involuntarily, an instant later, turning 
 her turbaned head towards some invisible presence in the hall beyond ; 
 and that settled the matter in Lambert s mind. 
 
 "Ye-assum," and slowly now the yellow-brown face returned to 
 light. " Mis Esther ain t very well, suh, an she says er rather 
 Mis Walton sends her compliments to the gentleman and begs he ll 
 scuse her. Dey don t need nuffin ," she continued, in her own inter 
 pretation of messages telegraphed from the dark interior. " Ye-assum. 
 Mis Walton rested very well, considering an s all right to-day, but 
 she don t want nuffin , suh." 
 
 " I had hoped to be able to see Mrs. Walton, if she were well 
 enough, or else Miss Walton," said Lambert, firmly, intending that his 
 words should be their own interpreter at the court within. " There are 
 matters of importance on which I desired to speak."
 
 68 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 Again Elinor, mute and irresolute, turned to her unseen mentor. 
 There was evidently a moment of conference. Then the girl was 
 suddenly swept aside, the door was thrown wide open, and there, while 
 other and younger forms seemed to scurry away from both sight and 
 hearing, there with a gray shawl thrown over her shoulders, calm 
 and dignified, her silvery hair fluttering about her temples, and the 
 lines of care seeming even deeper in the sad, clear-cut face, stood Mrs. 
 Walton, leaning on the stout cane which had dealt such trenchant 
 blows the night before. With a voice that trembled just a trifle 
 despite her effort at control, she slowly spoke : 
 
 " You mean to be courteous, sir, in your inquiry, and for this I beg 
 to thank you, to renew my thanks for your prompt service of last 
 night. But now may I say, once for all, that we need, and can 
 accept, no further assistance, and, if you are sincere in your desire to 
 be courteous, you will not again seek to enter my door?" 
 
 Lambert flushed to his very brows. 
 
 " It is a more important matter than you have perhaps thought, 
 Mrs. Walton, that has made me ask to see you. One of the men who 
 broke in here last night " 
 
 " I know what you would say," she promptly, firmly interposed, 
 again uplifting, with that almost imperious gesture, the fragile white 
 hand. "I am framing a letter to be delivered to your commander 
 upon his return to-night upon his return," she quickly corrected her 
 self. " It will cover the case so far as we are concerned. Meantime I 
 beg to be excused from further allusion to it." And the stately incli 
 nation with which she accompanied the words was unquestionably a 
 dismissal. 
 
 Lambert stood speechless one instant. Then, simply raising his 
 forage-cap, he whirled about, and left. 
 
 The boy was thinking of his own mother when he tripped so lightly 
 up that worn old gravel path on his way to inquire how he could be of 
 service to one whose dignity and sorrow and suffering had so impressed 
 him. He had donned his best uniform for the mission, and little 
 dreamed how in so doing he had rendered himself much the more 
 persona non grata. He, who could not war upon women and children 
 under any circumstances, had not begun to learn how bitterly the 
 recent war had borne upon the women of the South, or how, even so 
 long after, they suffered from its effects. He had gone to offer the aid 
 and protection of a loyal heart and a strong arm, and had not realized
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 69 
 
 that it was the very last succor a Walton would seek, so long as both 
 heart and arm were draped by the Union blue. 
 
 Not ten minutes after his return, discomfited and dismayed, there 
 rode up the muddy, red bridle-path for it was little more a broad- 
 faced young fellow who was attired in the clumsiest of "store clothing" 
 and whose lean and long-necked steed looked dejection itself as his 
 vigorous rider dismounted, slung the reins over the gate-post, and, 
 after one sharp and warning survey of the silent negroes still hovering 
 about, swung cheerily up the walk. To him the old doors opened 
 wide without a summons, and eager hands were thrust forth in wel 
 come. 
 
 Lambert, hearing the first heavy drops come thumping on his can 
 vas roof, thought it was the rain that so quickly thinned the group of 
 darkies on the road. He could hear the mule-hoofs sputtering away 
 through the mud as the rain came quicker and faster, but not until 
 several hours later did further explanation dawn upon him. Then he 
 heard Burns and Watts in conversation at the first sergeant s tent. 
 
 "Did you see how the niggers kind o lit out when he came?" 
 asked Burns. " I haven t seen him round here since August. Reckon 
 he knows captain s away. He hates him like poison ever since cap 
 interfered in that row he had with Parmelee." 
 
 "Looks like a pleasant enough fellow. I d rather back him than 
 Parmelee any day, s far as looks go. What s he doing here?" 
 
 " He s some kin to the old lady, they re all related hereabouts, 
 and she s sent for him to come, probably, after last night s row." 
 
 u But they re talking all over the company about Murphy s yarn, 
 about there being some relative there some man last night. You 
 heard it when he talked to the lieutenant." 
 
 " Oh, yes," answered Burns, evasively, " I heard what he had to 
 say, but Riggs shut him up short as soon as he was sober enough to 
 know what Murphy was saying. Wait till Riggs tells his side of the 
 story to the lieutenant. Then perhaps we ll know what brought Mr. 
 Barton Potts over here." 
 
 Lambert was up and at the door of his tent in a minute. " Did 
 you say that Mr. Barton Potts was at the Walton place now, ser 
 geant?" 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered Burns, whirling about in the mud and 
 promptly saluting. 
 
 " Then have some man let me know when he comes out. I wish
 
 70 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 to speak to him. And if Riggs is sober enough now, send him here." 
 
 Presently, looking moist, blear-eyed, and dejected, the ex-trooper 
 and sergeant was marched up through the pattering rain, and, with the 
 big drops trickling down from the visor of his old war-pattern forage 
 cap, stood sullenly at the tent of his young commander. The guard 
 ing sentry, after the fashion prevailing among some of the regular 
 infantry at the time, allowed his rifle to topple forward from the 
 " carry" into the grasp of the left hand, a footer so in front of the right 
 breast, and with this well-intended effort at the " rifle salute" of the 
 60 s, Private Mulligan reported, 
 
 " Prisoner Riggs, sorr ; to spake to the lieutenant." 
 
 It was the first time Lambert had conducted an investigation of the 
 kind, and he had no precedents to guide him. 
 
 " Riggs," said he, " Murphy tells me your going to town last night 
 was at the instance of some relative of Mrs. Walton s, who asked you 
 to do them a service. Was that true ?" 
 
 " It was, sir." 
 
 " Then he will doubtless be glad to come forward and exonerate 
 you, or at least explain your conduct in the early evening. Your later 
 conduct only a court-martial can properly consider. Where is this 
 gentleman ?" 
 
 " I don t know, sir." 
 
 " What is his name?" 
 
 " I can t tell, sir." 
 
 " You know it, do you not ?" 
 
 " I suppose I do, sir, but 1 can t tell it." 
 
 " In the event of your trial he is the only man who can help you, 
 and the report I have to make of your misconduct is most serious. 
 Drunkenness only aggravates housebreaking and attempted robbery, as 
 well as assault." 
 
 " I broke no houses, sir, and attempted no robbery. As for assault, 
 the lady herself will say I meant no harm." 
 
 " But your own comrade admits he found you in the cellar entrance 
 at the foot of the steps, on premises you were forbidden to enter, to all 
 appearances stealing wine, and he was striving to get you away when 
 the noise brought Mrs. Walton upon you. The case is flagrant." 
 
 Riggs threw his hands forward in a despairing gesture, dropped 
 them again by his side, and stood silent.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 71 
 
 " Do you mean you have nothing to say for yourself? that you 
 cannot disprove the charges ?" 
 
 11 1 have plenty to say for myself, sir, but nobody to say anything 
 for me. The worst any one can ever prove of me is that I ve been a 
 drinking man. I m no thief; I m no burglar; and I d burn me hand 
 off before I d lay it to hurt a woman, old or young. I never knew 
 what I was doing, if I grabbed the lady by the throat. But I d be a 
 worse man than the lieutenant thinks me if I d do what he asks." 
 
 " This is nonsense, Riggs. What have I asked you to do that would 
 be either criminal or wrong?" 
 
 " To defend meself at the expense of a friend, sir," said Riggs, 
 with melodramatic gravity. " I ll never betray the man that s trusted 
 me." 
 
 " Take him back to the guard-tent, sentry," said Lambert, hardly 
 knowing whether to be amused or disgusted. " The man isn t sober 
 yet." 
 
 And then for the first time the young officer became aware of the 
 presence of a horseman at the side of his tent. With his hat-brim 
 pulled down over his eyes and the rain dripping from bit and boot and 
 bridle-rein, there sat his acquaintance of the owl train, Mr. Barton 
 Potts. 
 
 " One of your men said you wished to see me, lieutenant," said Mr. 
 Potts, with a courteous wave of his hand. " I was coming anyhow, but 
 rode round from the bahn yawnduh and came in long the branch. 
 Excuse me if I ve stumbled on something I wasn t expected to 
 hear." 
 
 " Certainly, Mr. Potts. Can you dismount and come in ? I much 
 want to talk with you." 
 
 " And I want to have a talk with you, lieutenant, ve y much, 
 and I m coming for the purpose, but not just now. There are some 
 matters I must tend to in town for my aunt, Mrs. Walton, at once. 
 But let me add my thanks to hers and much more than hers for 
 your prompt assistance last night. I know that man by sight. I ve 
 seen him around here befoh, and it s Gawd s mercy I wasn t there last 
 night. I d a shot him dead." 
 
 " You can be sure he shall not escape justice, Mr. Potts ; though 
 your aunt seems to refuse to see me with regard to the matter." 
 
 " I ll explain all that later, suh," said Potts, lowering his voice. 
 " I ve simply got to go at once. But I ll see you to-night ; and mean-
 
 72 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 time let me repeat what I said. You shan t lack for a friend round 
 heah, suh. You treated me like a gentleman when I was drunk and 
 possibly offensive, though I hope not, suh, and you ve behaved like 
 a gentleman to my people, and by and by they ll see it. Just you wait. 
 By the bye, you remember Colonel Scroggs ?" 
 
 " I don t think I do. Some of that name were among the pris 
 oners who escaped yesterday, I m told." 
 
 " Yes, suh. The same family, suh ; Colonel Scroggs s brothers. 
 I can t discuss them just now, but if the colonel should come here to 
 see you before Captain Close gets back, if you ll take my advice, you ll 
 listen to him. He wants to speak about that arrest, and square things ; 
 and well, I know a gentleman when I see one, just as I know a 
 rough like that soldier you were examining. The colonel was con 
 ductor of our train night before last. Now I ve got to ride like hell. 
 Good- day, suh." 
 
 And, pulling off his hat and sticking spurs to his mud-covered 
 steed, Mr. Potts galloped away along the Tugaloo road into the gather 
 ing darkness. 
 
 Soon after nightfall the rain ceased and the wind died away. For 
 the first time since he had turned in the night before, Lambert be 
 thought him of the lantern he had purposed buying, even if he had to 
 send to Cohen s on a Sunday. Burns sent some candles over from the 
 company stores, and the young German "striker" set two of them 
 alight in his tent, with empty whiskey-bottles off which he had defer 
 entially washed the labels as candlesticks. 
 
 One thought led to another. The proposed purchase reminded 
 Lambert that all the money in his possession was now the twenty-dollar 
 bill borrowed of Close, and this reminded him that he wanted five 
 dollars in small currency, " shinplasters," as the miniature green 
 backs were called at the time. Since hearing Murphy s story he better 
 understood the straits to which his neighbors were reduced, and he had 
 determined that the aid he had proffered in one way should, despite 
 Madam s high-spirited rejection, be pendered in another. 
 
 At eight o clock he had secured the amount he needed through 
 the good offices of the first sergeant, and he was wondering how 
 soon he might expect the visit of Colonel Scroggs and what could 
 be its purpose, when all of a sudden the chatter at the other end of 
 camp told him of the return of the detachment sent out the previous 
 night ; but it was Sergeant McBride, not his company commander, who 
 met him at the tent-door.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 73 
 
 "The captain s compliments, an he ll be back by an by, sir. He 
 stopped over to have it out with somebody that fooled him." 
 
 " Stopped over where, sergeant ? Not alone, I hope ?" 
 
 " No, sir ; the sheriff was along, an two others. They were talk 
 ing with Mr. Scroggs or Colonel Scroggs and a young fellow they 
 called Potts, who met us across the track on the Quitman road. The 
 captain said you wasn t to worry about him, but we didn t get the par 
 ties the sheriff was after, and the captain thinks he knows who threw 
 us off the scent." 
 
 Manifestly nothing was to be done but await the captain s return, 
 and nine o clock came without him. Lambert had determined to in 
 vestigate the butter market, however, and time was not hanging heavily 
 upon his hands by any means. Throwing a light-blue overcoat, such 
 as was worn by the rank and file, over his uniform, he sallied forth 
 just after nine o clock, made his way around the camp until he reached 
 the road, and followed it to the gap among the rose-bushes whence had 
 rolled the tin pail on the previous night. All was dark and still. 
 Setting the pail just within the hedge, he patiently waited. Presently 
 voices feminine voices became faintly audible. " Elinor" had evi 
 dently been pushed forward en reconnaissance, and, after her recent 
 nerve-racking experiences, didn t like the detail. 
 
 " I tell yo dey ain no one bout, Mis Katie. I done felt fur de 
 pail, an tain t day-h," was her protest. At this Lambert saw fit to 
 give a low whistle, at sound of which Elinor, with prodigious rustle of 
 skirts, bolted back towards the house, and her unseen companion, after 
 emphatic and scornful reference to " bawn cowuds," came hurriedly 
 forward, but paused at discreet distance. 
 
 "You re theh, ah you?" was the semi-assertive, semi-interrogative 
 remark in disdainful and truculent tone. " Ah hope you ve got that 
 money at last." 
 
 For all answer Lambert reached in and shook the pail. The com 
 bination of " shinplasters" and small coin within gave a reassuring 
 rattle. Eagerly the girl bounded to the hedge. He could just discern 
 the slender little form and the tumbled head of hair as she dropped the 
 enfolding shawl and stooped to take her prize, which the unprincipled 
 young man had by this time cautiously withdrawn. He could hear 
 her eager breathing and the patter of her hands among the rain-laden 
 branches. 
 
 "Whuh on earth" (who on earth can spell the word as a real 
 D 7
 
 74 CAPTAIN CLOSE 
 
 Southern girl says it ?) " did you hide that pail ? Ah ve no time fo 
 nawwsense." 
 
 Silence a moment. 
 
 " Look hyuh, Mr. Yankee! Ah m not accustomed to being made a 
 fool of, n Ah want that money. Ah ve had to wait too long already." 
 
 A sound as of something shaking in a tin vessel, but farther away, 
 towards a broader gap in the dark hedge. 
 
 " Ah m not going up thuh. Ah told you twice befoh. You bring 
 that pail back hyuh" (indignantly). " Ah don t believe you ve gawt 
 the money at all" (tentatively). " If you had, no gentleman would 
 keep me waiting when we need it so much." (Symptoms of vanishing 
 nerve, and again a tempting rattle.) " Ah can t go there" (pleadingly 
 now). " Please bring it hyuh, Mr. Riggs. Brothuh Floyd would be 
 fuyious if he knew" (pause) "an we had such awful trouble las night, 
 
 all on account of some of your rascally Oh ! whut s that new 
 
 lieutenant s name?" (Sudden change of theme and tone.) 
 
 " His name s Ike," was the response in a hoarse whisper across the 
 dripping rose-bushes. 
 
 " Ah don t believe a wuhd you say. Whut s his real name ?" 
 
 " Ask Mr. Potts if his name isn t Ike ; and come and get your 
 money." 
 
 " Ah don t have a chance to ask Mr. Potts anything. They don t 
 allow me in the pahlor when Mr. Bahton Potts comes. Ah m too much 
 of a child to be trusted with family secrets, it seems ; though Ah m 
 not too young to find out how much we need money. Whuh s that 
 pail?" suddenly coming down to business again. 
 
 Lambert gave it a shake, this time within reach of a little hand 
 that darted in among the bushes and firmly closed upon his own. 
 
 "You let go that pail !" was the imperious demand from within. 
 
 " I can t till you let go my hand," from without. 
 
 " Ah don t want your hand. Ah want " 
 
 " I didn t offer it, but, since you like it so much, here s the other." 
 And through the darkness another hand, with soft warm palm and long, 
 slender fingers, closed in upon the hot little paw straining and tugging 
 at the original occupant of the handle. Instantly, with indignant force, 
 the enfolded member was snatched away, and the stooping girl sprang 
 to her feet, wild-eyed and alarmed. 
 
 "Wh aA you?" she panted. "That s not Sergeant Riggs." A 
 window was suddenly raised back towards the house; the mournful
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 75 
 
 toot of a tin horn began. " Quick ! Ah ve got to go. Roll that 
 pail through. Why didn t Mr. Riggs come?" 
 
 " He s detained, on duty ; but it s all right. Where s the butter 
 milk?" 
 
 Through the trees behind the girl came Elinor at top speed : one 
 could hear the rustle rods away. " F Gawd s sake, Mis Katie, come 
 quick. Mis Walton s callin ." 
 
 But Kate was fumbling for something in her pocket and bending 
 forward to the hedge. The next instant, with brilliant flash, the glare 
 of a parlor match leaped out one second on the night and fell full on 
 a laughing, handsome young face peering in from under the visor of 
 an infantry forage-cap. One second only, and down went the match, 
 and with stifled cry away bounded the youngest daughter of the house 
 hold of Walton, even the precious pail forgotten. 
 
 Ten minutes later a horseman came galloping up the muddy road 
 and inquiring eagerly for the lieutenant. Lambert recognized him as 
 one of the deputies or assistants engaged in Saturday s affair at the 
 jail. He handed a folded paper to the young officer, and, in low, ex 
 cited tones, began some explanatory comments. 
 
 " Wait," said Lambert. " Let me read." 
 
 Tearing open the paper, by the dim light of Burns s lantern he 
 made out the following : 
 
 " LIEUTENANT LAMBERT : 
 
 " Post guard at once around Walton place, so as to prevent any 
 men from getting in or out. Take half the company if you need it. 
 I ll be there in half an hour. 
 
 H I^T OflTi* 
 
 "B vt. Capt. Com d g." 
 
 XL 
 
 At ten o clock that dark and gloomy Sunday night Mr. Lambert 
 stood in front of his tent, leaning on his sword and listening in silence 
 to the conference going on between his commander and the civil officers 
 of the law. Close had come home in high dudgeon, and was, as usual, 
 slow and cautious, but more than usually reluctant and suspicious. 
 Fuming over the failure of the mission on which he had started so
 
 76 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 confidently, believing himself " tricked by the enemy," and now offered 
 ample revenge and assured of success through the information tendered 
 him, he nevertheless faltered. Lambert, returning from the round of 
 his sentries, was taken unawares by the sudden question, 
 
 "This gentleman says the old lady knew just where we had gone 
 and just when we would get back. What do you think of it?" 
 
 " It s a matter I know nothing about, sir," was the answer, " ex 
 cept that she did say she was writing a letter to be given you on your 
 return this evening, and instantly corrected herself by saying on your 
 return." 
 
 " Yes. Here s the letter, by Jove, and it s a worse puzzle than 
 before. And here s the deputy marshal back with increased powers, 
 new orders, search-warrants, and God knows what all. I m willing 
 enough to back you in dealing with men, Mr. Parmelee," said the 
 captain, turning again to the eager civilian, "but the lieutenant has 
 had these sentries posted forty minutes and there hasn t been a sound. 
 I don t want any searching of a house that holds nothing but women, 
 because you think some of your jail-birds are there " 
 
 " I tell you, captain, there s no room for doubt. The negroes have 
 seen them. They told Mr. Jarvis, here, and told him the mules were 
 to be there before ten o clock to carry em off out of harm s way. 
 Your man Murphy admits he saw one last night, one of the Scroggses, 
 sure, by the description, and his brother is with him there, I ll bet a 
 hat." 
 
 " I don t believe it," sturdily answered Close. " Only last August 
 she turned Walton Scroggs away from her door with such a tongue- 
 lashing as / never heard ; an that s saying a good deal. She forbade 
 his ever setting foot within her gates again. I heard her; so did half 
 the men in this company." 
 
 " I know all about that. He has been in love with his cousin, the 
 elder of the Walton girls, as long as I can remember, and because of 
 his shiftless habits the old lady wouldn t listen to it. Then they took 
 to meeting by stealth, and she found it out. She discharged old Rasmus 
 for no other reason than that he carried letters for them. I ve tried to 
 bribe him twice to tell where Wai Scroggs was hiding, but the old 
 nigger s a dam fool, with a starving wife, too. They tell me he was 
 seen round here a day or two since, asking for Riggs, and he s been 
 carrying letters again. The old lady wouldn t have him there before, 
 perhaps, but she would shelter him now, when the government demands
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 77 
 
 his surrender. But, even if she wouldn t, Esther "Walton would. I 
 tell you they re there, captain, and they ll be off and out of our reach 
 this night if you fail to take them now." 
 
 Close was pulling on a soldier s overcoat at the moment, and stopped 
 to listen to some sound down the dark recesses of the " bottom" along 
 the winding stream. 
 
 " It s the mules now !" began Parmelee, excitedly, but Close held 
 up a warning hand. 
 
 " If it is, my men will nab em, that s all. Now you ve been the 
 means of my takin the men on more n one long wild-goose chase afoot 
 that telegram of yours was enough to give the whole scheme away 
 and of my bein invited to be dam fool enough to fight two duels this 
 afternoon. Both Colonel Scroggs and Mr. Barton Potts, by thunder, 
 want me to go out and be shot because I preferred to satisfy myself 
 Mr. Wai Scroggs wasn t in the old Gibson place, stead of takin 
 their word of honor for it. There s a sick lady there who was scared 
 of Yankee uniforms ; but I d rather search all Tugaloo and Quitman 
 and hell together than rout out old Mis Walton to-night. They can t 
 get out past my sentries. They re sure to be nabbed if they try. 
 Let em try, I say. It s the easiest way to settle the whole business. 
 Then they can be arrested without disturbin anybody in the house." 
 
 But Parmelee was dissatisfied. He had been chaffed, jeered at, 
 maddened over the escape of his prisoners. Two of them the worst 
 of the lot, so far as he could judge were here now, within his grasp, 
 if he could but persuade Close to act. He had still a card to play, 
 and it was a trump lead : 
 
 " I did send you a telegram steering you to Gibson s, and I did it 
 because the marshal himself so directed ; for it was he who was sure 
 that was where they had taken refuge. Scroggs and his precious kins 
 man, Potts, probably got warning in time to send their two refugees 
 away, and now they ve had the cheek to hide them here, right under 
 your nose. Talk about the record you ve made as a preserver of the 
 peace down here : how ll it read all over the North that, after being 
 released from jail in the presence of Captain Close s company, the 
 worst of the gang men under indictment for murderous assault on 
 United States officers in discharge of their duties came and took up 
 their residence across the road from Captain Close s camp and dared 
 him to take them ? That s the way it will read, by God, if you don t 
 act to-night." 
 
 7*
 
 78 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 For a moment Close simply stared at the man. Parrnelee was no 
 fighter, man to man, steel to steel ; that the war veteran knew well ; 
 but the Yankee school-master of the ante bellum days had learned to 
 use his wits and tongue. He could argue, if he couldn t face a bullet. 
 The stalwart soldier who, single-handed, had captured a squad of as 
 tonished trench-defenders before Vicksburg and had faced the blazing 
 battle-line with dauntless front a score of times, looked helplessly a 
 moment into the face of this keen fencer, then turned appealingly to 
 the young West Pointer, as though to ask, " Isn t there something in 
 your education to answer this?" But Lambert was silent. From 
 first to last the lesson taught him at the National Academy was sub 
 ordination of the military to the civil authority. 
 
 " Well, go ahead. You re boss, I s pose. I can only follow. What 
 d you want me to do ?" said Close. 
 
 " I want you to search that house and get those men," was Parme- 
 lee s answer. 
 
 And then there was another moment of oppressive silence ; then 
 sudden start and alarm. 
 
 Down the Tugaloo road to the south, at the farthest corner of 
 the fence which surrounded the Walton place, there was a pathway 
 leading through the brush to the level " bottom" below. Somewhere 
 in this direction, but beyond the corner, only a few seconds before, had 
 been heard a sound like that of a bray nipped suddenly in the bud, 
 of a mule s essay at vocalism checked summarily with a club. At this 
 point where road and pathway came together Lambert had posted Pri 
 vate Green, a reliable soldier of many years experience, and when 
 Green challenged there was reason for it. Low and stern his voice 
 was heard distinctly at the listening camp, "Who comes there?" 
 followed almost immediately by the sharp order, " Halt ! Halt, or I 
 fire." 
 
 Waiting for no order, Lambert was off like a dart, Burns follow 
 ing with a lantern. Again came the cry " Halt !" but the promised 
 shot was not heard. Even when running at speed past the gate of the 
 Walton place, the young officer could not resist a quick glance at the 
 dark fapade of the old homestead. Already a light was dancing along 
 the portico, another gleaming at an upper window. 
 
 " What s the matter, sentry?" he panted, as he came upon the dark 
 figure at the turn of the road. Green, with his rifle at "ready," was 
 [leering into the gap in the tangle of shrubbery.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 79 
 
 " Some one was coming up there, sir, and ran the instant I chal 
 lenged. I ought to have let him get up to me and then halted him, 
 but I had regulations instead of sense in my head," said Green, a New- 
 Englander with a propensity for talk. " He s out o harm s way " 
 
 But Lambert waited to hear no more. With Burns at his heels he 
 sprang down the dim pathway, and had not gone thirty yards before 
 he came upon some struggling objects crashing into the brush towards 
 the stream. " Halt !" he shouted, and, while something halted, other 
 somethings, with muttered oaths, went plunging on. He heard a 
 splash, hoofs clattering over gravel, the lashing of a whip, and then all 
 was still across the dark open space through which flowed the sluggish 
 "branch." But here among the bushes were two wondering quadru 
 peds, one a mule with broken bridle-rein, the other, as Burns s lantern 
 speedily showed, a Cherokee pony, both saddled. A corporal came 
 running to join them, and in a moment the beasts were led back to the 
 road-way, where Close and Parmelee by this time stood ready to receive 
 them. One glance was all the latter needed. 
 
 "What did I tell you, captain?" said he, in triumph. "That is 
 Wai Scroggs s own pony, and the master s hiding there at the Walton 
 place." 
 
 Ten minutes more, and a strange, solemn scene was being enacted 
 at the head of the steps leading up to that broad, vine-covered old 
 porch, whose dingy white columns loomed dim and ghostly in the glare 
 of lantern and candle. The door was thrown wide open, and on the 
 worn coping-stone, calm, dignified, erect, even though leaning heavily 
 upon her cane, a lighted candle held high over the shimmering gray 
 of her well-poised head, her stately, slender form garbed in some dark 
 clinging robe, stood the mistress of the house, the clear-cut, pallid face 
 standing forth against the black background of the hall-way like some 
 exquisite cameo, the thin, sensitive lips quivering just a trifle at the 
 drooping corners of her firmly-set, almost colorless mouth. In front 
 of her, his brown head bared, his burly form nearly concealed in his 
 light-blue overcoat, an almost pleading look in his soft brown eyes, 
 was Close, the hero of a score of battles. On his right, folded and 
 formidable-looking documents extended in an unsteady hand, also with 
 uncovered head, stood Parmelee, representing the majesty of the law. 
 To the left of the commander and a pace retired, buttoned to the throat 
 in the uniform of his rank and girt with sash and belt, stood young 
 Lambert, obedient to orders. Behind them, and almost at the top
 
 80 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 of the steps, armed and equipped, a sergeant and two soldiers of the 
 guard. Back, farther down the steps, still others were grouped, the 
 fixed bayonets gleaming in the light of the two lamps, one held by the 
 amazed woman at the threshold; the other swinging from the gloved 
 hand of the sergeant of the guard. 
 
 " What you say, sir, is absurd, impossible. At no time, under no 
 circumstances," Mrs. Walton was saying, " could the gentleman you 
 name be secreted in that room." 
 
 " Madam," replied Close, his deep voice trembling, " nobody can 
 feel more sorry about this than I do. I d rather go through the whole 
 war over again than be here on such an errand to-night, but a soldier 
 must obey his orders. I saw him, madam, at that window. These 
 gentlemen saw " 
 
 "Gentlemen! Gentlemen, sir, never could connive at such an out 
 rage. That is my daughter s room, Miss Esther Walton s." 
 
 Dead silence for a moment, solemn and impressive indeed, for Close 
 turned helplessly to the supporter on his right, unable to face such 
 majesty of confidence and conviction, unable to say the words that 
 could sound only like insult intensified. It was Parmelee whose sense 
 of duty rose superior to exalted sentiment. 
 
 " Madam," he began, stepping forward, " these papers are full 
 warrant for my action. I know two men to be secreted here. I, too, 
 saw one at that window, and the law must take its course." 
 
 " Stop !" she cried. " I have said that was my daughter s room. 
 One of your party, at least, has the appearance of a gentleman. Lieu 
 tenant Lambert, is it possible that you that any graduate of West 
 Point can stand here and permit such outrage as this ? Would you 
 allow your sister s room to be searched for oh, my God ! nothing we 
 have had to bear was comparable to this. I give you my word of 
 honor no such man is, or has been " 
 
 But she got no further. Out from the dark hall-way, with bound 
 ing step, tall, slender, and athletic, sprang a young fellow with the 
 warning cry, " Mother ! not another word." 
 
 She strove to check him as he pushed his impetuous way past her. 
 With a wail of anguish unspeakable she threw aside her cane and 
 seized him by the arm. Down went the candle sputtering to the floor. 
 "Floyd Floyd! Oh, my boy, what have you done?" she moaned, 
 and bowed her gray head upon the broad young shoulder. 
 
 And then, with just a touch of the melodramatic in his bearing, the
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 81 
 
 youth folded his arras and stood erect before the astonished group of 
 officials. 
 
 " I reckon, gentlemen, I m the man you want." 
 
 Close looked at him in bewilderment, then turned to Parmelee, 
 whose face, whether through fear or excitement, was twitching ner 
 vously, and who stood staring blankly at the stranger. From the hall 
 way came creeping hurriedly forth a girlish form, misery in the stream 
 ing eyes and dishevelled hair, and Katherine Walton threw herself upon 
 her brother s arm, sobbing convulsively. " Hush, Kate," he whis 
 pered, in almost stern reproach. " Hush, child. Go back to your 
 room ;" and though now he enfolded his mother in the embrace of his 
 left arm, he strove to free the right. But Katherine would not go. 
 
 And still, though here apparently was the sought-for prisoner, no 
 man stepped forward to claim him. Officers and men, the nocturnal 
 visitors looked blankly at one another, at the stricken group upon the 
 threshold, and were silent. Then with sudden gesture, as though he 
 could no longer bear the strain, the young man broke loose from Kath- 
 erine s clinging arms, and, gently unclasping his mother s hands, once 
 again addressed himself to Close : 
 
 " I say, suh, I reckon you ve come for me. I m ready to go with 
 you at once." 
 
 And then, with wonder and relief in their faces, with sudden check 
 to sobs and tears, mother and sister lifted up their heads and stared at 
 the embarrassed officer. Lambert gave vent to an audible gasp of 
 delight, for Close, turning slowly upon the silent and astonished deputy, 
 and with a world of suppressed wrath in his deep tones, growled 
 forth, 
 
 " You ve got no warrant for this gentleman. I never saw him 
 before in my life, and never heard of him as being mixed up in any 
 trouble. This is young Mr. Walton, isn t it?" he suddenly inquired 
 of the stranger, over whose pale face a look of bewilderment was creep 
 ing, and who for a moment seemed unable to reply. It was Madam 
 Walton who, with quivering, ashen lips and with hope, fear, yearning, 
 anguish in her eyes, found voice to say, 
 
 " This is my youngest son, suh, Floyd Walton." 
 
 "You say," she continued tremulously, "you have no warrant no 
 cause for his arrest. Then in God s name go, and leave us in peace. 
 I am not well ; and, on my word of honor, no other man is hidden " 
 
 " Mother! Hush!" 
 D*
 
 82 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 A door hastily opened within, the door leading to the room to the 
 left of the entrance, the room at whose window Close and Parmelee 
 could swear they saw the dim figure of a man peering forth as they 
 entered the gate. A heavy footfall resounded through the hall. A light 
 streamed forth from the opened room, and a woman s wailing, shud 
 dering cry followed the tall powerful form that came striding to the 
 front. With utter horror in her eyes, Mrs. Walton staggered, would 
 have fallen, but for the clasping arm of her son, upon whose breast she 
 now leaned, panting for breath and glaring at the new-comer, to whose 
 side now sprang Esther, her long black hair streaming down the white 
 wrapper in which her tall figure was enveloped, Esther, who strove 
 to drag the stranger back from before her mother s eyes. 
 
 " You here ? You f" was Mrs. Walton s gasping cry. " And in 
 that room ?" 
 
 " Mother !" wailed the elder daughter, throwing herself upon her 
 knees before the fainting form, " mother, listen. Oh, make her hear 
 me, Floyd ! Mother, I am Walton s wife." 
 
 But the words fell on senseless ears. The lady of Walton Hall 
 slipped swooning, till they caught and bore her within the open door 
 way. 
 
 " Well," said Close, a moment later, " what do you want done with 
 your man, Walton Scroggs? One s enough for this night, I suppose." 
 
 " One s enough for me, as things have turned out. Now what are 
 you going to do with the other?" 
 
 " Leave him here, with his mother, where he ought to be, of course. 
 You ve got no cause to arrest him." 
 
 " But you have, anyhow." 
 
 " I! What, I d like to know ?" 
 
 " Because he is a deserter from the United States Army." 
 
 XII. 
 
 The Christmas holidays were coming on at Walton Hall, where, 
 sore stricken, its mistress lay hovering between life and death. Two 
 weeks had passed since the eventful night of the arrests, and, though no 
 change had come over the landscape, and days of sunshine were few 
 and far between, some odd alterations had taken place in and around 
 the old homestead. Of these the most remarkable was the appearance
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 83 
 
 three times a day of a young officer in Yankee uniform at the family 
 board, a young officer who often prolonged his visit until late in the 
 evening. Mr. Isaac Newton Lambert, though occupying his tent in 
 camp, had become otherwise an inmate of the Walton establishment, 
 for, unknown to the beloved invalid, her daughters were actually 
 " taking boarders." 
 
 Another boarder, who had come and moved a modest bachelor kit 
 into one of the up-stairs rooms facing the east and overlooking the 
 little camp, was Mr. Barton Potts, better known to all the inmates as 
 "Cousin Bart." Indeed, it was due in great measure to his advice and 
 influence that Mr. Lambert was admitted. Impoverished as were the 
 Waltons, in dire need, as it turned out, now that the resolute woman 
 who so many years had managed the family affairs was stricken down, 
 nothing but prompt action and the helping hands of kinsfolk and 
 friends stood between them and starvation. Squire Potts " Old Man 
 Potts," as he was generally called had urged on Mrs. Walton in 
 November the propriety of her abandoning the place entirely and 
 taking shelter for herself and her daughters under his roof. Even 
 though in desperate need, she had declined, for one reason, because that 
 would bring Esther and Walton Scroggs together again ; for another, 
 because she could not bear to think of the old home becoming the 
 abiding-place of all the houseless, shiftless negroes in the neighborhood. 
 She had offered the house, garden, and cotton-fields still remaining in 
 her hands to any purchaser at almost any price ; but who was there to 
 invest in such unprofitable estate at such a time? 
 
 In the midst of these cares and troubles, which she could share with 
 her daughters, were others which she could not. She durst not let them 
 know on how slender a thread her life depended. That was one secret, 
 held as yet by their old family physician and herself alone, because the 
 knowledge of it would bring such grief to " the girls." There was 
 another, which she prayed they might never know, because its very 
 existence brought such grief and shame to her : Floyd, her youngest 
 son, her darling, who had fought so bravely by his brother s side through 
 the hottest battles of the war, had " abjured the faith of his fathers," 
 as she bitterly expressed it, had become intimate with the Federal offi 
 cers and soldiers, instead of sticking closely to reading law in the office 
 of her old friend Judge Summers at Quitman. And then, worse than 
 all, she learned through his own desperate letter that he had enlisted iu 
 the cavalry. That within a week thereafter, repenting of his u mad
 
 84 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 folly/ he should have deserted the service and fled the country, was in 
 the poor stricken woman s eyes no crime whatever. That he should 
 have enlisted, sworn to defend the flag which was to her the emblem 
 of insolent triumph over the fallen fortunes of the land she loved, the 
 only land she ever knew, the once happy, sunny South, that was 
 infamy. 
 
 Not until weeks after her boy had taken the step that made him a 
 fugitive from justice did she learn, or begin to imagine, the chain of 
 circumstances that led to it all. While occupying a desk in the office 
 of Summers and Todd, Attorneys and Counsellors-at-Law, Floyd also 
 occupied a seat at the table of a widowed relative who, left penniless 
 at the close of the war. had to struggle hard to keep body and soul 
 together. The efforts of Judge Summers had been sufficient to save 
 the house in which she dwelt, and " taking boarders" became her 
 vocation. But paying boarders were scarce, and even when her table 
 was crowded with homeless people her pockets were often empty. 
 When Sweet s squadron of the th U. S. Cavalry marched into 
 town and took station there, the application of some of the officers for 
 "rations and quarters" under her roof was coldly declined. They 
 went to the hotel, and suffered, as they deserved, the pangs of indiges 
 tion. Later it transpired that two of them went to church, and this 
 put an unlooked-for factor into the problem of how to treat these con 
 quering but unpopular heroes. The Reverend Mr. Pickett, of St. 
 Paul s, might condone his parishioners refusal to supply them with 
 bodily food, but it was impossible to refuse to minister to their spiritual 
 necessities. Their religious faith was identical with that of his flock ; 
 it was in political faith that they differed. One might decline to sit at 
 meat with them, but could hardly decline to sit with them at worship. 
 They could be forbidden to eat with the elect, but the elect would not 
 forbid them to pray. Even in the sanctuary, however, only hostile or 
 averted looks were vouchsafed to Colonel Sweet and Captain Vinton 
 when first they sought its doors ; but in the course of a few months the 
 women found that their soldiers their husbands, brothers, or lovers, 
 whom the war had spared were actually fraternizing with the Yankee 
 invaders, and that between those who had done hard and honest fighting 
 on either side there was springing up firm and honest friendship. The 
 irreconcilables were limited, apparently, to the non-combatants. When 
 the squadron was ordered elsewhere after a six months sojourn at Quit- 
 man, the populace was astonished to find how much the troopers were
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 85 
 
 missed and really needed ; for even Yankee custom had been accept 
 able in the stores and Yankee contributions welcome in the church. 
 Business had brought Colonel Sweet to Summers s office, and in the 
 course of frequent visits cordial relations were established, and Floyd 
 Walton could hardly treat with disdain a soldier and gentleman 
 whom his patrons welcomed, even had he long retained the disposition 
 to do so. 
 
 The command had not been gone a week before men were unac 
 countably wishing it back, and when it reappeared, with certain addi 
 tions, it was actually welcomed by people who would have scouted the 
 possibility of such a thing the year before. This time Colonel Sweet 
 announced to the rector that his wife and daughter would speedily follow, 
 and were even then in New Orleans, awaiting his instructions to come. 
 The hotel was no place for ladies in those rough days : the rector went 
 to Mrs. Tower, and Mrs. Tower no longer resisted the inevitable. Floyd 
 Walton, going to tea one hot June evening, was astonished to find 
 himself in the presence of two ladies, one of them a pretty girl of 
 perhaps eighteen, and to be presented to Mrs. and Miss Sweet. Within 
 a week the young fellow was spending his evenings at the Towers , 
 and within the month was hopelessly in love. Then came trouble. 
 He hadn t a cent in the world. She was a soldier s daughter, and 
 presumably poor. Whether she was poor or not, he, at least, had 
 nothing to offer, and, having nothing, held his tongue, though he could 
 not hold his peace. That was gone. 
 
 That was a wretched summer and autumn. The fever raged along 
 the Gulf, and cholera swooped upon the garrison. Sweet got his 
 wife and child away to the mountains. They left suddenly, while 
 Floyd was on a brief visit to his mother and sisters. It was December 
 when they came back. Meantime, Judge Summers had abandoned 
 practice and gone to live at his old home at Sandbrook. Mr. Todd 
 could offer young Walton no help ; there was no money in law busi 
 ness just then. Matters at Tugaloo were going from bad to worse, 
 and Walton found himself absolutely without money to pay his board. 
 That made no difference to Mrs. Tower. She told him his mother s 
 boy was as welcome as her own, and made him welcome where fascina 
 tion all too strong already held him. Something in Jennie Sweet s 
 gentle manner had changed. She was nervous, ill at ease, and sought 
 to avoid him. Something in her mother s manner, too, was very differ 
 ent. And one day the truth came out. The frequency with which
 
 86 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 letters began chasing one another from the North explained the whole 
 thing. Jenny had met her fate that fatal summer among the Virginia 
 mountains, and was engaged to be married. Mrs. Sweet referred to 
 the happy man as "a wealthy gentleman from Philadelphia, a few 
 years older than Genevieve, but a most charming person." Genevieve 
 herself said little or nothing, but looked none too radiant. Colonel 
 Sweet said less, but looked much at her. 
 
 Then Floyd Walton found another boarding-place, and one where 
 the influences were worse. He threw up his position in the law-office 
 and took a humble clerkship at a store. It paid him enough to board 
 and lodge him, and here, from serving his customers with drink, he 
 got to serving himself, and to associating with a reckless set, some 
 young townsmen, some soldiers. There were stories of gambling and 
 quarrel even before Colonel Sweet found that Jenny, the apple of his 
 eye, was drooping in that Southern climate, and sent her, with her 
 mother, North " for good." The next thing heard of Floyd Walton 
 was that he had gone to New Orleans with a discharged soldier ; and, 
 even while grieving over her boy s infrequent letters and evident hope 
 lessness and depression, Mrs. Walton received a missive one day that 
 left her prostrate. She went alone to Quitman as soon as able to 
 move, and came back within forty-eight hours looking years older, 
 and both the girls soon knew that she had parted with the diamond 
 ear-rings that were their father s last gift to her in the happy, prosper 
 ous days that preceded the war. Floyd had written that, starving, 
 drunk or drugged, and desperate, he had been led by his associate be 
 fore a recruiting officer, had been sent with others as reckless as him 
 self to sober up at the quarters of a cavalry command near the city, 
 and that, the next thing he knew, he with a squad of seven recruits 
 was on his way to join a troop stationed within a few miles of his 
 home, instead, as he had been assured would be the case, of being sent 
 to the Fourth Cavalry on frontier duty against the Indians in Texas. 
 " They broke their contract," he said, " and I broke mine." He had 
 deserted, and, if captured, would be sent to hard labor at Baton Rouge 
 Penitentiary or to the Dry Tortugas. 
 
 Such stories leak out despite every effort to conceal them, but not 
 until just before Lambert s coming to join Company "G" did Mrs. 
 Walton dream that Esther knew of her brother s peril. A sudden 
 outcry in her garden one day brought her in haste to the spot, and 
 there were a drunken soldier and her quadroon maid Elinor, he de-
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 87 
 
 manding liquor and she the return of a pitcher which he had evidently 
 snatched from her hand. Madam Walton s stately presence and her 
 imperious order that he leave the premises at once only partially 
 sobered him. He gave her to understand that if she reported him he 
 could bring shame upon her head, he knew more about her aifairs 
 than she dreamed. His insolence tried her temper, but could not alter 
 her tone and bearing. It was not until he was gone that Esther, trem 
 bling and in tears, came and begged her to lodge no complaint against 
 the man, as he indeed knew more than she supposed. And then, in 
 reply to her mother s demand, Esther brokenly admitted that she had 
 already heard of Floyd s enlistment and desertion through this very 
 soldier. He had been at the house before. What she did not tell her 
 mother was that the news first reached her through Walton Scroggs. 
 
 And then, without warning, Floyd suddenly came home. So 
 troubled had he been by the condition of his mother s health and 
 affairs as confided in Esther s letters (sent under cover to an old family 
 friend now serving as a surgeon in the Juarez army) that, having 
 earned a little money in Vera Cruz, he hastened back and appeared 
 there late at evening, worn and weary, before those loving yet terrified 
 eyes. He had ridden miles on horseback that day, as he feared recog 
 nition by officers or soldiers still at Quitman if he came by rail that 
 way, or by Federal deputies if he came the other. Esther alone had 
 received him on his arrival, for she, poor girl, was watching at the 
 old arbor near the south fence for the coming of her lover-husband, 
 that day released from the clutches of the law. Then, after hearing 
 her recital of their needs and sorrows, he had sent old Rasmus with a 
 message into camp, while she had gone to prepare her mother for his 
 coming. 
 
 Late that night Mrs. Walton, kneeling by the bedside of her sleep 
 ing boy, became suddenly aware of a scuffle going on underneath the 
 window, and, noiselessly descending the stairs, unfastened the side door 
 and came at once upon the intruders, with the result already known. 
 Not until aroused by the screams of Elinor and his sister Kate did 
 Floyd know anything of the affair. Half asleep, and bewildered, he 
 had jumped into boots and trousers and rushed to the rescue. One 
 glance explained the whole thing, but it was Esther who in desperation 
 seized and held him back when he would have sprung to release his 
 mother from Riggs s drunken grasp, Esther who, hearing the coming 
 rush of Lambert s footsteps, realized that what meant instant rescue
 
 88 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 for her mother meant equally instant peril for him, Esther who 
 actually ordered his hurried retreat at Lambert s appearance. Not 
 until the following day did it occur to her mother to ask how it was 
 or why it was that she was up and dressed at that hour of the night. 
 At any other time, perhaps, she would have found it far more difficult 
 to frame plausible excuse, but almost anything would answer now. 
 For hours she had been listening for the tap upon her window that 
 should tell her Walton had not been spirited away to a place of safety 
 until he had come to bless and comfort her with his love-words and 
 caresses. To her, at least, despite the wild oats of his earlier days, 
 her cousin-husband was all that was true and tender and fond. For 
 him she had dared her mother s wrath, her younger sister s indignation, 
 and Floyd alone was her supporter in the secret marriage that took 
 place during her brief visit to the Claytons in the early spring. 
 
 With the dawn of Sunday, his signal at last was heard, and she 
 stole out to meet him, to tell of Floyd s return, and to plan with him 
 for their joint escape, for Floyd had told her that it would be folly to 
 attempt to remain in hiding there. Already certain negroes of the 
 neighborhood had seen him, and it could not be long before the mili 
 tary authorities were informed. Walton was all helpfulness and sym 
 pathy. His brother, the conductor, had planned to send his horse to 
 the Walton barn at ten that night, and " Wai" was to ride cross 
 country to a friend s in Barksdale County, leave the horse there, and 
 be at the point where the railway crossed the county road at eleven- 
 thirty, when the "Owl" would stop and take him on the baggage-car, 
 unless some of Parmelee s spies or deputies were aboard. There 
 would be no trouble at the capital, where the Owl often waited an hour 
 for the express. The engineer would slow up just east of town. 
 Walton could drop off in the darkness and make his way around to 
 the west side by a brisk tramp of a couple of miles, and there be taken 
 on again about one-thirty A.M. and jostled away to the river. Once 
 there, all the sheriff s posses in the South couldn t find him. Walton 
 promptly urged that Floyd go with him. Rasmus was routed out 
 from slumber in the barn and sent away with messages for Colonel 
 Scroggs and " Cousin Bart," and then the voice of Kate was heard, 
 calling for her sister. Instead of being asleep, as they hoped, Mrs. 
 Walton was painfully awake and planning a diplomatic letter to be 
 sent to Captain Close. For hours the only refuge they could offer 
 Esther s husband was the cellar, for Mrs. Walton had insisted on being
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 89 
 
 up and dressed to meet Cousin Bart, whom now she desired to send 
 for and consult. 
 
 The letter which had so bewildered the company commander was 
 brief enough. It bore neither date nor place, but went straight to 
 business : 
 
 " Mrs. Walton presents her compliments to the officer in command 
 of the Federal troops here in camp, and begs to say that she finds upon 
 investigation that the two soldiers who visited her premises last night 
 did so at the request of a member of her household, who sought their 
 aid in bringing certain supplies from town when her servants proved 
 too ungrateful to be relied upon. Mrs. Walton deeply regrets that the 
 soldiers referred to are now in danger of further punishment, and, while 
 utterly disapproving the action which led to their employment in vio 
 lation of her express orders, she nevertheless accepts the entire respon 
 sibility, and begs that no further steps may be taken against them, as 
 she will not only positively refuse to appear as a witness in the case, 
 but will prohibit any of her household from so appearing. 
 
 " Sunday morning." 
 
 And very possibly the lady of Walton Hall felt quite assured that 
 her mandate would overrule any subpoana the Federal authority could 
 draft. One thing is certain, when Close read it over a second time he 
 handed it to Lambert, saying, " So far as I m concerned, that blessed old 
 lady shan t have any trouble on account of them two scallawags. She s 
 got too much of her own. Unless you want to make an example of Riggs, 
 you can release him in the morning. Murphy ought to be let off any 
 how." 
 
 But when morning came it was found that Riggs had released him 
 self. How he managed to cut his way out of that guard-tent without 
 disturbing anybody, no one could explain. He was gone at daybreak, 
 leaving not a trace behind. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Confined to her bed and room as was Madam Walton, and only 
 vaguely alive to what might be going on in the household, for there 
 were days when she lay dull and apathetic, yet mercifully spared from 
 
 8*
 
 90 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 suffering, it was Esther s duty and fondest care to minister to her 
 mother s needs even at a time when her heart was torn with anxiety on 
 account of her husband, now a prisoner in the hands of the United 
 States marshal at the capital, and of her brother, who, under the 
 orders of the general in command of the department, had been sent 
 under guard to New Orleans, there to await his trial by court-martial 
 for the crime of desertion. The visits of the old family physician were 
 frequent, for the invalid had had too much to suffer and seemed in 
 capable of further struggle. Floyd was twice permitted to visit his 
 mother during the two days that elapsed before telegraphic orders came 
 in his case. She knew him, clung to him, yet seemed unable to realize 
 that he was going from her. She once or twice asked if Judge Sum 
 mers had been heard from, for Cousin Bart had written full details of 
 Floyd s trouble, and the family united in urging him to make an 
 appeal to certain influential friends of the ante helium days, who had 
 scandalized the Wai tons by their loyalty to the old flag. Then Lam 
 bert wrote a letter which Close signed and sent to department head 
 quarters, and the boy, remembering some kind words said to him by his 
 father s old friend, ventured on a personal letter to the general himself, 
 pleading Walton s cause and portraying the family s distress. It was 
 this letter that overcame Esther s objection to the advice of Mr. Potts 
 to the effect that they take Mr. Lambert in as a day boarder. And 
 within forty-eight hours of his initial appearance at their table Mrs. 
 Scroggs, as he was the first to address his blushing hostess, was more 
 than reconciled to the step. 
 
 But if she was, Miss Kate was not. The wrath and indignation 
 of that young lady can hardly be described. It was one thing, she 
 declared, for her to sell eggs and butter to a gentleman who was a friend 
 of Floyd s, who told her he despised his captain as much as she did, 
 who had enlisted only because he had been promised immediate promo 
 tion to a captaincy, and who never would have done so even then, had 
 he known that soldiers could be used to persecute the people of the 
 South. He was only waiting for his commission to come or his dis 
 charge to tell Captain Close what he thought of his conduct. It 
 was all very well to make friends with gentlemen like Mr. Riggs, who 
 had been dear brother Floyd s friend at Quitman before he fell in love 
 with that horrid designing Yankee girl who had lured him on to 
 " cohtin " her when she was all the time engaged to that rich rag 
 picker or whuteveh he might be. Mr. Riggs had behaved like a
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 91 
 
 puhfect gentleman. (She had forgotten the little bill he had been run 
 ning up and was so long vainly importuned to pay. She also attached 
 slight importance to Barton s statement that " Brother Floyd said 
 Riggs was a fraud and a liar, and responsible for much though not 
 all of his trouble.") As between Mr. Riggs and this new Yankee 
 lieutenant who had dared to disguise himself and seek to make her 
 acquaintance, she had but one opinion : Riggs was driven to drink and 
 desertion by having had to serve under such brutes. She declared she 
 would starve rather than eat under the same roof with Lieutenant 
 Lambert, insisted on staying in her mother s room and being served 
 there, and was conspicuous by her absence from the table for the first 
 forty-eight hours since Lambert s admittance, despite Esther s pleading 
 and Barton s ridicule. " You may think it fine to take money from 
 such people, Mrs. Scroggs," she declared, with high disdain ; " but you 
 never would, if Moh was well enough to know whut was going on." 
 (Moh is the only alphabetical combination I can think of which even 
 approximately represents Miss Katie s pronunciation of the term by 
 which she was accustomed to refer to her mother.) But if Miss Kate 
 were indignant before, she was simply furious when her married sister 
 responded, with exasperating calm, 
 
 " And yet you took Mr. Lambert s money in payment for your 
 butter, Katesie." 
 
 " Ah didn t ! How day-ah you say so, Esthuh ? It was Mr. 
 Riggs s." 
 
 " Floyd says it wasn t. Floyd says that man had not had a cent 
 for three weeks. You know yourself it was Mr. Lambert there at the 
 fence both nights, and you know why that wretch couldn t have been 
 there." 
 
 " Ah ll wuhk every finguh to the bone, then, till it s paid back," 
 cried Miss Walton. " An it was mean an contemptible an cowuhdly 
 in him to fawce it on me as he did, to listen to whut wasn t meant fo 
 his yuhs at all." By his "yuhs" Miss Walton meant those organs of 
 hearing that lay so close under the brown curls on either side of Mr. 
 Lambert s shapely head, ears which she could gladly have pinched, or 
 tweaked, or even banged, in her wrath at that moment. The hard- 
 earned, long-expected five dollars had been sent to town and expended 
 before this sisterly conference took place, or beyond doubt Miss Katesie 
 would have hurled it back at the donor when he came so springily up 
 the walk that crisp December evening.
 
 92 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 Two days later brought a long letter from Floyd, written from the 
 barracks at New Orleans. He was not confined in the guard-house, as 
 he had feared and expected to be. The prisoners awaiting sentence 
 were there, but those yet to be tried were kept in an old storehouse that 
 was not uncomfortable, and on the evening of his arrival an officer, 
 Lieutenant Waring of the artillery, took him into a separate room, 
 " treated me like a perfect gentleman," wrote poor Floyd, leaving his 
 readers to divine whether this lavish descriptive were to apply to the 
 lieutenant or himself, listened to Floyd s story from beginning to end, 
 and told him to keep up his spirits. " Lieutenant Lambert had written 
 urging him to do all he could to help me, and had asked old General 
 Ducannon to restore me to duty without trial, in view of the way I had 
 been tricked. If he does, and will send me out against those infernal 
 Indians in Texas, by heaven I ll show them I can fight as hard for the 
 flag to-day as I did against it three and four years ago. All I ask is 
 officers and gentlemen like him or young Lambert to serve under, 
 and I ll earn my pardon." 
 
 They had been utterly blue and hopeless on Floyd s account since 
 his transfer to New Orleans, and this letter was a revelation. Esther 
 took it up to her mother s room and strove to make her understand its 
 purport, " Katesie" sitting silently and, at first, scornfully by. Mrs. 
 Walton s faculties seemed too dazed to follow, and Esther had to reit 
 erate and explain. Then the doctor came, and the hale old gentleman s 
 eyes filled as he read. " That young fellow is a trump," said he, refer 
 ring to Lambert ; and he, too, bent over the gentle invalid and whis 
 pered hope and courage. Later, when Kate was wanted, it was found 
 she had quitted the room. Esther discovered her after considerable 
 search, shivering in a room up-stairs. She wouldn t talk, but, that 
 evening, came to tea. 
 
 For several days Miss Kate contrived to hold aloof from the gen 
 eral conversation ; but it was a hard fight against every natural impulse. 
 Before the end of the week her resolution had failed her utterly, and 
 time and again her ready tongue had challenged Lambert to debate ; 
 and now, to her chagrin, it was he who declined. When formally pre 
 sented to " My sister, Miss Walton," by Mrs. Scroggs, the young gen 
 tleman had bowed very low and had striven to be civil. As they sat 
 facing each other, and only the width of the table apart, her downcast 
 eyes and determined silence proved embarrassing, even though long, 
 curving, sweeping lashes and flushed cheeks appeared, perhaps, to dan-
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 93 
 
 gerous advantage. " Aw pshaw !" said Cousin Bart that evening, as 
 he and Lambert were smoking the pipe of peace, and the young fellow 
 ventured a fear that he had offended the damsel in the butter business, 
 "just you pay no attention to that child for a day or two, an see how 
 quick she ll come round. She just wants to be huffy. She ll be haw- 
 bly cut up when she finds you don t notice her." Potts had not a little 
 worldly wisdom when he wasn t drinking, and since his installation as 
 ex-officio head of the house he hadn t touched a drop. Lambert was 
 beginning to like him very much, but couldn t induce him to come 
 over to camp. " I can t stand that captain of yours," was his sole 
 explanation. 
 
 From frigid silence on Katesie s part to occasional monosyllable 
 and thence to brief and caustic comments on the remarks of her sister 
 and cousin, the transition was easy ; but now that Lambert addressed 
 no remarks whatever to her, yet chatted smilingly with the others, the 
 girl s position became exasperating. She was willing enough, at the 
 start, to keep at wide distance, but that anybody should presume to 
 hold her there was a very different matter, in fact, simply intolerable. 
 Esther noted in silent amusement how the girl began to display unac 
 customed solicitude as to the fit of her gown, the effect of such poor 
 little efforts at ornamentation as her simple store of lace or ribbon 
 afforded. Such quaint, old-fashioned bows and flounces as came forth, 
 such queer combinations of shade and color ! Esther caught her more 
 than once glancing up shyly from under the long lashes and looking 
 furtively at her vis-cL-vis, for Lambert, with malice prepense and afore 
 thought, began telling Mrs. Scroggs of the belles and beauties of last 
 summer at the Point, and one evening when the verbal blockade had 
 lasted perhaps three days he turned to Esther as they were rising from 
 the table, and if it wasn t taking a mean advantage of a defenceless 
 foe, what would be? 
 
 " I brought over these two to show you, Mrs. Scroggs," said he, 
 producing some carte-de-visite photographs from an envelope. "This 
 is Miss Fordham, who was considered the prettiest girl at Cozzens s this 
 year, though that fashionable street suit is perhaps less becoming to 
 her than evening dress. And this is Miss Torrance. I think I told 
 you that our ladies are no longer wearing crinoline, and that these 
 short dresses are worn even for calling in the daytime." 
 
 And Katie Walton was halted at the threshold as she would have 
 left the room. What woman could resist a peep at these pictures of
 
 94 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 reigning belles garbed in the height of the fashion of the day, a 
 fashion these fair Southern sisters had never seen, and had only vaguely 
 heard of! Cousin Bart could have laughed outright when he caught 
 a glimpse of Katesie s face, but mercifully refrained. She flushed, 
 stopped, bit her lip, turned and fairly ran up-stairs, but came down 
 five minutes later, as Lambert knew she would, " looking for a book ;" 
 and Esther, yearning over her, called her sister to her side. Looking 
 at Northern girls pictures wasn t making friends with their friends, 
 anyhow ! " Ah don t see anything pretty in that one/ was Katesie s 
 prompt comment. " And Ah couldn t be hi-uhd to weah a gown like 
 that." But Lambert felt that he had won the day, and the next even 
 ing fetched over a whole album-full. " Ce n est que le premier pas" 
 etc. Miss Walton, having looked at two, concluded she might as well 
 see the others, but she never meant to ask questions about them as 
 she had to when Esther went in to see what Moh would like for her 
 tea. Cousin Bart had brought in a bag of plump and tempting " par 
 tridges" that evening, and it was beginning to puzzle Esther very much, 
 when she remembered how impecunious a person Bart had ever been, 
 to account for the supplies which he began to fetch from town. 
 
 And so things were going a trifle better at the old homestead towards 
 the end of December. Hopeful letters came from Walton. The Par- 
 melee party were having difficulty in getting reliable evidence against 
 him ; his friends were making him entirely comfortable in his confine 
 ment, and his lawyer assured him that his release would be effected in 
 a very few days. Floyd wrote that an aide-de-camp of the general 
 commanding had come with Lieutenant Waring to see him, and to say 
 that his case was being investigated and that, as yet, no charges had 
 been preferred by the commander of his troop. Little delicacies and 
 luxuries in the way of tea, jellies, preserves, and wine things to which 
 they had been strangers since early in the war were finding their way 
 in and greatly comforting the invalid mother, and, could their doctor 
 but say the dear lady was really mending, the girls would have had 
 hope and courage, but the doctor could not say. 
 
 " I ve got to go to Quitman for two days on business, Esther," 
 said Cousin Bart one keen morning, " and I reckon I ll ask Dr. Fal 
 coner to come back with me, f you don t mind, and have a day at the 
 birds. They ll all be gone in a week f this weather keeps on." 
 
 "You have deeper reason than that, Barton. I saw you with Dr. 
 Coleman when he went out last night. It s a consultation, is it not ?"
 
 v CAPTAIN CLOSE. 95 
 
 " Why, of co se I want Coleman to have a chance to talk it over 
 with Falconer, and he d like it, too. Falconer s more up to date, the 
 old man says, and he thinks perhaps the new school knows something 
 wuth tryin . You see, Cousin Lou ain t pickin up fast as she ought to." 
 
 " I see it all too plainly, Bart. What I don t see is where all the 
 money is to come from to pay for doctors and consultations and 
 
 and " Big tears began welling in her soft, sad eyes. " Bart, 
 
 where does it all come from now ? How do we get all these dainties ? 
 You can t spare it. It mustn t be Mr. Lambert s " 
 
 "Now just don t you bother bout that, Esther. I made a raise, I 
 tell you. There s old Uncle Pete and that no- count nigger Frank been 
 owin your mother on last year s crawp o cawt n all this time. I made 
 them pony up, an I told Hicks I d sell out his mule an cart f he 
 didn t pay, made him bawwo the money " 
 
 " That wouldn t begin to cover the cost of what you ve been having 
 sent up from New Orleans, the expressage even " 
 
 " Now just don t you bawwo trouble." (One r in a sentence wasn t 
 too much for Potts. When they doubled up on him he confessed 
 judgment.) "Lambert tends to all that. Uncle Sam, he says, 
 pays freight on commissary stores. Just do s I say, and we ll fetch 
 Cousin Lou round all right yet, and find somebody to rent the old 
 place and send yo all down to Biloxi for the winter. But I ll tell 
 you what I do think, Esther : y ought to have Lambert over to sleep 
 in my room while I m gone. He ll come." 
 
 But when Lambert came to tea that night half expecting to be wel 
 comed to Cousin Bart s place in his absence, a surprise awaited him. 
 Esther, with joy in her eyes, blushingly told him that her husband 
 would be with them before nine o clock. A telegram had announced his 
 release and speedy coming. 
 
 " There s no train over before morning, is there ?" he asked. 
 
 " No but Mr. Scroggs took the stage at noon for Vernon, up 
 north of here, and will get a horse there." 
 
 And, as it was evident that she looked any moment for that longed- 
 for coming, Lambert decided to slip back to camp instead of spending 
 an hour in chat or reading as he usually did. At this Miss Katesie s 
 big blue-gray eyes were opened wide in surprise, then lowered in con 
 fusion, for he turned to look at her. 
 
 " Oh ! Good-night, Miss Walton," he laughingly exclaimed. " I 
 had almost hoped you would ask me to stay."
 
 96 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 " Ah don t know wh a Ah should," was the prompt and pouting 
 reply. " Sister Esthuh can if she likes." 
 
 "She doesn t like, to-night as a matter of course. I couldn t ex 
 pect her to. But as your good mother is sleeping and Mrs. Scroggs 
 will be able to leave her to welcome her husband and you will be well 
 rather superfluous, I thought I might profit by the situation to the 
 extent of having an hour s chat with you, about your fair compatriots 
 up North, for example." 
 
 " Ah don t know of any subject that would interest me less. And 
 they re not my compatriots, as you call them," answered Miss Kate, 
 with fire in her eyes. 
 
 "Ah, true," said Lambert, with provoking coolness, and a mis 
 chievous smile twitching the corners of his mouth : " I recall your in 
 difference to their photographs the other evening. Will you kindly 
 say good-night to Mrs. Scroggs for me, and tell her " 
 
 " Ah ll tell her you were simply hateful and Ah thought you d never 
 go!" 
 
 " Well, I won t, if you think I ought to stay," said Lambert, re 
 turning smilingly to the door and proceeding to hang his forage-cap 
 upon its accustomed peg. She promptly snatched it from his hand. 
 
 "Ah wish you and your photographs wuh freezing up Nawth, 
 whuh you b long, stead of coming down hyuh ty annizing over peo- 
 pie- 
 
 " Now do you know I was wishing that too ? It s so much nicer 
 freezing up North than being frozen here ; and then next week s Christ 
 mas. Oh, you don t have any mistletoe here, do you ?" 
 
 " We did, before you all came. You Yankees ruined everything 
 nice you didn t carry off." 
 
 " Now what am I to say, Miss Katesie? If I don t say you re 
 nice you ll think I m ungallant; and what Yankee would ever dare 
 try to carry you off?" 
 
 " Lieutenant Lambert, Ah think you re simply horrid, and Ah wish 
 you d go, stead of standing there pulling your moustache in that silly 
 way." 
 
 " Now, Miss Katesie ! the idea of your being the first girl to set 
 her face against this struggling moustache ! I never should have 
 thought it of you. Or was it the mistletoe put you in mind " 
 
 " Will you go ?" she cried, with flaming cheeks and stamping foot.
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 97 
 
 "How day-uh you stand there laughing at me? Oh, if I were a 
 man " 
 
 " If you were a man nobody would think of such a thing. As I m 
 one, I can t help it." 
 
 " Ah wish Ah could help you down those steps and back to camp," 
 she retorted, trying hard to look furious. 
 
 "You could, easily, but you don t want to, or you would have 
 given me my cap long ago." 
 
 " Oh!" and the jaunty kepi went spinning into the darkness of the 
 night, and the little lady stamped in fury at her own blunder. " Take 
 your cap, and go." 
 
 " We-11," said Lambert, with provoking coolness, " if I m to follow 
 my cap it hasn t gone towards camp at all. It seems excuse me 
 if I come back for a light it seems to have dropped close to that old 
 arbor of yours among the rose-bushes, where you sit in the summer 
 moonlit evenings. Suppose we leave it as an excuse for me to drop 
 around next time you go there." 
 
 But now she seized a candle and went bounding down the steps. 
 A moment s search among the bushes, and she had found it, also 
 him, for he calmly followed. 
 
 " There s your cap," she said, " and yawuduh s the gate !" 
 
 He looked up in aifected pain and astonishment. 
 
 " Why, Miss Katesie ! I supposed you were simply acting on my 
 suggestion, and we were going to have such a lovely time at the bower. 
 That s why I followed." 
 
 " Oh, Ah should like to tay-uh your tongue out. You know Ah 
 hate the very ground you stand on " 
 
 The gloom in his face gave way instantly to radiant joy. " You 
 do ? really f" he cried. " Oh, I never hoped for that ! I thought you 
 loved every inch of this ugly old State and that I never could coax you 
 to leave it. Do you really hate it so ?" 
 
 But now, fairly beside herself with vexation, the girl had turned 
 and fled, her little feet seeming to fly up the worn old steps that groaned 
 and creaked under any other touch. He stood gazing after her a mo 
 ment, the teasing, merry smile still hovering about his lips, then 
 picked up the cap she had hurled to earth, and walked blithely away. 
 
 Not ten yards from the gate came Corporal Cunningham on the 
 run. Captain Close desired to see the lieutenant at once. A negro 
 stood by the camp-tire in front of Close s tent, trembling from either 
 E 9
 
 98 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 fear or excitement or both, his protruding eyes fixed on the form of 
 old Rasmus, who was eagerly jabbering to the company commander. 
 
 "Do you know anything bout this, lieutenant?" asked Close. 
 " These darkies say there s been a big row over towards Vernon, and 
 that Walton Scroggs is among the killed." 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The first Christmas a young fellow spends in the army is one he 
 is apt to remember. What he did in years before, or of what nature 
 were the festivities in those that followed, may, in course of time, be 
 come but vague and shadowy pictures before the mind s eye. After 
 something like twenty years of service as a commissioned officer Mr. 
 Lambert was heard to say that never, even when a homesick plebe at 
 West Point, had he passed so forlorn a Christmastide as that which 
 immediately succeeded his graduation. 
 
 The rain was beating down in sullen shower upon the bare and 
 dripping woods and sodden fields ; the roads were deep in mud ; camp, 
 of which he was once more commander, was wet and cold and cheer 
 less ; in the adjoining tent lay his senior officer groaning on a bed of 
 pain, hands and face blistered and bandaged, hair and eyebrows gone, 
 while over across the way a pile of scorched and blackened timbers, 
 a couple of brick chimneys, and the stone foundations, were all that 
 was left of Walton Hall. 
 
 The story brought in of the big row at Vernon, though exaggerated, 
 had been sufficiently confirmed in the course of an hour or so that 
 wintry evening of Lambert s last visit to the homestead, to warrant 
 his being ordered thither with half the company to " support the civil 
 authorities in restoring peace." Close reported the situation by tele 
 graph to department head-quarters, and the action taken by him, his 
 despatch reaching the general commanding the next day an hour or so 
 after that official had been ordered from Washington to send full par 
 ticulars of the disturbance in his bailiwick, for the Federal officials in 
 the South and the partisans of both sides of the political questions at 
 issue had worked the night wires for all they were worth, and the early 
 morning papers were lurid with details of the tragic outbreak. 
 
 It was midnight when Lambert started on his march with two ex 
 cited deputy marshals for guides. Five miles out they met some horse-
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 99 
 
 men convoying an old carriage containing Walton Scroggs, seriously 
 wounded, and a doctor. With the escort Lambert held brief parley, 
 also with the wounded man, who, though weak, was full of pluck and 
 spirits ; his sole anxiety seemed to be on the score of his wife and the 
 shock the news would cause her. The account given the young officer 
 of the circumstances leading up to the fracas differed radically from 
 that with which he and his commander had thus far been favored. 
 This was to be expected, as, up to this point, their sole informants 
 were either negroes or a couple of whites of the Parmelee stamp. In 
 the North, as a rule, the affair appeared to have been a wanton and 
 unprovoked attack by Walton Scroggs and his friends upon some 
 negroes who had been instrumental in securing his arrest, nothing 
 short, in fact, of a red-handed act of vengeance, as was evident from 
 the fact that immediately on his release he and his party, armed to the 
 teeth, had ridden over to Vernon, instead of going home, and, with 
 out warning or warrant, had begun the indiscriminate shooting down 
 of certain unpopular whites and their luckless negro supporters. 
 
 In the South, except among certain journals published in the in 
 terest of the " radical" Republican party, the other side of the story 
 was promptly circulated. " Captain" Scroggs and a friend, endeavor 
 ing to reach home by a circuitous route so as to avoid trouble after his 
 release from jail, where he had been incarcerated several weeks on 
 baseless, trumped-up charges, were set upon in the streets of Vernon 
 by a blackguardly pack of loafers, insulted, abused, and assaulted, and 
 finally compelled in self-defence to draw their revolvers, not, however, 
 until they had been fired upon. One odd circumstance connected with 
 these perennial shooting scrapes in those days was the fact that in foot 
 ing up the score it was always found that five negroes to one white 
 was about the proportion of casualties. This may have been due to 
 the fact that the ratio of black to white in every scrimmage was about 
 five to one, or else that the Caucasian, being cooler and long skilled in 
 the use of arms, was more effective in close combat. At all events, 
 when impartially investigated, it was found that this Vernon difficulty 
 differed from its fellows in no important particular except one, that 
 it " had no political significance whatever." Walton s friends, rejoicing 
 with him in his release from durance vile, did so after the fashion of 
 the day, and more or less bad whiskey was consumed before the stage 
 reached Vernon, where more friends were met, more treats exchanged, 
 and where, as the devil of mischief would have it, he happened into
 
 100 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 the bar of the old tavern just at the moment when two or three others, 
 all white, were happening out. One of these was an old-time admirer 
 of Esther Walton, a man with whom Scroggs had been at odds for 
 years. There was a jostle, unintentional, a sneer in the careless 
 apology, and a rankling word or two. Peacemakers drew the princi 
 pals apart. Indeed, Walton was too happy, too eager to continue his 
 journey home and Estherwards, to care to quarrel. But his rival s 
 heart and brain were burning; and more liquor made matters worse. The 
 horses were being brought around from the stable with the troop of 
 vagrant negroes loafing after, when, despite the efforts of his friends, 
 the half-drunken man came lurching out of a neighboring saloon and 
 with savage oaths rushed at Walton, " demanding satisfaction." 
 Weapons were drawn and shots exchanged on the instant, and one of 
 the scattering mob of negroes fell dead with a bullet through his heart, 
 while for a moment Walton, with smoking pistol, stood alone looking 
 down at his assailant writhing on the sidewalk. Friends rushed in, 
 carried one man into the drugstore, and crowded Walton into the 
 tavern bar. It was " fair fight." He had drawn only in self-defence. 
 His assailant was to blame, and there was no man to suggest arrest. 
 But he stood there pale and unnerved now, covered with sorrow at the 
 disaster to the man who, even though no friend, was popular, well and 
 widely known, and, according to the somewhat accessible standard of 
 the State and day, "a perfect gentleman." It was characteristic of the 
 time and place that nobody present happened to think of the dead 
 negro. 
 
 Among these poor people Walton Scroggs was, perhaps deservedly, 
 unpopular. The other man, open-handed, generous, easy-going, had 
 won not a little of their unreasoning yet enthusiastic regard. It was 
 while Scroggs, with two advisers, was seated, sad and trembling, in a 
 little room of the tavern awaiting the result of the doctor s examina 
 tion of his fainting foe, that a citizen came rushing in. " Scroggs, 
 you ll have to get out of this, quick. There was a meeting of that 
 old Grant and Colfax Club going on up the street, and the niggers 
 have rushed in and told em you killed Pete Jackson. The whole 
 gang of em are coming." 
 
 Coming ? They were already there. With furious yells and venge 
 ful threats a surging crowd of negroes came tearing along the village 
 street, stopping only a moment to verify the death of their friend, and 
 too late now for explanation or denial they swarmed madly into the
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 101 
 
 office, demanding Walton s body. The battle was on in an instant, a 
 battle for life, a sixty seconds war of races, white against black, as it 
 had to be, since none would listen to reason, and superior nerve and 
 aim told. Pistols and the office were emptied about the same moment, 
 but five more darkies had gone to joiu Pete Jackson at the mercy-seat, 
 and the proprietor of the Southern Star had died like the soldier 
 he was, defending the life of his guest. Scroggs himself, seriously 
 wounded, was borne away on the dark Tugaloo road, and far and wide 
 the affrighted negroes were scurrying over the country, carrying tidings 
 of riot as they ran. 
 
 It was all a miserable blunder, but the end was not yet. Lambert 
 and his detachment took station at Vernon, whence the negroes had 
 fled in terror, and all warring was at an end. Such were his orders, 
 and he had no choice ; yet it would have been wiser counsel to recall 
 him and his party within twenty-four hours. They could have done 
 better service nearer home. How it happened none could ever surely 
 say. Among the whites it remained for years an article of faith that 
 desperate and determined negroes had followed Walton Scroggs to his 
 refuge and there wreaked vengeance for the blood of their fellows. 
 Among the negroes it has never been looked on as other than a direct 
 manifestation of divine wrath upon their enemies and persecutors. 
 How the house could have so suddenly burst into flame every one could 
 theorize and no one explain ; but at three o clock in the morning the 
 few men remaining with Captain Close in camp were startled from their 
 sleep by the report of the sentry s musket and the yell of " Fire !" and, 
 springing from their tents, were greeted by the sound of crackling 
 wood-work and screams for aid and the sight of Walton Hall one glare 
 of flame. 
 
 Some men got there quicker than others, none were slow, but 
 even the foremost of the soldiers were appalled and bewildered by what 
 they saw and heard, Katherine Walton and the quadroon maid Elinor 
 wringing their hands and imploring them to save the bedridden mother, 
 while Esther was making vain effort to drag a helpless form through 
 the blazing hall-way. It was at this juncture that Close came laboring 
 up the path. He was slow, heavy, had a longer distance to run, and 
 was panting hard, but he burst through the squad already scrambling 
 up the steps, sprang through the fire-flashing portal, and with the 
 strength of an ox heaved Walton, groaning, upon his shoulders, 
 tumbled him out into the arms of his men, then turned on gasping 
 
 9*
 
 102 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 Esther. "Where s your mother s room?" Almost fainting, she could 
 only lean upon the pillar for support and point through the vista of 
 smoke and flame. Close leaped in like a tiger, with Cunningham and 
 Murphy at his back. Au instant, and these latter reappeared, blind, 
 staggering, their faces hidden in their hands, and burst out into the 
 open air, stumbling heedlessly down the steps. A groan went up from 
 the men : their captain was gone. In vain Burns and McBride strove 
 to rush in to the rescue. Mortal man could not stand such heat. And 
 then, in the midst of the wild wailing of the terrified and helpless 
 women, came from around at the north side of the house an exultant 
 cheer. Those men who had had sense enough to strive to reach the 
 side windows were rewarded by the sudden thrusting open of the shut 
 ters and the appearance of the well-known burly form of their captain 
 with some blanket-shrouded shape in his arms. The flames leaped 
 forth from that very casement but a second after Close and his precious 
 burden were lowered to the walk below. 
 
 And this was the story of a brave man s deed he heard from every 
 lip, said Lambert later, as he hastened back on receipt of the news ; 
 and this was the response made by the brave man himself, when his 
 lieutenant bent over his senior s seared and bandaged face next day and 
 tendered his soldierly congratulations. Turning slowly over on his side, 
 Close pointed to the wreck of a pair of uniform trousers, scorched and 
 burned in a dozen places and irretrievably ruined. 
 
 " Look," said he, mournfully. " Them was my best pants." 
 Then it was found that not only had the strange old fellow lost his 
 hair and beard, and not a little of the cuticle of his face and hands, as 
 well as those patched but precious " best pants," but that his eyesight 
 was threatened. The good old doctor who had for so many years 
 attended the Waltons, and who had come at once to renew his minis 
 trations under the humble roof in town that was their temporary refuge, 
 listened to the story of Close s heroism with quickened pulse and kin 
 dling eye. He and Mr. Barton Potts, who had hastened back from 
 Quitman, came out to camp to see and thank the prostrate soldier, Potts 
 being ceremonious in his expression of gratitude and admiration and 
 most earnest in his apology for what he had said and thought of Close 
 in the past. The doctor stayed longer by the silent sufferer s cot, care 
 fully studying his face so far as it could be seen. Professional etiquette 
 prevented his saying anything that might be a reflection on the treat 
 ment and practice of the " contract surgeon," yet it was plain to Lam-
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 103 
 
 bert, and to Potts too, that he was disturbed. Close, however, seemed to 
 think less of his own plight than of that of the Waltons, who, except the 
 little patch of fields about the ruined homestead, had lost everything 
 they owned in the world, and who were now in sore anxiety and dis 
 tress. The terrible shock and exposure had been too much for one so 
 fragile as the lady mother, and Mrs. Walton was sinking fast. Walton 
 Scroggs, too, was in desperate case, though soothed by the knowledge 
 that the cause of all the row at Vernon that is, the human cause of 
 it all was already out of danger. Close begged the doctor for full 
 particulars not only as to how they were but how they expected " to git 
 along through the winter," and at last said he wished to speak with 
 him alone, whereat Potts and Lambert, wondering, left the tent. 
 
 It was long before the doctor came forth, and when he did he 
 called the young officer aside, a quiver in his voice and a queer moist 
 ure about his spectacles. " Have you no expert on the eye and ear in 
 the army ?" he asked. " The captain should have the benefit of the 
 best advice without delay." 
 
 Lambert said he would report the matter at once to department 
 head-quarters, and, while they were still talking, two men came riding 
 out from town, "old man Potts," beyond all doubt, and with him 
 Lambert s railway friend the conductor, and these gentlemen, too, had 
 come to " surrender." Close could have had his fill of triumph and 
 adulation that dull December evening, had he been so minded and the 
 doctor more complaisant ; but that practitioner said that, while he was 
 not in charge of the case, he should strenuously advise against further 
 disturbance of the patient. When at last they were all gone and Lam 
 bert could address himself to the little packet of mail stacked up on 
 the office desk, he was rejoicing to think how the good in his queer 
 comrade was winning due recognition at last. " He s a rough dia 
 mond," he said to himself, " but brave as a lion and true as steel." 
 
 And then as he opened the first letter from department head-quar 
 ters, addressed to Brevet Captain J. P. Close, First Lieutenant, teenth 
 Infantry, Lambert s face paled and his eyes dilated. It was a brief, curt 
 official note directing Captain Close to turn over the command of his 
 company and post and report in arrest to the colonel of his regiment at 
 New Orleans, for trial. " Acknowledge receipt by telegraph." 
 
 What a Christmas greeting !
 
 104 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Those were the days which but foreshadowed the lettre de cachet 
 episodes of the winter of 1870-71. Never an ornamental, never a 
 social, and often an embarrassing feature of garrison life, the first lieu 
 tenant of Company "G" had been laboring under the further disad 
 vantage of a six months absence from the post of the regimental colors. 
 There were many to speak against and none to speak for him. His 
 singular habits and characteristics, the rumors in circulation with regard 
 to his " saving" propensities when on Bureau duty, and the queer 
 " yarns" in circulation as to his disposition of the property of the offi 
 cers who had died on his hands during the fever epidemic, had all 
 received additional impetus from the publication in Northern papers of 
 the Parmelee side .of the Tugaloo stories, and Close s name was on the 
 regimental market at low quotation, even before the announcement of 
 his arrest. But this was not all. For months the regimental com 
 mander had been the recipient of frequent letters from two despairing 
 widows, relicts of the late Captain Stone and Lieutenant Tighe, which 
 letters claimed that their husbands had died possessed of certain items 
 of personal property watches, jewelry, money, martial equipments, 
 etc. of which Captain Close had assumed charge and for only a very 
 small portion of which had he ever rendered account. They, with 
 other ladies of the regiment, had been sent North when it became 
 apparent that an epidemic was probable ; they had never met Captain 
 Close, but were confident, from the unsatisfactory nature of his replies, 
 and from all they could learn about him from the letters they received 
 from the regiment, that he was robbing the widow and the orphan, and 
 they appealed to the colonel for redress. 
 
 Now, old Braxton knew almost as little of Close as did they. He 
 asked his adjutant and one or two captains what they thought; he had 
 a letter written to Close telling him of these allegations and calling for 
 his version of the matter. It did not come, and another letter a 
 "chaser" was sent, demanding immediate reply, and nearly a week 
 elapsed before reply came. Close wrote a laboring hand, and for all 
 official matter employed the company clerk as amanuensis. This being 
 personal, he spent hours in copying his reply. He said he was tired 
 of answering the letters of Mesdames Stone and Tighe on this subject. 
 He had sent them inventories of everything of which their husbands
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 105 
 
 died possessed, and had remitted every cent he had realized from the 
 sales thereof. Only one of them had a watch. If either had ever 
 owned diamond studs, as was alleged, he, Close, had never seen them, 
 nor the hundreds of dollars alleged to be in their possession, nor the 
 company fund for which Stone was accountable. In point of fact, he, 
 Close, was compelled to say he did not believe the ladies knew what 
 their husbands did or did not have. He was ready to make oath as to 
 the truth of his story, and Hospital Steward Griffin and Dr. Meigs 
 could also testify that the deceased officers had hardly any effects to 
 speak of could they only be found. But thereby hung a tale of fur 
 ther trouble. Meigs himself had died of the fever, and Griffin, after 
 a fitful career, had been found guilty of all manner of theft and dis 
 honesty as to hospital stores in his charge, and was himself languish 
 ing, in dishonorable discharge, a prisoner at Ship Island. Here Close 
 thought to end it all, but the widows sisters they were, who were born 
 in the laundresses quarters of old Fort Fillmore and had followed the 
 drum all over Texas and New Mexico before the war had wedded 
 strapping sergeants and seen their spouses raised to the shoulder-straps 
 in the depleted state of the regular army during the four years of vol 
 unteer supremacy the widows were now backed by a priest and a petti 
 fogger, and, mindful of the success achieved by such proceeding when 
 led by a name of their own nationality, were determined to " push 
 things." When December came, such was the accumulation of charge 
 and specification against the absent and friendless officer that old Brax 
 took the simplest way out of it and applied for a court-martial to try 
 the case. 
 
 The day after Christmas, therefore, and before the official copy of 
 the order was received at the barracks (as, oddly, often happened in 
 those times, until the leak was discovered and duly plugged), the New 
 Orleans evening papers contained the following interesting item : 
 
 " A general court-martial of unusual importance is to be held at the 
 barracks, the session to commence at 10 A.M. on the 2d of January, 
 for the trial of Brevet Captain J. P. Close of the teenth Infantry 
 on charges seriously reflecting upon his character as an officer and a 
 gentleman. The detail for the court comprises officers of several other 
 regiments, as it is conceded that there is wide-spread prejudice against 
 the accused among his comrades in the teenth. Even the light 
 battery has been drawn upon in this instance, an unusual circum 
 stance, as officers of that arm generally claim exemption from such ser- 
 E*
 
 106 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 vice in view of the peculiar and engrossing nature of their battery 
 duties. Brevet Brigadier-General Pike, of the th Cavalry, is de 
 tailed as president, and First Lieutenant S. K. Waring, of the 
 
 Artillery, as judge advocate of the court. The latter officer will be re 
 membered as the hero of a remarkable adventure in connection with 
 the recent cause celebre, the Lascelles affair." 
 
 " Well, may I be kissed to death !" exclaimed Captain Lively, of 
 the Foot, as he burst into the mess-room that evening. " Just listen to 
 this, will you ! Old Close to be tried by court-martial with New 
 Clothes for judge advocate!" "New Clothes," be it understood, was 
 a name under which Mr. Waring was beginning to be known, thanks 
 to his unwillingness to appear a second time in any garment of the 
 fashion of the day. 
 
 " By gad, if I were the old man I d object to the J. A. on the 
 ground of natural antipathy !" said Mr. Burton ; and among the men 
 present, some of whom had been the colonel s advisers in drawing up 
 the charges, there were half a score who seemed to think that poor 
 Close could hope for no fair play now. It was then that Major Kin- 
 sey, red-faced and impetuous, burst in with the rebuke that became a 
 classic in the annals of the old barracks : 
 
 " Fair play be damned, and you fellows too ! What fair play has 
 the man had at your hands ? It s my belief that he never would get 
 it, but for the fact that Waring is detailed." 
 
 The sensation Kinsey s outbreak created was mild compared with 
 that caused by Close s appearance before a grave and dignified court in 
 the week that followed. On the principle of "a clean sweep," it had 
 been determined to arraign him on charges covering the allegations as 
 to his official misconduct in failing or refusing to support the Federal 
 authorities during the late disturbances. " Might as well get rid of 
 him for good and all," said Old Brax. And so the array of charges 
 was long and portentous. So was the bill for transportation and per 
 diem of civilian witnesses the government afterwards had to pay. So 
 was Braxton s face when, the evidence for the prosecution exhausted 
 without proving much of anything, the testimony for the defence began 
 to be unfolded. It transpired that Mr. Waring had gone up to head 
 quarters on the evening of the 1st of January and formally asked 
 the general commanding to be relieved from duty as judge advocate 
 and allowed to defend the accused. The general was astonished, and 
 asked why. Then Waring laid before him piece by piece the evidence
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 107 
 
 he had collected as a result of his investigation, and the chief ripped 
 out something Old Brax and his adjutant might have been startled to 
 hear, but, after thinking it all over, told Waring to go ahead, try the 
 case, " exhaust the evidence," and never mind the consequences. He 
 sent his aide-de-camp down to say to Close that any officer whose as 
 sistance he desired should be assigned as amicus curise. Close replied 
 that he " reckoned he could git along without any amycuss curious, 
 whatever that was, he d talked it over with Mr. Waring and Mr. 
 Pierce ;" and the trial went on. 
 
 Parmelee was the first witness to flatten out and go to pieces, and 
 the only one who had anything but " hearsay" to offer on the score of 
 the official neglects. The widows were the next. They began trucu 
 lently and triumphantly enough, but the cross-examination reduced 
 them to contradictious and tears. It became evident that most of 
 Stone s company fund went North with one of them, that the alleged 
 diamonds were paste, and that both Stone and Tighe had been gambling 
 and drinking for months previous to their fatal seizures. It was es 
 tablished that, so far from having defrauded the widows of their money, 
 the old fellow had sent them each one hundred dollars over and above 
 the proceeds of the meagre sales, besides accounting for, as sold at fair 
 valuation, items he never disposed of until Lambert bought them. 
 
 Then when it came to testimony as to war and other service, Close 
 sat there, blind, bandaged, scarred, and little Pierce, who had volun 
 teered as " amycuss" anyhow, unrolled one letter after another and 
 laid them on the table, and they went the rounds of the court until old 
 Pike choked them off by saying they couldn t well attach the accused s 
 scars and wounds to the records, any more than these letters : he was 
 ready to vote, unless the gentleman himself desired to say something, 
 had some statement to offer. How was that, Mr. Judge Advocate ? 
 And Waring turned to Pierce, who was beginning to unroll a batch of 
 manuscript, to which he had devoted two sleepless nights and in which 
 he had lavished satire and sarcasm by the page upon all enemies or ac 
 cusers of his client. Pierce meant it to be the sensation of the day, and 
 the court was crowded to hear him read it, despite the significant ab 
 sence of Brax and his now confounded advisers. Braxton already was 
 in deep distress, the victim of overweening confidence in the statements 
 of his associates. " Upon my soul, general," he had said to Pike, " the 
 result of this trial already makes me feel as though I, not Close, were
 
 108 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 the criminal." And Pierce fully meant to "show up" the scandal 
 mongers in the case, placing the blame on them and not their colonel. 
 
 But it was not to be. Old Close put forth a bandaged hand and 
 restrained him. "I ve been thinking that all over," he said, "and 
 I ll just say a word instid." With that he slowly found his feet and 
 the green patch over his eyes was brought to bear on the court. The 
 silence of midnight fell on the crowded room, as, leaning on the back 
 of his chair, the accused stood revealed in the worn old single-breasted 
 coat, the coarse trousers and shoes, so long associated with him. He 
 cleared his throat and then faltered. He did not know how to begin. 
 At last the words came slowly, and with many a hitch and stumble : 
 
 " You see, it s this way, General Pike and gentlemen of the court. I 
 never knew anything about what was expected of a regular officer, r 
 I wouldn t have tried it. All I knew was what I d seen duriu the 
 war, when they didn t seem to be so different from the rest of us. I 
 was bred on the farm ; never had no education ; had to work like a 
 horse ever since I was weaned, almost, not only for my own livin , 
 but but there was the mother, and, as I grew up, the hull care of the 
 farm fell on me, for my father never was strong, and he broke down 
 entirely. When he died there warn t nothing left but a mortgage. 
 There was the mother and four kids to be fed on that. For twenty 
 years, from boy to man, there never was a time a copper didn t look as 
 big as a cart-wheel to me ; and when a man s been brought up that 
 way he don t outgrow it all of a sudden. I ve built the mother a 
 home of her own, and paid off the mortgage and stocked the farm, 
 and educated the youngsters and seen them married off, and now I 
 low they ll expect me to educate the children. When a hull famb ly 
 grows up around one bread-winner it comes natural for the next genera 
 tion to live on him too. I couldn t ha gone to the war only Billy 
 he s the next boy was big enough to take care o things once the 
 mortgage was paid, and afterwards I jined the army the riggle-ers 
 because it looked to me like they got bigger pay for less work than 
 any trade I ever heard of out our way. I m sorry I did it, cause so 
 long s there s no more fightin I seem to be in the way ; but I don t 
 want to quit," and here the rugged old fellow seemed to expand by at 
 least a foot, " and I don t mean to quit except honorable. There 
 ain t a man livin nor a woman either can truthfully say I ever 
 defrauded them of a cent." 
 
 And then Close felt for the chair from which he had unconsciously
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 109 
 
 advanced, and which Pierce hastened to push forward to him, and ab 
 ruptly sat down. Court adjourned sine die just at luncheon-time, and 
 some of the officers of the infantry mess invited the members to come 
 over and have a bite and a sup. They all went but Cram and Waring, 
 Cram saying he had asked a few friends to his quarters, and Waring 
 audibly remarking that it would take away his appetite to have to sit 
 at meat with so and so ; so and so being the officers who were mainly 
 instrumental in working up the case against Close. The telegram sent 
 by Mr. Newton Lambert that afternoon was on his own responsibility, 
 because neither judge advocate nor member of the court could reveal 
 its finding, but it bore all the weight of authority and it brought untold 
 relief to an anxious household; not, as might be expected, to the im 
 mediate friends and relatives of the accused in the distant North, for 
 never until days afterwards did they know anything about it, but to a 
 little family " lately in rebellion" and holding in abhorrence Captain 
 Close and all his kin ; for the despatch was addressed to Mrs. Walton 
 Scroggs, Pass Christian. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 The honorable acquittal of Captain Close proved, as was to be 
 expected, a thorn in the flesh of certain of his accusers, and stirred 
 up trouble in the gallant teenth. This was a matter Close didn t 
 much mind. He was granted six months leave on surgeon s certifi 
 cate of disability, which meant on full pay, and he took it very hard 
 that some means were not devised to send him North under orders, so 
 that he could draw mileage. He and Lambert went back to Tugaloo 
 together and packed up, for "G" Company was ordered relieved by 
 another, and Close was there made the happy recipient of a pass to 
 Chicago, while the old company, after seeing their ex-commander safely 
 aboard the sleeper, went on down the road to New Orleans and took 
 station once more with regimental head -quarters. 
 
 Here Mr. Lambert found means of getting occasional brief leaves 
 of absence and of employing his two or three days in visits to his erst 
 while neighbors of Walton Hall, now comfortably domiciled in a pic 
 turesque but somewhat dilapidated old cottage close to the tumbling 
 waves of the gulf. It had been the property of a near relative before 
 the war, and was reclaimed and put in partial order for their use, ap 
 parently, through the efforts of their old physician and the energies 
 
 10
 
 110 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 of Mr. Barton Potts. Here the warm, soft, salty breezes seemed to 
 bring new lease of life to the beloved invalid, though it was plain to 
 one and all she could never be herself again. Scroggs, her kinsman 
 son-in-law, was rapidly mending and eagerly casting about for employ 
 ment. Floyd, restored to* duty without trial, was serving patiently 
 and faithfully with his regiment in Texas, bent evidently on making 
 good his words. The two events which seemed to bring general cheer 
 and rejoicing to the household were those which three months before 
 would have been promptly derided as absurd and impossible : one was 
 the weekly letter from a trooper in the Union blue, the other a much 
 rarer visit from a Yankee subaltern, whose profession was not to be dis 
 guised because he came in " cits." On the occasion of his first appear 
 ance in that garb Miss Walton did him the honor to say, " Ah never 
 did like you, but Ah do think those clothes wuhse than the others." 
 This was rather hard, because, as the spring came on, Lambert s lot 
 at the barracks was not as pleasant as it might have been, and his com 
 fort consisted in running over to see how Madam Walton was doing. 
 
 Cram and his battery, with Waring, Pierce, and all, had been or 
 dered away, and then for the first time Lambert realized, what his 
 regimental comrades had marked for months, that he preferred the 
 companionship of the battery men to that of the men who wore the 
 bugle, the badge of the infantry in those benighted days. Old Brax 
 concluded he had had enough of garrison life, and sought a long leave. 
 Major Minor took command of the regiment and post, and the adjutant 
 and quartermaster took command of Major Minor. It had neither 
 been forgiven nor forgotten by these staff officials that Lambert had 
 been equally outspoken in defence of Close and denunciation of his 
 accusers, and the further fact that he preferred to spend his leisure 
 hours with his fellow-graduates of the artillery rather than his uncon 
 genial brethren of the teenth gave the oifended ones abundant 
 material to work on. Minor was a weakling, a bureau officer during 
 the war days, a man who could muster and disburse without a flaw, 
 but never set a squadron in the field without a "fluke." Lambert was 
 a capital drill-master and tactician, and "G" Company, under his in 
 struction, was rapidly overhauling every other in the regiment, even 
 those of Kinsey and Lively, the two real soldiers among the captains. 
 Minor hated the sight of a page of tactics, and never even held dress 
 parade. Lambert had a clear, ringing voice, and Minor couldn t make 
 himself heard. One morning the orderly came to Lambert at company
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. Ill 
 
 drill with "the major s compliments, and please to take Company *G 
 outside the garrison, or make less noise." It was the adjutant s doing, 
 as things turned out afterwards, but it angered Lambert against his com 
 mander. Then, when May came round and he asked for three days 
 leave, Minor hummed and hawed and looked at his staff officer and 
 finally requested that it be submitted in writing ; and " it" came back 
 with a curt endorsement to the eifect that Lieutenant Lambert would 
 be expected hereafter to show more interest in matters connected with 
 his regimental duties : the application was disapproved. 
 
 All this time he had written every few weeks to Close, and got a 
 very nice letter in reply, written by a young fellow who announced 
 himself as the captain s brother Wallace. The captain was getting 
 better, very much better, but the eye-doctor s bill was a big one, 
 and he thought the government ought to pay it. He had bought some 
 land up there six years before, and, what with schools and roads and 
 bridges, the taxes were awful. What he wouldn t mind doing would 
 be to come back to the regiment as quartermaster ; but in those days 
 there was no four-year limit to staff positions, and the incumbents, 
 both adjutant and quartermaster, proposed to hang on as long as possi 
 ble, and Lambert replied that he feared there would be no chance. 
 
 And then, one day, there came a telegram to the commanding officer 
 of Company "G" at the barracks with the brief announcement that a 
 soldier serving in the 26th Infantry under the name of Roberts had 
 been identified by Corporal Floyd Walton, 4th Cavalry, as Private 
 Riggs, a deserter from the teenth. Please send charges and de 
 scriptive list. Two weeks later Lieutenant Lambert was summoned 
 to Austin as a witness before the general court-martial appointed for 
 his trial. The Morgan line steamer would not sail until Saturday 
 night. There was time to run over and see if the Waltons had not 
 something to send to their soldier boy in Texas, and Lambert sent his 
 trunk to the Morgan wharf while the Mobile boat paddled him away 
 through the Rigolets and out into Mississippi Sound and landed him 
 at the familiar pier at Pass Christian just at twilight of a lovely May 
 evening. Ten minutes walk along the shore brought him to an en 
 closure wherein the moonbeams were beginning to play among the 
 leaves of the magnolia and to throw a huge black shadow, that of the 
 grove of live-oaks, over the veranda of an old, white-painted, Southern 
 homestead bowered in vines and shrubbery at the end of the broad 
 shell pathway leading from the gate. Somewhere among the foliage
 
 112 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 a mocking-bird was carolling to the rising moon, and the music of soft, 
 girlish voices and subdued laughter came drifting out on the evening 
 air. Lambert s heart gave a quickened throb or two as he recognized 
 Kate Walton s unmistakable tones. He had to traverse the length 
 of the moonlit walk. She, with her unseen friend, was in shadow, so 
 there was no possibility of trying the effect of surprise. 
 
 "Well, whayuh n the wide wuhld d you come from?" was her 
 nonchalant greeting. " Ah supposed you were dayd n buried." (There 
 is no such thing as spelling that word as pronounced by the rosiest, 
 sauciest, and possibly sweetest little mouth in creation. He could not 
 take his eyes from it, and she knew it.) " Miss Awgden, this is 
 Mr. Lambert. Ah think you ve heard sister Esthuh speak of him. 
 Ah suppose you want to go right in to see huh. Ah ll call huh down." 
 
 So Lambert made his bow to Miss Ogden, who had her own 
 womanly intuitions as to the extent of his eagerness to see sister Esther, 
 and who presently declared she had to go home, and went without 
 much delay over the leave-taking, in spite of Katesie s voluble remon 
 strance and well-feigned disappointment. Miss Walton, in fact, hung 
 on to her all the way to the gate and made every proper and apparent 
 effort to detain her there ; but a wise head had Miss Bettie Ogden : 
 she would not delay. She had heard sister Esther talk of Mr. Lam 
 bert time and again, and had read in Katesie s significant silence or 
 simulated scorn a whole volume of information. She went tripping 
 lightly, laughingly away, and Katesie watched her until she was out 
 of sight, then came dawdling slowly back. She well knew it would 
 be unlike Esther to come down inside of twenty minutes. 
 
 Lambert was seated in the big wicker chair, amusing himself with 
 a kitten. He did not even look up when she finally returned. 
 
 " Hasn t Esthuh come down yet ? Ah told huh you wuh hyuh, 
 ten minutes ago." 
 
 " No. Possibly she didn t understand. I didn t hear her answer. 
 Indeed, I could hardly hear you call." 
 
 " That s because you were listening to Bettie Awgden." (Pause 
 for reply or denial : none offered.) " She doesn t like Yankees any 
 better n I did do." 
 
 " Then it was on my account she left so suddenly. Where does 
 she live? Pll run and call her back and tell her what shall I tell 
 her? that I only wanted to say good-by to Mrs. Scroggs?" 
 
 "You haven t said how- de-do yet."
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 113 
 
 " I haven t ? How utterly stupid of me ! You see, between Miss 
 Ogden and the cat, you were so engrossed that I deferred that ceremony 
 until you should have time to devote to me. Permit me." And, 
 carefully depositing pussy on the chair, he quickly bent low and seized 
 Miss Katesie s hand, which he raised towards his lips : " Miss Walton, 
 I am so glad to see you again. This fortnight has seemed a year." 
 
 Indignantly she snatched her hand away. 
 
 "Fawtnight ! It s five weeks to-day since you were hyuh." Then, 
 suddenly conscious, " Not that Jcay-uh." 
 
 He started up in feigned astonishment. "Five weeks? You 
 amaze me ! and how sweet of you to keep count !" (Something more 
 than mere teasing and merriment now in the sparkle of his eyes and 
 the twitching about the corners of his handsome, sensitive mouth.) 
 " Those five weeks have been five years." 
 
 But she had sprung to the door-way, wrathful at being so artfully 
 trapped. 
 
 " Ah didn t keep count. It was Moh ; V Ah don t cay-uh how 
 long you stay away, or how soon you go. Esikuh ! ain t you ay vuh 
 coming down ? Mr. Lambert says he s got to go." 
 
 "You haven t told me how Mrs. Walton is, and Mr. Scroggs, 
 Miss Katesie. And how s Cousin Bart?" 
 
 " Cousin Bart s up at Quitman ; so s Walton ; and Moh s bout 
 the same. She ll nayvuh be any better so long s Floyd s whuh he is 
 weah-ing a Yankee jacket." 
 
 "That is queer, isn t it? The queerest thing about it is that he s 
 just been made corporal in the very troop he charged into at Selma. 
 A classmate of mine is second lieutenant in the same troop, and wrote 
 me about it." 
 
 " Floyd ought to be the lieutenant." 
 
 " Miss Walton, you continually surprise, and now you delight me ! 
 This is really promising ! A Southern girl says her brother ought to 
 be a Yankee officer." 
 
 But she flew at him from the door- step, her eyes flashing fire. He 
 seized the kitten and held that struggling quadruped, paws foremost, 
 between him and impending vengeance. 
 
 " Oh ! Ah do despise an hate you maw an maw ev y time you 
 come. You re mean, spiteful, hateful ! You know Ah nevuh meant 
 any such thing. Ah d sco n him if he was! Ah d tuhn mah back 
 on him as Ah do on you now, an Ah wish it was fo evuh !" 
 
 10*
 
 114 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 And, suiting action to word, the tumbling, clustering ringlets 
 which fell upon her pretty shoulders were flouted almost in his face as 
 she whirled about and marched tragically back to the door-way. 
 
 " Well," said Lambert, mournfully, " it s an ill wind that blows 
 nobody good. Your wish bids fair to be granted. I think I won t 
 disturb Mrs. Scroggs to-night, and if you ll tell me where to find Miss 
 Ogden I ll bid her come back to you, so that you can resume the fun I 
 interrupted. Kindly say to Mrs. Scroggs that if she has anything to 
 send to Floyd and can get it ready before ten to-morrow morning I ll 
 be glad to take it with my baggage. The hotel porter will come for it. 
 Good-night, pussy. You don t seem to object to Yanks. Good-by, 
 Miss Katesie. When your wishes are so promptly granted and you 
 so easily get rid of a fellow, you might shake hands with him ; but 
 pussy 11 have to do." 
 
 With that he solemnly took the kitten by a furry paw and with 
 ludicrous gravity gave it a formal shake, then turned deliberately away. 
 He was down the steps and crunching along the shell walk before she 
 started from the stupor which had seized her. Then she sprang to the 
 edge of the veranda, and he, treading lightly now and listening eagerly 
 for the sounding of the summons for a parley, heard, as he expected, 
 the half-tremulous, half-truculent hail, 
 
 " Aw, Mist Lambert !" 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " Whuh you going ?" 
 
 " Oh, didn t I tell you ? I m ordered to Texas." 
 
 Then he listened, wickedly, maliciously, and vouchsafed no further 
 word. For a moment not a sound came from the shaded veranda. 
 Slowly, therefore, he turned, and, treading as though on china teacups, 
 went on towards the gate. Did he hope she would call again ? Did 
 he know or realize the deep-rooted, stubborn pride of the Southern girl ? 
 Slowly, more slowly still, he faltered to the gate. Nearing it, still 
 eagerly listening, he shortened step, only pretending to walk. Still no 
 sound, no summons to return. His hand was on the latch, and there it 
 waited, reluctant to open, but waiting was vain. He glanced back over 
 his shoulder, and, vague and shadowy, he could just distinguish the 
 outline of the slender form he had grown to love with such longing 
 and tenderness and passion. It clung there motionless. At least, then, 
 she had not turned indifferently away. But the word, the whisper he 
 prayed for and craved to hear, and would so eagerly have obeyed, came
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 115 
 
 not to recall him. Fifteen twenty seconds he waited, then, in sudden 
 pride, or pique, or resolution, threw open the white barrier, slammed 
 it after him, and strode briskly away, startling the mocking-birds into 
 sudden silence with the lively whistling of an old West Point quickstep. 
 But Esther, coming forth from the open door-way to greet and wel 
 come their friend, saw the erect, soldierly figure matching off in the 
 moonlight ; saw her little sister standing as though rooted to the spot ; 
 heard the ostentatious spirit and swing and rhythm of " Buenos noches;" 
 heard a faint, questioning, incredulous, tearful little voice piping "Mr. 
 Lambert ! Mr. Lambert !" and the woman had learned in that instant 
 what the lover would have given worlds to know. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 " Lieutenant, there s no use trying. We re only twenty, and there 
 must be two hundred of em. They ve got that stage-load long before 
 now, escort and all. The whole thing s over with. If there were any 
 women twould be different ; every man of us would go then to try to 
 rescue them ; but there were only men. I m as sorry for Colonel 
 Sweet as you can be, but we can get his body when the Indians have 
 gone. We can t afford to lose any more of our people." 
 
 The speaker was the captain of a party of Texan frontiersmen, 
 rangers they were afterwards called, when their organization was more 
 complete ; but these were the days when the Lone Star State was un- 
 invaded by railways and when to its very heart far as the capital 
 the savage Kiowas and Comanches often raided in full force, ravaging 
 the scattered settlements far and wide. Lieutenant Lambert, his duty 
 finished with his testimony in the case of the deserter Riggs, had 
 obtained permission to delay his return a few days and taken stage to 
 Lampasas, where Floyd Walton was stationed with his troop. Lam 
 bert would not willingly return without seeing him and delivering in 
 person the little packages so hurriedly prepared at the new home. 
 Then, too, there was no man in the army in whom the young officer 
 now felt so deep an interest. Was he not Katesie s brother, and might 
 not that brother have some influence over that obdurate heart? 
 
 It was not the porter of the hotel who went for those packages. It 
 was Lambert himself, hoping, of course, to see the young lady whom 
 he had so successfully tormented the evening previous; but his scheme
 
 116 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 had been checkmated in most absurdly unroraantic fashion. The New 
 Orleans evening paper among its military items contained a brief para 
 graph to the effect that Lieutenant Lambert was ordered over to Austin 
 as a witness before a court-martial there in session, but would return 
 to the barracks in a week or ten days, and this paper he had been care 
 less enough to leave on the veranda. Katesie had gone miserably to 
 her room, Esther had lit upon the paragraph, and in ten minutes Lam 
 bert s melodramatic scheme was exploded. Never would he forget 
 the saucy merriment in her pretty face when he appeared upon the 
 scene that morning, hoping and expecting to find her penitent, piteous, 
 and mutely begging to be forgiven before he went away. He had come 
 prepared to be grave, sorrowful, dignified, and then to be disarmed by 
 her distress, to lead her away under the magnolias to the shaded recesses 
 of the old Southern garden, there to assure her she was pardoned, and 
 then to tell her she was loved. A charming chdteau en Espagne was 
 that which the boy had builded ; a sweet, sad, blissful, ecstatic parting 
 was it all to be as a result of his skilful use of his " sudden orders to 
 Texas;" but, like many another well-laid plan, it went ludicrously 
 aglee. She was there on the veranda, romping with her kitten, when 
 he came, and never made the faintest reference to his departure. He 
 alluded gloomily to the fact that the boat would be along in less than 
 an hour, and she cheerfully responded, " Yes ; Ah thought Ah huhd its 
 whistle just a moment ago," and raced pussy to the far end of the 
 gallery. He tried other announcements with no better success, and was 
 bewildered and defeated and stung by her apparent heartlessness and 
 indifference when at last he had to go, and went away miserably jealous 
 and wretchedly in love, fairly beaten at his own game. 
 
 So gloomy and unlike himself was Lambert that the two or three 
 classmates who happened to be at Austin were much surprised, and so 
 absorbed was he in his own woes and pangs that not until he reached 
 Lampasas did he learn that the soldierly-looking man who rode all the 
 way from the capital with him was no less a person than the Brevet Lieu 
 tenant-Colonel Sweet of whom he had heard so much at Tugaloo, and 
 who, promoted to the rank of major, was now on his way to report for 
 duty at a frontier post. The stage with the colonel rumbled away on 
 its journey after supper. Lambert went on out to camp, only to find 
 that Corporal Walton with four men had gone as escort to that very 
 stage, as there were rumors that the Comanches and Lipans were on 
 the war-path again. It might be four days before they returned. It
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 117 
 
 would be two before a stage went back to Austin, and it was now nine 
 o clock at night. 
 
 The very next morning brought direful news. A big band of hos- 
 tiles had swooped down on the stage station at the crossing of the 
 Caliente, fifty miles to the northwest, massacred everybody, and run 
 off the stock. The cavalry troop in camp at Lampasas was miles away 
 by the time the tidings reached Lambert at the tavern in town. Then 
 came worse news. A settler rode spurring in from the Concho trail to 
 say that he had seen the Indians when they attacked the stage with 
 overpowering numbers, and had just managed to escape with his own 
 life. He believed that not one soul was left to tell the tale. There 
 were many gallant spirits among the Texans of the frontier, men 
 who were accustomed to fight at the drop of the hat, and who, in 
 defence of home and friends, were indomitable. Yet even these well 
 knew the hopelessness of the situation as described. They were far too 
 few in number to undertake the pursuit and attack of such a band as 
 this. Moreover, their own wives and children would be left in danger 
 were they to take the field. It was even impossible to persuade two or 
 three of their number to ride post-haste on the trail of the cavalry, 
 who, at the first alarm and on receipt of tidings that the Indians had 
 ridden away eastward towards the Brazos, had taken the road for Waco 
 at dawn in hopes of heading them off or driving them should they 
 attack the defenceless settlements. There were, therefore, absolutely 
 no troops to go to the rescue of the stage party, if, as seemed beyond 
 hope, any of them were still alive, and Lambert, burning with eager 
 ness to do something and tormented with anxiety as to the fate of 
 "Brother Floyd," found himself helpless. 
 
 A sergeant and some semi-invalided men had been left in charge of 
 camp, and from these he gathered a little information, but not of an 
 enlivening nature. The nearest posts to the westward from which help 
 might come were McKavett and Coucho, each over a hundred miles 
 away; but Concho, being on the left bank of the Colorado, and doubt 
 less warned by this time of the Indian raid, could be sending cavalry 
 down the valley in pursuit. It was expectation of this, probably, that 
 started the raiders eastward towards the Brazos, where there were no 
 troops, and where, sweeping northward again in wide circle, they might 
 confidently expect to get safely back to their wild fastnesses, leading 
 the cavalry a stern chase all the way. Shrewdest tacticians of modern 
 warfare as they are, they had indeed already divided, one party riding
 
 118 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 eastward as reported after swooping down on the Caliente station, and 
 driving some of the stock ahead of them, for the sole purpose of draw 
 ing the Lampasas troop off in that direction, leaving the settlers along 
 the Colorado to the mercies of the other and larger portion of the sav 
 age force. There was no use now in sending couriers after the troop. 
 It had five hours start. It would be evening before the fleetest horse 
 could overtake the command. Lambert urged the sergeant to give him 
 a horse and arms, mount three or four men, and let them go with him, 
 if only to reconnoitre. Then some of the Texans who had no families 
 to defend might volunteer. But the sergeant dared not take the respon 
 sibility of disregarding his instructions, and was wiser than Lambert 
 in the wiles of Indian warfare. " I d go myself gladly, lieutenant," 
 he said, " but orders are orders, and a party of four or five would be 
 surrounded and cut off and massacred before you fairly realized that 
 an Indian was near you." Then Lambert had appealed to the Texans, 
 and the captain had replied as above; and then, just when he was 
 giving up in despair, a sergeant and two men, dust-covered and with 
 horses in a lather of foam, rode furiously in from the Waco trail. 
 
 "Is it true?" cried the sergeant, as he saw the unusual gathering 
 at camp. " We met a feller half-way over to the Brazos riding like hell, 
 warning folks the Indians were to the north, and he said they had 
 jumped the stage this side of Caliente. It s true ? And you haven t 
 done anything ? Mount every sound man you ve got, and give us fresh 
 horses." 
 
 " My orders were to take care " began his comrade. 
 
 " Damn your orders ! I bring later. The old man didn t believe 
 it, and had a sure thing ahead of him, or he d have turned back with 
 the hull outfit. Why, man, that stage or what s left of it ain t 
 thirty miles away, an you fellers sitting here like so many dam 
 women!" And the trooper flung himself from saddle at the word, 
 and then caught sight of Lambert s forage-cap and eager face. 
 
 " Get me a horse, too, sergeant ; I ll go with you. I m Lieutenant 
 Lambert, a classmate of your second lieutenant." 
 
 " You ll go in command, sir, and we re with you, six of us, any 
 how. I ve heard Corporal Walton speak of you, sir, often. How 
 many of you fellers 11 go?" he demanded eagerly of the knot of 
 Texans, while the few troopers hustled about, saddling spare horses and 
 levying on the list of invalid mounts, too sore or feeble for a long 
 chase, but good enough for a thirty-mile dash when it was life or death
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 119 
 
 at the end of it. In an instant the whole atmosphere seemed changed, 
 charged with ozone, electric force, magnetism, something, for the 
 snap and spirit of the new-comer flashed from man to man. Lambert, 
 a stranger and without authority in the premises, could effect nothing ; 
 Sergeant Dolan, a war veteran, a man they all knew, and clothed with 
 power as coming direct from that military demi-god " the captain," had 
 a dozen men armed, equipped, in saddle and ready for business, in ten 
 minutes. Six were soldiers, six civilians who half laughingly ranged 
 their raw-boned Texas ponies in line with the mounting troopers, and 
 Dolan sung out to Lambert, who had raided his classmate s tent for 
 extra boots and riding breeches, " We re ready, sir." 
 
 In the hot May sunshine, at high noon, they went loping north 
 westward over the lovely prairie, spangled with wild flowers, the Colo 
 rado twisting and turning like a silver serpent in its green bed to their 
 left. Five miles out, a wretched, half-demented creature hailed them 
 from a clump of willows by a little stream : " You re too late, you 
 fellers. They ain t anything left alive from the Paloma to the Caliente, 
 except Indians. The country s alive with them. Good-by to your 
 scalps if you venture over that ridge." And he pointed to the long, low 
 line of bluffs that spanned the horizon to the northwest. One man 
 stopped to question, but speedily came galloping on in pursuit. " He s 
 scared out of his wits. He can t prove what he says," was the brief 
 report to Lambert and the sergeant, now riding side by side at the 
 head of the little column. 
 
 Another hour, and, closer to the river, they were following the 
 meanderings of the stage-road, and the ridge loomed higher ahead. 
 Two more settlers had been passed ; and they were exaggerative beyond 
 any semblance of probability. The Indians numbered thousands, the 
 dead hundreds. The stage had been warned riot to push on beyond 
 Paloma Bluffs last night, but persisted in an attempt to reach the 
 Caliente. Colonel Sweet and party had been butchered to a man, 
 victims of his own rash effort to aid the poor fellows at the station, and 
 of his criminal disregard of Texan warnings. 
 
 " We ll know the truth in an hour, lieutenant, so there s no use 
 wasting time with those beggars. You can see the Paloma from yon 
 der bluffs," was Dolan s only comment. 
 
 Just at one o clock, the foaming, panting horses were reined in and 
 the girths loosened, while Lambert, guided by the veteran Indian- 
 fighter, crawled cautiously up the height in front of them. Half the
 
 120 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 men, dismounted, were stationed with ready rifle or carbine where they 
 could command every approach. Who could say whether Indians were 
 not even then lurking in every ravine? A young Texan, following 
 the road, pushed on cautiously to the point so as to scout the trail 
 beyond. With drooping heads and heaving flanks the motley herd 
 were huddled in a little swale to the right of the road, their holders 
 eagerly watching the young leader and saying few words. Warily 
 Dolan reached and peered over the crest. They could see him point 
 ing, could see both him and Lambert shading their eyes with their 
 hands and staring away into space, could see Dolan suddenly clutch 
 the officer s sleeve and, crouching lower, point as though to some 
 objects far out over the slopes beyond. Then down they came, eager, 
 elastic, with gleaming eyes and glowing faces. " Mount, men, mount! 
 There s a fight not five miles ahead !" sang out Dolan, and, swinging 
 into saddle, with Lambert only a length in lead, struck spurs to his 
 horse, the whole squad clattering at their heels. Young Texas, peering 
 around the point, heard them coming, and threw a long, lean leg over 
 his scraggy pony. " See anything ?" he hailed. 
 
 u Yes : Indians attacking something or other bout a mile to the 
 north of the road : looks like a dug-out o some kind." 
 
 " Tis a dug-out, by Gawd ! / know the place. Witherell s herd 
 used to graze around there last year, and he and his boys built that 
 dug-out in case they were attacked ; and maybe the stage managed to 
 get back there. Some one s alive, else the Indians wouldn t be fighting." 
 
 A cheer went up from the foremost men. After all, then, there was 
 vestige of hope. Lambert, eager and impetuous, was spurring off to 
 the open prairie that lay beyond a sweeping bend of the stream, but 
 Dolan hailed him : 
 
 " Not yet, lieutenant, not yet. There s some wide arroyos out 
 yonder. Stick to the road, sir, till we can see the hut. It s up a 
 long shallow valley beyond that second divide. I know the place now." 
 
 " But they ll see us, sergeant," shouted Lambert, as he bent over 
 the pommel and drove his rowels wickedly at the torn flanks of his 
 poor brute. " I hoped to surprise them, and charge." 
 
 " Lord love you, sir, there s no surprising these beggars in broad 
 daylight. They ve been watching for some of us ever since sun-up, 
 and they ve seen us now. Lucky they haven t guns, cept old muzzle- 
 loaders. They ve mostly nothing but bows and lances." 
 
 The horses were panting furiously now, and some of the squad
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 121 
 
 were stringing out far to the rear. Dolan, glancing back, saw two or 
 three men vainly lashing at their exhausted mounts long musket-shot 
 behind. 
 
 " It won t do, lieutenant : we ll have to keep together, or, first thing 
 you know, a hull pack <> them yelping curs 11 burst out of some ravine 
 and cut those fellows off, kill and scalp em and scurry away on their 
 fresh ponies before we could get back to help. Let em catch up, sir. 
 We ll get there time enough." 
 
 And so, more slowly now, as advised by the veteran plainsman, 
 Lambert led his party, the young Texan ranging alongside and riding 
 on his right. He, too, wanted to charge, and again old Dolan pointed 
 out the absurdity of it. " Their ponies are fresh and nimble. We d 
 never cak h them, while they could ride around and spit us with their 
 damned arrows. What we want is a chance with our Spencers and 
 rifles, sir : that s the way to empty their saddles and stand em off. 
 Look yonder, sir !" 
 
 And then, just as Dolan pointed, three mounted warriors, their 
 war-bonnets trailing over their bounding ponies backs, the first hos 
 tile Indians Lambert had ever seen, burst from their covert behind a 
 low divide to the right and went scurrying away towards the north 
 ward hills in wide detour to join their comrades. The road disap 
 peared around a gentle rise in the prairie half a mile ahead. 
 
 " Out with you, Lang and Naughton !" said the sergeant, briskly. 
 " Go ahead to that point." And the two troopers, well knowing what 
 was required of them, darted on without a word, Lambert and the 
 main body following now at steady trot. Before the two thus thrown 
 in advance had come within three hundred yards of the bend, a little 
 jet of smoke and fire flashed out from over the ridge, followed instantly 
 by two others ; both riders swerved ; one horse stumbled and went 
 down, his rider cleverly rolling out from among the striking, strug 
 gling hoofs. " That s the way they d have picked you off, sir," shouted 
 Dolan, as the whole party burst into a gallop and drove straight for the 
 ridge. " We ll sweep them aside in a second." 
 
 They did not wait to be swept aside. Six or eight painted savages 
 were spinning away over the sward by the time the troopers came 
 laboring to the top, and others, circling, yelling, brandishing their arms, 
 and hurling jeer and challenge over the intervening swale, were in 
 plain view along the opposite slope not half a mile away. Beyond 
 that lay the scene of the siege ; and just over it, only a few yards away 
 F 11
 
 122 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 from the road, lay two bloated, stiffening objects, at sight of which 
 every horse in the pursuing party shied and snorted. There lay, bris 
 tling with arrows, two of the stage mules. Two hundred yards farther, 
 the smouldering remains of the stage itself, with the gashed and muti 
 lated body of a man only a lariat s length away, greeted the eyes of 
 Lambert and his foremost men. Here Dolan flung himself from his 
 horse, tossed the reins to one of the men, saying, " Hold all you can. 
 Lead em to the hollow yonder," and, kneeling, drove a long-range 
 shot at some gaudily-painted warriors clustered about some object 
 half-way up the opposite slope. A pony plunged and reared, and a 
 yell of rage and defiance went up. Man after man, nearly all the little 
 squad sprang to earth and opened brisk fire on every Indian within 
 rifle-shot, and every man for himself, following the general lead of 
 Lambert and Dolan, strode forward up the gentle ascent towards a 
 dingy mound, half earth, half logs, about a quarter of a mile ahead 
 of them, until Dolan shouted right and left, " Cease firing ! Stop your 
 noise ! Listen !" 
 
 And, borne down the wind, faint and feeble, yet exultant, there 
 came the sound of distant cheer, and the rescuers knew they had not 
 risked their lives in vain. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 One soft, warm evening in early June quite a family party had 
 gathered on the veranda of the old white homestead at Pass Christian. 
 The air was rich with the fragrance of jasmine and magnolia ; a 
 great bunch of roses lay on the little table beside the reclining chair, 
 where, propped up with pillows, Mrs. Walton was placidly enjoying 
 the beauty of the moonlit scene and rapturously contemplating the 
 stalwart form of her soldier son. It was too much it was too soon 
 to expect of a Southern woman even so customary a thing as a change 
 of mind, when that change involved a confession of interest and pride 
 in the army blue, but the mother did not live in all the broad and 
 sorrowing South whose soul would not have thrilled with pride and 
 delight, even though hidden and unconfessed, in reading the ringing 
 words with which in general orders a great Union leader had published 
 to his troops the story of the heroism, devotion, and soldierly skill with 
 which Corporal Floyd Walton, Troop " X," Fourth Cavalry, had con 
 ducted the defVwi: of the passengers on the Coucho stage, saving the
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 123 
 
 lives of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Sweet, who was shot early in the 
 engagement, and of two civilians, and, though himself twice painfully 
 wounded, maintaining the defence and inflicting severe loss upon an 
 overwhelming force of hostile Indians, until finally relieved by the 
 arrival of a detachment of troopers and volunteers successfully and gal 
 lantly led by Lieutenant I. N. Lambert, teenth Infantry (wounded), 
 and Sergeant Dolan, Fourth Cavalry. 
 
 Sergeant Walton, promoted within the week, had been granted a 
 month s furlough as soon as able to travel, and with his arm in a sling 
 had hastened homeward, where within the forty-eight hours succeeding 
 his arrival he had time and again to tell the story of that fearful day. 
 They had got within five miles of the Caliente before discovering that 
 only a smouldering ruin remained of the stage station. Hearing from 
 fleeing settlers of the raid, Colonel Sweet had decided to push forward 
 at top speed to reinforce the little party of defenders. The driver had 
 urged the same course, and the two civilian passengers had naturally 
 demurred. Then, when they found it too late, they turned and strove 
 to retrace the road to Lampasas, were headed off at dawn, but fought 
 a way to Witherell s old dug-out, the driver and two soldiers being 
 killed, Colonel Sweet and the corporal both shot in the attempt, and 
 the stage abandoned and burned. And there in that stifling hole, with 
 out water for the wounded, they had fought off dash after dash of the 
 Indians; but their ammunition was almost gone, and only two men 
 had any fight left in them, when they heard the welcome crack of the 
 rescuers rifles. Even then the Indians hung about all the long after 
 noon and night, and Lambert got his painful wound in heading a little 
 squad that ran the gauntlet to a neighboring spring for water for the 
 fevered wounded. Of his own conduct Floyd had little to say ("What 
 else did they expect of a Walton ?" was his mother s comment. " Is 
 bravery so rare an attribute in the Federal army?"), but he could not 
 say enough about young Lambert. " We were fighting for our lives : 
 we had to fight," he said ; " but he risked his to fetch us water. I say 
 that young fellow s a trump." And he flashed a significant glance at 
 Katesie, for Cousin Bart, with the imbecility of manhood, had let that 
 domestic cat out of the bag, and then, once started, had told more. 
 Floyd Walton, under pledge of secrecy, was held a spell-bound listener 
 to Cousin Bart the second night after his arrival, when the rest of the 
 family had gone to bed. Bart had been celebrating his cousin s deeds 
 and rejoicing over his return to the extent of tangling his tongue, but
 
 124 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 Floyd could not trip him on his facts : " If you don t believe me, you 
 can ask the doctor ask Colonel Scroggs or Walton he ll be hyuh 
 to-mawwo," said his informant. "That s the kind of Yank he is, by 
 Gawd, suh ; an if I thought they was maw like him you bet I d re 
 construct too. But the Lawd don t make too many like him, nor 
 young Lambert either." 
 
 And when Floyd finally went to his room that night after the 
 loving visit to his mother s bedside, he sat long at the open casement, 
 gazing out on the soft, still beauty of the moonlit night, his heart 
 touched and thrilled as it had not been for years, and his pride hum 
 bled. While he, wayward and forgetful of their needs, had left mother 
 and sisters to struggle for themselves, and had lost himself in vain 
 dreaming of a sweet-faced girl who he had early enough been warned 
 was not for him, while he, reckless, selfish, and weak, had abandoned 
 himself to drink and despair and then to the cold charity of the world, 
 it was an alien and an enemy, an uncouth soldier in the hated blue, 
 who had stood between the stricken and helpless ones at home and ab 
 solute want and privation. The good angel who ministered to them 
 in their distress, even when stipulating that they should never know 
 whence came the needed aid, and who finally became the " purchaser" 
 of the desolate and ruined place, thereby supplying the means to make 
 them so content and comfortable now, was that creature of strong con 
 trasts, Captain Close. 
 
 Not until long after midnight did Walton leave his seat by the 
 open casement and seek his pillow ; but there was another watcher 
 whose vigil outlasted his. In the little batch of letters brought by 
 Cousin Bart from the post-office that evening was one which bore the 
 Austin stamp and was addressed in Lambert s hand. Reading it hur 
 riedly, Floyd had changed color and thrust it in his pocket, Katesie 
 watching him with furtive eyes, yet never trusting herself to question. 
 It was Esther who eagerly demanded news of their absent friend. " Oh, 
 yes, he s getting better," Floyd admitted, but then faltered. When 
 was he coming? Oh, Lambert didn t say. The doctors probably 
 wouldn t let him travel just yet. The letter was mainly about other 
 matters about Colonel Sweet, who didn t seem to be doing as well as 
 they could wish. His wife was on the way to join him. Didn t Lam 
 bert send any word or message ? No. He probably wrote in a hurry. 
 And that night Miss Katesie sat with her dimpled chin buried in her 
 pretty round arms, gazing long out upon the flashing waters, a sad,
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 125 
 
 silent, and deeply troubled girl. There was something in that letter 
 that concerned her; and how disagreeable she had been to Lambert! 
 and she just knew it ! and Floyd was mean and wouldn t tell her! At 
 least this was the burden of her song when at two o clock in the morn 
 ing she threw herself sobbing into Esther s loving arras, and Esther, 
 soothing and smiling softly to herself, thought she could soon find 
 means to comfort her. 
 
 That week brought other letters, and a telegram to Floyd, and he 
 had business in New Orleans and must go over for a day. Lambert 
 was coming on from Texas, and he d fetch him back with him. Every 
 body could see he was feverishly impatient to get away, and a sad 
 smile flickered about the mother s pale lips as she laid her hand in 
 blessing on his head. He went by the morning boat and hastened to 
 the levee where the steamers of the Cromwell line came in from New 
 York. He was there hours before the Crescent came ploughing her 
 way up the swollen and turbid river; and, before she was sighted at 
 English Turn, who should appear but Lieutenant Waring and the 
 general s aide-de-camp who had come to see him during his brief con 
 finement under guard ! Floyd, though in civilian dress, had promptly 
 sprung to his feet to salute them, but they recognized him instantly, 
 and heartily shook his hand and congratulated him on his recovery and 
 on the honors he had won. And then it transpired that he, too, had 
 come to see if he could be of service to Mrs. Sweet, and Waring sud 
 denly bethought him of a story he had heard about the Quitman days. 
 A fellow of infinite tact was Waring when he chose to be, and, after a 
 few words of cordial greeting to the fair passengers, he winked at his 
 comrade the aide-de-camp, as he said he must hasten back to battery 
 duty. And so, even when the sergeant would have deferentially fallen 
 to the rear, it was that distinguished non-commissioned officer who gave 
 his arm to the younger of the two ladies in response to Waring s calm 
 " Mr. Walton will take charge of Miss Sweet," and while the mother 
 was led away to the waiting carriage by the staff officer, well knowing 
 that the mother-made engagement was at an end, the daughter s little 
 hand slipped trembling upon his arm. What happened in the elysium 
 of that two minutes threading of a dusty, crowded, freight-heaped wharf 
 was not confessed by either until two long years after. The ladies 
 went on to Galveston that night, and Walton s face was radiant when, 
 two days later, he came back home ; and then he could have hated 
 himself for his selfishness when he saw Esther. 
 
 11*
 
 126 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 "Why, where s Mr. Lambert?" was her startled query, as she met 
 him at the gate. Only the moment before as they saw the boat splash 
 ing away from the pier had Katesie, with madly beating heart, run 
 from her side to bathe her flushed cheeks and hide in her room until 
 she heard his voice on the veranda and the first greetings were over, 
 and then she would summon up all her saucy spirit and go tripping 
 down to meet him with due nonchalance and levity. She had planned 
 it all, poor child, rehearsed the little comedy time and again, and was 
 steeling herself to act her coquettish rdle, when her sister s words and 
 Floyd s reply fell upon her astounded ears : 
 
 " He had to go straight on home. His mother s ill." 
 
 And not until then did Katesie Walton know that she, too, " had 
 surrendered." 
 
 All things come to him or her who knows how to wait ; even 
 an absent lover, even the era of peace and good will between estranged 
 and warring sections, even the end of a long story. Another year 
 rolled by on clogging wheels and wrought many a change throughout 
 the sunny South. A dauntless spirit had drifted from this to a better 
 world. Reverent hands laid the wasted form of the lady mother under 
 the grand old live-oaks close to the "shining shore," and the Walton 
 household, grieving, yet glad that the long years of suffering were 
 ended, gave up, against his vehement protest, the refuge which the 
 beneficence of a stranger had afforded their beloved in her declining 
 days. The sisters went with Scroggs to his new home in Texas, where 
 a pioneer railway company had tendered him employment. Here 
 Floyd could sometimes visit them, a stalwart sergeant who gratefully 
 declined the offer of influential men to procure his discharge, saying 
 that he meant to serve every hour of his enlistment. Here, within 
 hail of the cavalry trumpets and sight of the national flag, there often 
 came to spend the day a fair-faced girl, a Northern blonde the very 
 antitype to Katesie s Southern beauty, and the blue and the gray looked 
 love and trust when each gazed into the other s eyes, for some remarka 
 ble bond of sympathy had linked Genevieve Sweet and Kate Walton 
 in close companionship. 
 
 Here, too, were received and answered letters increasing in frequency, 
 and one never-to-be-forgotten day, from a far distant post, there sud 
 denly appeared a very proper young fellow in the conventional travel 
 ling garb of the period ; and presently Jenny Sweet bethought herself 
 that important household matters had to be looked after at the garrison,
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 127 
 
 and Esther had her marketing to do and must do it. " Of course Mr. 
 Lambert will dine and take tea with us." (We dined at one and tead 
 at six-thirty in those days in Texas.) And so there was no one left 
 to entertain him but Katesie and the cat ; and even the cat was very 
 much in the way in Lambert s way, that is, for the girl had the un 
 gracious creature in her arms, covering her with undesired caresses, the 
 instant after Esther s departure. The porch was vine-clad, shaded and 
 inviting, but Katesie perversely insisted on the steps and the hot morn 
 ing sunshine : pussy loved the warmth and sunshine. Lambert sought 
 to stroke and caress Sabina, since Sabina was held tight over a thump 
 ing little heart and close under rosy lips and dimpled chin and soft, 
 flushed cheeks. His finger-tips thrilled at the delicious proximity, and 
 Sabina magnetically perceived it and malignantly set back her ears and 
 hissed, whereat he pinched her ears and was promptly bidden to " Go 
 sit ovuh yawnduh f you cahnt leave huh yuhs alone," whereupon he 
 transferred his attentions to Sabina s lashing tail and precipitated a 
 row. Sabina clawed and struggled ; the outraged caudal bristled like 
 a bottle-washer; Katesie sought to soothe with more hugs and kisses 
 and those emotional and passionate mouthings which women lavish on 
 their feline favorites. " Oh, um Cattums ! um Kittums ! um Puss- 
 urns ! um Tweetums !" rapturously exclaimed Miss Walton through 
 her close-pressed lips, as she buried her nose in the fluffy fur ; and this 
 was more than Lambert could stand. With sudden quick decision he 
 lifted the astonished Sabina from the damsel s arms and dropped her 
 on all-fours on the grass-plot below. Then, as quickly, he seized her 
 mistress by her empty hands. 
 
 " Katesie, do you suppose I ve waited all these weary months to see 
 you squandering kisses on a cat? Have you no answer now, after all 
 I ve told you, after my coming so many hundred miles?" 
 
 Her hands were writhing about in his grasp, making every pre 
 tence, and no real effort, at getting away. " Ah didn t tell you to 
 come," she finally pouted. 
 
 " It s no time for trifling, Katesie. I ve loved you dearly ever so 
 long ever since the first time you leaned this bonny head upon my 
 shoulder." 
 
 " Ah didn t ! Ah nevuh did !" 
 
 " You did ; and I ve got five glossy threads of your beautiful hair 
 to prove it." 
 
 " It was all the fault of that ho id shoulder-strap. Ah hate it,
 
 128 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 and you h hateful fo reminding me of it !" And still her hands kept 
 writhing in vain, impotent pretence at struggling. He held them 
 with scarce an eifort. 
 
 "Well," said he, solemnly, "they will never vex your soft cheek 
 again, Katesie. I have worn them for the last time." 
 
 " Yo have?" And now the struggles seemed gradually to cease, 
 or their continuance became purely mechanical, and the big, deep gray 
 eyes looked wistfully up through their long, curving lashes. " Whut 
 whut foh, Ah d like to know?" She didn t quite say " lahke." 
 
 " Well, several reasons have been set before me. Mother is getting 
 on in years, and wishes I could be near her, instead of half across the 
 continent away." 
 
 She was looking up at him very solemnly now. 
 
 " Ah nevuh could beah you in those things cits," she said at last. 
 
 " Brava ! You are mastering army vernacular already, Katesie," 
 he answered, his eyes twinkling. " And do you think you could bear 
 me if I continued to wear the old shoulder-straps? Ah, Katesie, it s 
 too late. Here they are." And, transferring unresisted one snowy 
 wrist to contact with its fellow in the grasp of his left hand, he drew 
 forth from an inner pocket an oblong parcel in which lay the light-blue 
 velvet straps, wound round and round with silken threads of hair. "I 
 couldn t bear to turn them over to any one but you," he solemnly said. 
 " They are mine no longer." 
 
 She was silent a moment. Then the deep gray eyes were again up 
 lifted, studying with troubled gaze the soldierly, sun-tanned young face. 
 
 " Ah d much rather you were going to keep on weah-ing them," 
 she said. 
 
 " But I thought you hated the very sight of them and the uni 
 form ?" 
 
 " That was befo Brothuh Floyd woh it." 
 
 He had repossessed himself of the little hands by this time. " Then 
 you do like the army blue a little? How I wish I d known this 
 sooner !" 
 
 " The army isn t so bad, now that some Southern gentlemen are 
 going back into it," she answered, airily. 
 
 " It would be still more attractive with a certain Southern girl I 
 know in it." 
 
 " Ah don t see how that would do you any good, f you re going to 
 leave it."
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 129 
 
 " Ah ! It was the army I was thinking of just then, not myself. 
 Thank you for thinking of me, Katesie." And now his eyes were brim 
 ming over with mingled tenderness and merriment. He had raised 
 her hands, and, placing them palm to palm, stood clasping them, their 
 rosy finger-tips close to his lips. 
 
 "Ah didn t! Ah wasn t! Let go ma hands, Mist Lambuht." 
 And once again she began to writhe, simply to feel his resisting power. 
 " Ah wouldn t live like some o those women do at the foht -just like 
 gypsies." 
 
 " No," responded Lambert, demurely. " That s what a lady friend 
 of yours told me : she said you were only a spoiled little Southern girl, 
 brought up without any idea of housekeeping or care and responsi 
 bility." 
 
 " Who dayuhd to say such spiteful things ?" demanded Miss Walton, 
 all ablaze in an instant. 
 
 " She said," calmly resumed Lambert, " that the main reason you 
 didn t care to be a soldier s wife, probably, was that you d always been 
 made a pet of and wouldn t know how to look after a brute of a hus- 
 baud and one room and a kitchen, all a lieutenant s allowed, you know." 
 
 "Who dayuhd to say such things? It wasn t Genevieve ! Ah d 
 never speak " 
 
 "Wait till I tell you the rest," pursued Lambert, calmly. "She 
 said she really couldn t see why I wanted to marry you : you were not 
 at all the sort of girl she d expect a Northerner to marry." 
 
 " Ah never huhd such outrageous impudence in all ma bawn days. 
 Who was it ? Ah ll never speak t you again f you don t tell me this 
 instant. Ah ll never let you leave this spot till you do tell me." 
 
 " I m only too glad to stay. I was afraid you might send me away 
 anyhow, even after you found I had given up the shoulder-straps for 
 your sake, since Esther told me I d find it hard work to make you a 
 soldier s wife." 
 
 "Esthuh! She said such mean things bout me? Oh, Ah ll pay 
 huh off fo that ! Ah could manage just as well as she could, and keep 
 house ev y bit as well ! Ah ve been out theyh often with Jenny Sweet, 
 and seen just how they managed. Ah d been watching and studying" 
 (sob) " and now now" with sudden inspiration " Ah b lieve you re 
 just laughing at me! Ah hate you moh than evuln, and Ah ll nevuh 
 mah y you nevu\\ jus fo leavin the ahmy and not havin sufficient 
 F*
 
 130 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 confidence in me to think I could be a soldier s wife. Ah might have 
 done it Ah would, perhaps, if you had stayed, but but " 
 
 But now she was seized and strained to his heart, and the furiously 
 blushing face was kissed again and again, though indignant tears were 
 starting from her eyes. It was useless to struggle. She leaned there 
 at last, passive, pouting, sobbing a little, and striving to push herself 
 from his embrace, but striving so feebly, so very feebly. " My own 
 little rebel," he murmured, with his lips close pressed to her cheek, 
 " Esthuh did tell me I d find it hard work to win you for a soldier s 
 wife, did tell me you had had no care or experience in the past, did 
 say she thought a Northern officer would have fallen in love elsewhere ; 
 but she never said you were not fit to be a soldier s wife, and / never 
 said I was going to quit being a soldier. I love it better than anything 
 in the world but you " 
 
 "You did! You said yo d done with the shoulder-straps fo euuh!" 
 And up flashed the indignant gray eyes again, and this brought the 
 quivering little mouth, so red and soft and warm, too close for safety to 
 his yearning lips. Down they swooped upon their prey. " I didn t," 
 he whispered as he held her close. " It s the old strap the second lieu 
 tenant s I ll never wear again. I ve won my bar now, and my wife." 
 
 We were sitting one winter s evening nearly two years later in the 
 Lamberts quarters at old Fort Scott. Kinsey was there too, and Floyd 
 Walton with his bride on their wedding tour. A blazing fire of hickory 
 logs was snapping on the hearth, and under the soft light of the shaded 
 lamp was Katesie, a charming picture of young wifehood, her needle 
 work dropped in her lap, her gray eyes following every movement of 
 her husband, who was declaiming to his guests and pacing up and down 
 in uncontrollable excitement. 
 
 It was the January of the " Consolidation Year," when by act of 
 Congress forty-five regiments of infantry were summarily "telescoped" 
 into half their number, and some hundreds of officers and gentlemen 
 who had joined the regular service at the end of the great war in the 
 reasonable hope of attaining suitable rank before they died, found 
 themselves suddenly bereft of all hope of promotion and doomed to 
 remain subalterns and file-closers until they were fifty. It was the year 
 when to provide for the superfluous officers of the consolidated regi 
 ments of foot they were crammed into every obtainable vacancy in the 
 horse and artillery, when incompetents were ordered before a board of
 
 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 131 
 
 examiners and given a chance to defend their commissions, while oh, 
 the black shame of it ! others, gallant fellows who had fought all 
 through the war, but had been at some time or other in the past at odds, 
 personal or official, with certain of their superiors, now, without word 
 of warning, without opportunity of defence, without knowing who 
 were their accusers or what the accusations, found themselves summarily 
 dropped from the rolls and their places promptly filled. The needed 
 reduction by fair means proving too slow, the methods of foreign des 
 potisms were resorted to : " confidential reports" were solicited from 
 commanding officers, some of whom, disdaining such lettre-de-eachet 
 business, promptly consigned the offending document to the flames or 
 " pigeon-holed" it without reply, while others accepted eagerly the op 
 portunity to undermine the men whom courts had honorably acquitted. 
 In some few instances there were gentlemen thus disposed of who never 
 knew they had been accused of misdemeanor until, amazed, they saw 
 their names upon the published list. Among those thus given their 
 cong6 was Brevet Captain J. P. Close, First Lieutenant teenth In 
 fantry, at the moment expecting his promotion to the captaincy of 
 Company " C ". " The old man," as his soldiers called him, had re 
 turned to duty after his six months leave, with eyesight permanently 
 impaired, and had been received with cordial and avowed esteem by 
 Farnham and Kinsey and with open arms by Lambert. The manly fel 
 lows in the regiment followed suit, and they had done much to rub off 
 the uncouth edges, to polish the rough exterior, and so reveal the value 
 of the gem within, and Close was plodding contentedly along as quarter 
 master of a four-company post, when the blow fell. Minor, now lieu 
 tenant-colonel, was in command of the teenth, the old adjutant and 
 quartermaster in command of him. There was no need of asking 
 whence the unseen allegations came. 
 
 An ill wind it is indeed that blows nobody good. In the general 
 " shake-up" there came a colonel to the regiment whose first official act 
 was to accept the resignations of the two staff officers and to appoint 
 Lambert adjutant. " I wish you had gone in for a commission," said he 
 to Floyd, whom he had known in his sergeant days in Texas, but Floyd 
 replied that if this treatment of Close was a specimen of army justice 
 he reckoned railroading would suit him better. Whereupon the new 
 colonel swore that if Close were only back again he d make him quar 
 termaster and let his oppressors see the other side of his story ; but 
 Close never came.
 
 13 2 CAPTAIN CLOSE. 
 
 With certain other wronged and astonished men, he had gone to 
 Washington and pleaded his case before a most harassed and unhappy 
 Cabinet official who was no longer able to undo the mischief, the Senate 
 having confirmed the nominations to the vacancies thus created. 
 
 " He allowed that he guessed a few mistakes might have been made 
 long of his putting too much faith in what some officers told him," 
 wrote Close to Lambert, "but that in nine cases out of ten the thing 
 was all right. I told him I hadn t come to talk about anybody s rights 
 or wrongs but my own : what I wanted was the captaincy 1 was clean 
 bilked out of. He said he couldn t fix that anyhow. The only thing 
 was to take a second lieutenantcy and start back at the bottom of the 
 ladder again. Some of them poor fellows who d been so long in the 
 army they didn t know any other way of living and supporting their 
 families was fools enough to do it, but I d see him dummed first, and 
 nigh onto told him so. 
 
 " I guess I ve had bout enough of it anyhow, Lambert. I did my 
 best for the government in the days when if we fellows hadn t done 
 our best there mighty soon wouldn t of been any government cept 
 Jeff Davis, and if this here s a specimen of the best the government 
 can do for a man that got plugged pretty full of lead fighting for it, 
 why, next war that comes around I want to be a sutler and nothing 
 else. Lucky I ain t as bad off as the rest. The boys are doing first- 
 rate, and the girls are well hitched to very decent farmers, both of em, 
 and bout all I ve got to look after s my property. They re running 
 two railroads through there now, and it won t be long before I can be a 
 Senator or Secretary, if I can t be a sutler. Now I m going back to 
 Spirit Lake, where I m building the prettiest home in the Hawkeye 
 State, and it ll be all ready to welcome you and Mrs. Lambert and 
 well -just as soon as she feels like travelling again and you must 
 come and spend a long leave with me. I ain t got any children of my 
 own, and my kindred are kind of wrapped up in theirs, and I took a 
 shine to you the first day you set foot in that old mud-hole of a camp 
 at Tugaloo. So don t you ever fret about the future, Lambert. You 
 stood by me when I hadn t a friend, and my will s all made, boy, and 
 don t you forget it. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "J. P. CLOSE. 
 
 " P.S. Dam the Cap."
 
 SERGEANT CKGESUS.
 
 SERGEANT ORCESUS. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE colonel was hopping mad. Anybody could see it, and every 
 body within range of his tongue and temper felt it. Bob Gray, the 
 adjutant, guessed it before he got within sound of his voice, and could 
 swear to it before he got out again. Being only an adjutant, however, 
 he couldn t swear at it, and so keep on even terms with his chief. He 
 bottled his own wrath, as he did the colonel s commentaries, and kept 
 them both for future emergencies. A relic of the vaunted old dragoon 
 days was the colonel ; one of the fast vanishing lot of hard-riding, 
 hard-fighting, and sometimes hard-swearing campaigners who had 
 learned their trade under masters of the art long years before the war. 
 He had crossed the Llano Estacado and camped on the Mimbres and 
 chased the Navajoes when Navajoes were monarchs of the Southwest 
 ern plains, were bellicose not bucolic, raised sheol instead of sheep, a 
 statement otherwise expressed by Kit Carson, a keen scout and keener 
 judge of aboriginal nature, who said that when they were not raising 
 hell or ha r in equal proportions the Navajoes were either dead or 
 asleep. We were having campaigns ten times more thrilling in point 
 of incident, ten times fiercer in point of fighting and casualties, ten 
 times tougher in point of hardship and privation and the food we 
 lived on than those of the Navajo days, to be sure, but the colonel 
 would have it the service wasn t to be mentioned alongside that to 
 which he had been accustomed when they scouted with Kearney or 
 Fauntleroy and rode races with the Mounted Rifles at Albuquerque and 
 Santa Fe". " They made cavalrymen in those days," said he. Then 
 with gloomy reference to the losses of the summer just gone by, " Now 
 they only kill em, and this set of slummers they are sending out to 
 recruit us is only fit to be killed anyhow. Why the devil did you 
 send me such a wooden-headed idiot for an orderly on this day of all 
 others ?" he demanded of his staff officer. " Why, he couldn t speak 
 English!" 
 
 185
 
 136 SERGEANT CIXESUS. 
 
 Now, when the colonel began to ask questions and invite explana 
 tions we all knew that he had, measurably at least, blown off his 
 wrath ; was beginning to regret anything sharp he had said ; was 
 penitent, and wanted to be mollified and forgiven and taken into 
 good-fellowship again. Nobody knew this better than the adjutant, or 
 presumed on it more. At this stage of the proceedings Bob became 
 downright impudent. But his brown eyes twinkled with fun as he 
 stood facing the colonel and waiting for an opportunity to speak. 
 
 "No, sir, he couldn t speak a word of English," repeated the 
 colonel. 
 
 " We-ell,"said Bob, reflectively, " it wasn t a civil service examina 
 tion I was running. He was the cleanest man on guard, and your 
 orders are " 
 
 " Then send me the dirtiest so long as we are in the field," burst in 
 the colonel, impetuously. " What I want in an orderly is just what I 
 don t want in an adjutant, a man who can repeat what I say, and not 
 think." 
 
 " Well, anybody ought to be able to do that, sir," began the adju 
 tant, with a twitch under the heavy thatch of his moustache. 
 
 " Wait till I get through, young man," interrupted the colonel 
 again, impressively ; " then you may be as harmless as you know how. 
 What I need in an adjutant is one who can think and not say any 
 thing except when I tell him to. Now, you sent me a Dutch doll 
 that couldn t even squawk in English. He called me names in some 
 foreign lingo." 
 
 " Well, you wouldn t want him to do it in English, would you, 
 colonel ?" 
 
 "Wouldn t? I didn t Damn it! where are your wits this morn 
 ing, Gray ? He he what was it he called me, Fallen ?" 
 
 " Sounded like O-burst, was all I heard, sir," said the quarter 
 master, uncomfortably. "But Sergeant Stein says that s only the 
 double Dutch for colonel." 
 
 Mr. Gray s eyes were dancing now. " I never saw the man before 
 in my life, colonel," said he. " He came with that big batch of 
 recruits the other day. Manning s first sergeant marched him on. 
 He looked spick -span neat and clean and intelligent, by long odds the 
 trimmest and most soldier-like fellow on guard." 
 
 "Not excepting the officer of the day and adjutant, I suppose," 
 interposed the colonel.
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 137 
 
 " No exceptions whatever, sir. Indeed, not excepting any man in 
 the whole command, from the colonel up I mean down. You were 
 saying yesterday that the only way to tell real cavalrymen from recruits 
 was that we looked like jayhawkers and they like Jew-store dummies. 
 Still, I thought the sight of a man clean shaved, with buttons and 
 buckles polished, would please your eyes after all this campaign s mud, 
 so I sent him. Of course if he could only call you names in Dutch 
 I m sorry, and will see that you re properly looked after next time." 
 
 But even " Old Tintop" began to see the fun under the sedate 
 gravity of the adjutant s words. 
 
 " Confound you for a young rascal ! What have you been making 
 me say, anyhow ? Come back here, Fallen, and stop your laughing, 
 
 too, sir. You re a nice pair to play it on your old What do you 
 
 want, sir ?" 
 
 Turning suddenly, he addressed a ragged, tattered, hungry-looking 
 party in hunting-shirt, buckskin breeches, and Shoshone leggings, 
 standing attention before the colonel s " shack," he had no tent, with 
 a bare brown hand raised to his rusty brown carbine in salute. 
 
 " I m ordered to report to the colonel as the dirtiest man on guard, 
 sir," was the stolid answer. 
 
 For a moment the commander gazed at him in wrath, and then a 
 light flashed across his mental vision. 
 
 " Now see what you ve reduced me to, Gray, you infernal young 
 sinner. I sent Stein back with the orderly you picked out, and here s 
 the result." 
 
 " Well, sir, if dirt s what you want, this " 
 
 " But it isn t," interrupted the colonel. " I want an orderly, and 
 not a scarecrow. Now you see, do you ?" 
 
 " I think I do, sir. Neither a rag doll nor a Dutch doll, neither 
 the cleanest nor the dirtiest, just a happy medium, one who can call 
 names in English preferred, not so swell as to put our head-quarters to 
 
 shame, nor so shabby as to make us blush for all Well, I think 
 
 I understand you." 
 
 But here the colonel interposed with language so forcible as to put 
 a stop even to Gray s fun, which he would stand, as a rule, longer than 
 anybody else s. Meantime, the discovery having been made that recruit 
 Schramm was but a novice in English, whatsoever he might be in 
 German, that young soldier was told by the sergeant of the guard to 
 " Go on out of this and back to your buukies. Sure you couldn t tell a 
 
 12*
 
 138 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 
 
 Sioux from a shyster unless he shot you in Dutch," which, being inter 
 preted, was understood to mean that until he had mastered the English 
 language he wasn t fit for sentry duty. And so, much troubled, the 
 young fellow went to Sergeant Schultz, a Prussian like himself, and 
 sorrowfully told his tale. 
 
 Never in his life had Private Schramm s blue eyes gazed on scenes 
 and soldiers such as these. Just what he expected to find in the ranks 
 of the American army he had revealed as yet to no one. It was the 
 eventful summer of 76, when, amazed at the force and fury with 
 which the Sioux had fought and baffled the commands of Crook and 
 Ouster, Terry and Gibbon, Congress authorized the immediate enlist 
 ment of twenty-five hundred men to fill the gaps in the four regiments 
 of cavalry engaged in the campaign. No credentials were required. 
 Eager for a chance to get to the new diggings the Black Hills of 
 Dakota at the expense of Uncle Sam, swarms of toughs were enlisted 
 in the slums of New York and Philadelphia and Baltimore, and four 
 weeks later were deserting by the dozen, with horse and equipment 
 complete, as they reached the wasted army in the field. But there was 
 leaven in the lump. " That young feller s a soldier clean through," 
 said the recruiting sergeant when Schramm gave his name, age, nation 
 ality, etc., answering promptly so long as the questions were propounded 
 in the German tongue. 
 
 " Can t he speak English at all ?" said the recruiting officer, doubt 
 fully. " Well, what s the odds, after all, so long as he s only going to 
 be scalped? Swear him in." And so, silent, observant, patient, 
 Schramm was shipped westward with the first lot of victims, turned 
 over to the waiting officers at the cavalry depot, was marched out to 
 camp and set to a work grooming a horse the very evening of his arrival, 
 and turned out for drill the next morning, when, barring a certain 
 quaint habit of throwing the left foot far out to the front at the com 
 mand " march," and a queer way of executing " about face," it was 
 found that he was far better drilled in the rudiments, at least, than the 
 corporal detailed as his instructor. The carbine manual was strange to 
 him, but not so the sabre. He handled it like a master. He knew 
 how to clean and polish arms, belt buckles, etc., in a way that the few 
 old hands at the post recognized at once as " expert." He was be 
 sieged by German sergeants with queries as to his past history, but said 
 he preferred to keep all that to himself. Yes, he had served. No use 
 in denying that. He had been through certain cadet schools and en-
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 139 
 
 tered a certain regiment of Hussars ; which one he wouldn t say, neither 
 could they find out by writing. It was nobody s business but his own, 
 anyhow, said he. The United States had adopted him, and he was 
 now an Amerikaner, a " Freiwilliger," too. Long before the weary 
 march to the hills was over he had demonstrated the fact that he was 
 a fine horseman and a good shot. Lieutenant Ray, commander of the 
 big detachment, had more than once spoken of it ; and so, when finally 
 they reached the wild romantic hills and were distributed among the 
 regiments there awaiting them, Schramm looked with wonderment in 
 his soul, if not in his eyes, at the slouch-hatted, rough-shirted, unshaven 
 officers, at the ragged mob of the rank and file, at their gaunt skele 
 tons of horses, and marvelled that his strange fortunes had made him a 
 soldier in so strange a service. 
 
 Wisely he kept his views to himself, making no comment even to 
 the Germans who were disposed to be sociable and to question him as 
 to his antecedents. In two days a strong column marched away, all 
 broken-down men and horses and all raw recruits being left behind, 
 but with Schramm, evidently an educated cavalryman, riding buoy 
 antly in the ranks of D Troop on the spirited roan he had bestridden 
 all the way from the railway. " Whatever they look," thought he, 
 " these fellows are mightily at home on the frontier." Sergeant Schultz 
 explained that they always left their uniforms in garrison when in the 
 field after Indians, but called his attention to the fact that they never 
 lived better in the old country than these rough-looking fellows were 
 living now. Already the ills of the summer were forgotten. 
 
 Whether he forgot or not, Schramm made no reply. He was well 
 content with his rations, for field appetite is a wondrous sauce, and 
 soldier coffee with bacon, beans, " Dutch oven" bread, and antelope steak 
 have a relish in the keen October air known only to the frontiersman. 
 Schramm, from looking pale, peaked, and a trifle pathetic when he 
 stepped from the crowded train at the railway, had sprouted a fuzzy 
 beard, blistered the skin of his cheeks and nose in the hot noonday 
 sunshine, seared his eyelids by intemperate ablutions in alkali water, 
 and was making commendable progress in plains-craft and plains-Eng 
 lish. In three weeks scouting down the South Cheyenne, with the 
 Bad Lands on the right and worse lands on the left, he became so 
 proficient in the cavalry art of pre-empting a good patch of grass for 
 his horse that his troop commander, closely watching his new recruit, 
 remarked that that young fellow would be a valuable non-commissioned
 
 140 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 officer some day, if lie hadn t been already. Like the Germans of his 
 heterogeneous troop, the captain was of the opinion that Schramm had 
 a history. 
 
 One evening, far down the valley where not an Indian had been 
 seen or heard of, the outlying sentries reported a bunch of black-tailed 
 deer in the foot-hills to the northwest. Lieutenant Morgan was in 
 command of the guard, and his captain was officer of the day. Morgan 
 took a squad of three or four men, mounted, and rode away down the 
 wind, while a party of officers scrambled up the bank to the edge of 
 the broad prairie to watch the sport. It was just then that Schramm, 
 his blue eyes ablaze, clicked his heels together, stood bolt upright, and 
 began, coloring even redder in combined eagerness and embarrassment, 
 "Bitte, Herr Rittmeister," then, desperately plunging into trooper s 
 English as he had heard it spoken, " Kin I go along rnit dem fellers 
 alretty ?" and as Manning nodded assent, he saluted with marked pre 
 cision, bored a hole with his heel in the alkali dust in punctilious exe 
 cution of the " kehrt" sprang bareback on his horse, and rode away, 
 carbine in hand, after his trooper comrades. Half an hour went by, 
 and the herd, still undisturbed, continued to graze. The hunters were 
 out of sight among the depressions of the surface. The captain sent 
 for his field-glass, and other officers joined him and levelled their binoc 
 ulars on the distant quarry, just a deer family having a quiet dinner 
 together in a sheltered ravine opening out into the broad bottom of 
 the stream. Presently, one after another, three or four black objects 
 crawled around a point. " Yonder s Morgan," said the watchers. 
 Suddenly the deer family tossed high their heads, then darted away 
 into the hills and were out of sight in an instant. Two or three of 
 the younger officers set up a laugh of derision : u Pretty hunting that 
 is !" But the elders looked grave. " What scared them ?" was the 
 query. The black dots of hunters had halted, evidently in surprise. 
 There seemed to be a moment of consultation, and then all three could 
 be seen running back in the direction in which they came. 
 
 " Going for the horses to chase the deer," laughed young Leonard, 
 who sneered at Morgan s claims as a deer-stalker. 
 
 " Chase be hanged ! Look there ! the deer are chasing them." 
 
 Then uprose every man in mad excitement, for their senior lieutenant, 
 Mr. Ray, had sprung to his feet and rushed for his horse. " Deer, 
 you damned fool! It s Indians!" he cried; and, shouting for some 
 of the guard to follow him, Mr. Ray threw himself upon his nimble
 
 SERGEANT CROESUS. 141 
 
 sorrel and darted out over the prairie to the rescue. In a minute half 
 a dozen men were stringing along after him, while the alarm sounded 
 among the cottonwoods and the herd-guards came driving in their 
 excited cavalladas. 
 
 Meantime, there was the mischief to pay. Leaving two men as 
 horse-holders in a little swale, Morgan with three others, including the 
 eager young Prussian, crawled off for a shot at the herd. They were 
 in plain view, and utterly unsuspicious of approach from that quarter, 
 when, all on a sudden, the buck started, stamped, tossed his crest, and 
 away they all flew up the grassy ravine. Rising to his feet to study 
 the situation, after a word or two of caution to his comrades, Morgan 
 was saluted by the whistle of a bullet past his head, another, 
 another, and each coupled with the sharp report of the rifle. 
 
 " Back to your horses, quick !" he shouted. 
 
 All four ran, only to catch sight of a party of Sioux lashing 
 straight down the slope to head them off, while others, firing rapidly, 
 gave chase from across the ravine to their rear. Before he had gone 
 twenty yards Morgan saw Schramm stumble and fall, face downward. 
 
 " What is it?" he cried, running and bending over him. " Are you 
 hit? Here, let me help you, man." And poor Schramm could only 
 clasp his hand about his leg and plead in English equally broken, 
 " Lauf Roon ! Herr Lieutenant. AchGott! I can it not make." 
 Then Morgan, big powerful fellow, cut him short and swung the little 
 ex-hussar on his back and plunged ahead, heedless of his captive s 
 splutter and struggles. But yelling Sioux and whistling bullets both 
 were gaining. Another minute, and down went lieutenant and man, 
 carrier and carried, and this time Schramm, rolling over and over, 
 never let go of his carbine, but, lying prone, levelled it over a little 
 hummock, and sent a shot square at the foremost Indian, tripping his 
 calico pony in the nick of time. Morgan echoed with another. 
 " Good boy, Schramm ! Give em some more," he cried, as the charging 
 warriors veered and opened out. Then came other shots from the 
 swale in rear. Only one man held the horses now ; the others the 
 whole squad were blazing away. 
 
 " Check to your game, my bucks !" panted Morgan, loading, firing, 
 and missing again. "It s little but lead you ll get out of this outfit." 
 The Indian bullets were biting at the turf all around him, yet merci 
 fully flying wild. Schramm, bleeding fast, was paling, yet keeping up 
 his fire, wondering how it was he could so rarely hit those yelling, painted,
 
 142 SERGEANT CE(ESUS. 
 
 feathered fiends darting about them only a few hundred yards away. 
 Then, rising on his knees, he shouted Prussian taunt and challenge. 
 
 " Lie down, you fool !" yelled his officer, rolling over to him, 
 and, seizing his shoulder, Morgan forced him to earth. Not a second 
 too soon : an Indian had sprung from his pony, taken deliberate aim, 
 and sent a shot that just grazed the hand that pinned him down ; and 
 then came thunder of hoofs far out over the prairie, and the rush of 
 comrades to the rescue, and then the Sioux, firing to the last minute, 
 whirled away up the ravine, and Morgan s deer-hunt was over. That 
 night, while Ray, with his troop, was still out in pursuit, Morgan lay 
 with a shot-hole through the left shoulder at the bivouac fire, and was 
 chaffed and condoled with in moderation over the failure of his veni 
 son-chase, and took it all meekly enough. He had bagged no game, 
 had well-nigh lost his own and other lives, had ridden almost blindly 
 into Indian ambuscade, and yet, in point of result, as it turned out, 
 that was about the best day s work he had done in all his life. 
 
 II. 
 
 "If ever a man came into the cavalry who deserved well of his 
 country," said his colonel, " it is Morgan." He was a good soldier, but 
 a bad manager, a combination far more frequent than is probably 
 known. He came into the regiment in 66, burdened with a wife and 
 a war debt. A capital trooper, he had won honors with the sabre in 
 the Shenandoah ; had risen to the command of his battalion, and was 
 urged to take a commission in the regular army. Famous names 
 backed his application, but he had been held to duty in Texas while 
 earlier-discharged volunteers were picking up the plums in the newly- 
 authorized regiments. He got in eventually as second lieutenant 
 where his own lieutenants had gone in as first. He had the brevet of 
 a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers and the rank and pay of a low-down 
 subaltern of regulars when he and his wife and a little daughter joined 
 the regiment in the South. When he came to the frontier after five 
 years of reconstruction duty, her health was impaired as much as his 
 prospects. Morgan was supporting an invalid wife, three children, a 
 negro " mammy," an egregious folly of a female nurse, and a scattered 
 indebtedness of no one knew just how many hundreds or thousands, 
 all on a first lieutenant s pay, and that hypothecated. He loved his
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 143 
 
 wife and little ones ; he was attached to his comrades and his profes 
 sion ; but every month found him more dangerously involved. He 
 had no relatives to help him; she had some who might, but didn t. 
 He wore old clothes, stinted himself in every way, yet saw no light 
 ahead, and, to make a long story short, would have thanked God for 
 the chance to end it all, but for the thought of those helpless little 
 ones, when at last the wife, not he, was taken. She had been prac 
 tically bedridden for two years, and it would have been mercy to take 
 her long before, but Morgan couldn t see that. He wept sorely over 
 the cold, emaciated form, then roused himself, gathered his children 
 in his strong arms and folded them to his heart. " You must be more 
 than ever little mother to them now, Connie," said he, as he kissed 
 the white forehead of his eldest. She was only fifteen that spring, yet 
 for two years had been more woman than child, trying to help mother, 
 trying to be a comfort to " poor daddy," whose face took on deep and 
 deeper lines with every month, trying to be a teacher and playmate 
 and mother all in one to sister Lottie, only eight, and to burly, brown- 
 haired, uproarious little Billy, the one member of the household whose 
 spirits were unquenchable. There were ministering hands and loving 
 hearts at the rude old frontier fort, and in poor Mrs. Morgan s last 
 days, far from her home and kindred, there was no " lack of woman s 
 nursing," no " dearth of woman s tears." Everybody seemed to go in 
 the solemn little procession when, afoot, they followed the wasted form 
 to its bleak and lonely resting-place in the post cemetery out on the 
 open prairie. 
 
 " My God ! to think of poor Carrie s having to be buried in such 
 a dreary waste as this !" moaned the widower that evening as some of 
 his comrades strove to comfort him. He had written to her relatives 
 she had brothers and a sister married and well-to-do telling of the 
 inevitable end so soon to come, intimating that she longed to be taken 
 home and to lie by her mother s side in the shaded church-yard, but 
 that he actually had not a cent. The brothers were very sorry. Both 
 in their younger days had freely borrowed the captain s tens and 
 twenties and lived high with sister Cad, to whom the big-hearted 
 dragoon sent each month four-fifths of his pay. Pretty sister Lottie, 
 too, made her home with Caroline, " who would otherwise be so lone 
 some," much of the four years Morgan served at the front. His pay 
 was the main support of the family, in fact, for the boys were still 
 attending school, and the old man s business languished as the war
 
 144 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 went on. But all this was something they rather wished to forget in 
 the years that followed. They didn t want to grow up into actively 
 inimical relations with their elder sister s husband, yet having so long 
 lived on his bounty, how could they, being ordinary mortals, help 
 learning to hate him unless they could forget the benefits of the past? 
 Bob and Sam, of whom she so often talked, were prosperous business 
 men now, with wives and olive-branches and vines and fig-trees of 
 their own, and how could their wives or they be expected to want to 
 have her, a dark shadow at the fireside, to linger, languish, and slowly 
 die on their hands ? Neither brother felt that he could stand the ex 
 pense of fetching Carrie home. Each thought the other ought to do 
 it, and both thought that Lottie should, that is, Lottie s husband. 
 But Lottie s husband knew not the impoverished trooper on the far 
 frontier, nor his wife, nor his children, and Lottie was not particularly 
 anxious that he should. Her beauty had captivated the brilliant young 
 lawyer when professional business called him from Cleveland to Sagi- 
 naw, but it took all he could command to keep up the style in which 
 they lived now. A gay winter was coming on, and there was very 
 little interest and less discussion among the three over the question 
 which should succor Carrie, and so poor Morgan s humble appeal was 
 fruitless. 
 
 It was December when she was laid away. In February a strong 
 column was sent to break up the Sioux strongholds to the north, with 
 the not unusual result of breaking up several households at the fort. 
 The Sioux lost nothing they did not get back ; the soldiers got back 
 nothing they lost ; in fact, many of them did not get back at all. The 
 savage chiefs held a council to settle on the spot for the next battle, 
 and the soldiers a court to settle on the spot the responsibility for the 
 last, which was a failure. It was found that beyond certain serious 
 casualties the damages were mainly at the hands of Jack Frost to the 
 feet and fingers of the foemen, though several officers were declared to 
 have suffered in mind, body, and estate, and others in reputation, which 
 was odd, in view of the fact, as shown before the court, that the ac 
 cused had no reputation to lose. Morgan, happily, was spared all par 
 ticipation in this hapless campaign, being retained at the fort because 
 of recent bereavement and his motherless children. He was made 
 commissary to help him out of trouble, and thereby was plunged into 
 worse. When the command went out in midwinter he would have 
 been glad to go and never return, but, as has been said, for those little
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 145 
 
 faces at home. Another column was sent out in May, and others fol 
 lowed that in June, and still Morgan was held at the fort on commis 
 sary duty until later the direful tidings flashed in over the wires that 
 Ouster and his pet troops were wiped out ; then everybody had to go. 
 Morgan strained " Little Mother" to his heart, praying God to guard 
 and bless the babies and bring him back to them in safety. Mrs. 
 Warren, their next-door neighbor, promised they should be the objects 
 of her tender care. They had old Mammy with them still, but the 
 nurse had flitted eastward months before, one good riddance at least, 
 and by the end of July Morgan was serving out groceries and taking 
 in money as field commissary. A column on frontier campaign with 
 only the clothes it had on and with never a wagon could hardly be ex 
 pected to be burdened with a safe in which to secure the commissary s 
 funds. Uncle Sam has a simple way of reimbursing himself in the 
 event of loss : he stops the commissary s pay until the amount is cov 
 ered, and the commissary may stop the hungry mouths at home mean 
 while as best he can, that isn t Uncle Sam s business. Morgan had 
 over seven hundred and fifty dollars in " greenbacks" in the lining of 
 his canvas hunting-coat when they reached the Southern hills in Octo 
 ber, and not a cent of it when they marched out on the 15th. The 
 campaign being virtually over, all danger, hardship, work, and heavy 
 responsibility at an end, a staff captain came by rail and stage to take 
 over the funds and stores of the line lieutenant and charge up to him 
 every cent s worth that had leaked or dribbled from the mule-packs, a 
 species of charging that differed from that expected of a linesman, in 
 that it involved none of the perils, yet promised greater reward. 
 You may be assured this gentleman did not come without a safe. And 
 Morgan, riding from the bivouac to the stage station, a mile away, the 
 very evening of his successor s arrival, was lassoed on his horse in 
 Cinnabar Canon, gagged, bound, robbed of his package of greenbacks, 
 all in the flash of a bull s-eye. Picked up, stunned, ten minutes 
 thereafter, he could not describe his assailants, but certain hard charac 
 ters with the command, some of the precious gang of recruits just 
 arrived, made off that night with their horses, equipments, and every 
 thing. Certain civil officials gave chase. There was still hope they 
 might be overhauled and the money captured before they could reach 
 the mining towns. Meantime, Morgan, not severely hurt, was ordered 
 to join his troop. It was God s mercy that only an hour before the 
 robbery he had counted out every cent for which he was accountable 
 G 13
 
 146 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 in the presence of Old Tintop and his adjutant, otherwise he would 
 have had to stagger under the accusation of having made away with 
 the money and made up the story. 
 
 In vain the rough old campaigner had sought to cheer Morgan by 
 assurance that the party sent out in chase couldn t help gathering in 
 the robbers, who, with one exception, were strangers to the frontier. 
 Morgan groaned in spirit. " No, colonel, it is useless. Luck has been 
 dead against me ever since we furled the Wolverine guidons and I joined 
 the regulars. That money will never be found, and I am eight hundred 
 dollars more in debt than I was a month ago, when it was all I could 
 stagger under. It s only worse and more of it." And here this forty- 
 year-old fatalist turned away and buried his bearded face in his hands. 
 
 And now, a few weeks later, with a hole in his shoulder and fever 
 in his veins, Mr. Morgan was being borne along homeward in a mule- 
 litter, hopeless and sick at heart, totally unconscious of the fact that 
 one man at least in the long dusty column looked up to him with an 
 enthusiastic gratitude, even while looking down on him from the 
 saddle. Schramm s right leg had been shot through midway between 
 ankle and knee, but the fracture was simple, and the wounded limb was 
 skilfully dressed, set in splints, and Schramm rode in a litter a week 
 or two, as ordered, then his Teutonic prayers took effect on the " Herr 
 Wundarzt," and he was allowed to swing the leg over the handsome 
 roan his captain had promised he should have again as soon as he was 
 able to straddle the beast and settle the question why he had named 
 him Bredow. We had little or no time for war-history in the cavalry 
 in those days. 
 
 Morgan could not but note how affectionately Schramm s blue eyes 
 would beam upon him and how full of anxious sympathy were his fre 
 quent inquiries as to whether there were not something he could do for 
 the Herr Lieutenant. They sent the two, with others, in together to 
 the old fort on the railway, and Schramm, whose wound was the more 
 serious, was much the sooner recovered, and bustling around as though 
 nothing had happened, while the veteran lieutenant, whose hurt was 
 slight, seemed unable to rally. There are wounds that sap the vital 
 forces worse than knife or bullet. Morgan was fretting himself to 
 death. He broke down utterly when Old Tintop, a month later, came 
 in to see him on his arrival at the post. 
 
 " What can I do, colonel ?" he moaned. " I am too old to resign 
 and try to find employment at home. There s no room for crippled
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 147 
 
 dragoons there. Yet ray creditors^are hounding me, my pay may be 
 stopped any minute to settle this commissary business, and then what 
 will become of my children ?" 
 
 It was too much for Tintop. He had in his desk that moment the 
 fatal paper received from Washington. It was all very well for the 
 board of survey and the department commander to exonerate Lieuten 
 ant Morgan from blame, but the watch-dogs of the treasury couldn t 
 allow him to drop that seven hundred and fifty dollars. There was no 
 doubt that he was robbed. The robbers, in fact, deserting recruits en 
 route to the mines, were easily overhauled by experienced frontiersmen 
 who " lit out" in pursuit the moment the affair was heard of. It was 
 scandalous on the part of " tenderfoot toughs" from the far East to rob 
 an army disbursing officer and expect to get away with the swag. 
 Buckskin Joe, Lopsided Pete, and other local celebrities lost little time 
 in overhauling the Bowery gang and recovering such valuables as they 
 had ; but who was to overhaul Joe and Pete ? The auditor said Mr. 
 Morgan ought to have kept that money in the safe. The department 
 comiuander, striving to aid a good soldier, pointed out that they didn t 
 carry safes when on Indian campaign ; if they did, they would even less 
 frequently catch the Indians. But it availed nothing. What did the 
 Treasury Department care whether Indians were caught or not ? Mr. 
 Morgan was held to have violated the spirit of his instructions in that 
 he went to Captain Stone in town to turn over the money, instead of 
 waiting for Captain Stone to come to him. Then the general pointed 
 out that Morgan was ordered to march with the command at daybreak, 
 and therefore had to turn over the money that night. But the bureau 
 officials couldn t see it. Let Lieutenant Morgan get a bill of relief 
 through Congress, said the pragmatic official, well knowing that such 
 bills are the outcome of influence, not innocence. The colonel went to 
 the office, and by way of comforting himself for the weakness which 
 prompted him to blow his nose and wipe his eyes very often before 
 leaving Morgan, and to kiss Connie and Lot several times after, pitched 
 into Mr. Gray, his perennial chopping-bJock, and Gray, finding meek 
 ness and silence not what was needed, fired back. They exchanged 
 volleys a minute, Gray having all the advantage of sense and the 
 colonel of sound, and ended, as usual, by the old man saying he 
 wouldn t give a tinker s dam for an adjutant he couldn t pitch into 
 when he had to pitch into somebody, or that couldn t talk back. " I m
 
 148 SERGEANT CR(E8US. 
 
 all broke up about Morgan. Canjt we do something to pull him out 
 of his hole?" 
 
 So they wrote letters, did the officers, to Morgan s wife s relatives, 
 setting forth how brave and deserving and unfortunate he was, and 
 that something must be done for those children. It s all well enough 
 in the eyes of one s wife s relatives to be brave and deserving, but they 
 have no use for a man who is unfortunate. In fact, if he is only for 
 tunate they care very little how brave he may be, and less for his 
 deserts. Robert answered the colonel s missive, but the others did 
 not. Rob said they had already been put to much expense on their 
 sister s account, which, as they wore no mourning and published 
 no notice in the papers at the time of her death, was an out-and-out 
 whopper. He furthermore said if something had to be done for those 
 children to go ahead and do it, which was simply indecent. Tintop 
 had a copy made and sent it to a classmate, a distinguished officer of 
 engineers whose office was in Detroit, and whose duties made him well 
 known in influential circles, and the colonel made inquiries and sent 
 reports. The boys were well-to-do, in a paying business, both of 
 them ; and as for Aunt Lottie, she wasted more money in six months 
 than would clothe, feed, and comfort her army nieces and nephew 
 as many years. " But," said the engineer, " I fancy her husband 
 owes very much more than Mr. Morgan, and the crash may come any 
 day." 
 
 But what Tintop could not do through Morgan s wife s relatives he 
 brought about in other ways. The engineer colonel knew prominent 
 business men who were comrades of Morgan s in the old Wolverine 
 brigade, famous at Gettysburg, Winchester, Five Forks, and Appo- 
 mattox. Some had amassed wealth, many were prominent, all were 
 sympathetic, and when they took hold it was with a vim. Meantime, 
 however, valuable time was lost, and poor Morgan was breaking down 
 under his load. Meantime, too, ministering angels, army wives and 
 mothers, none so wealthy that their charity entailed no sacrifice, none 
 so poor that it could not and did not help, moved by that boundless pity 
 and sympathy which motherless little ones excite, were lending helping 
 hands about the cheerless quarters and bringing grateful tears and 
 smiles to Connie s anxious face. Mrs. Warren, Mrs. Woods, and others 
 had laid their matronly heads together and organized a committee of 
 ways and means. Of course nothing could be done to excite Morgan s 
 suspicions or wound his pride. Connie, too, was old beyond her years
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 149 
 
 and shrank from what might look like dependence, but she was too 
 young to manage household expenses. Old Mammy had none but ex 
 travagant ideas, as befitted the retainer of a good old Southern family, 
 and the father was practically helpless. It was at this stage of the 
 proceedings that Fagan, the veteran striker who had long been on 
 domestic duty for the Morgans, in accordance with the system then in 
 vogue, was taken down with acute rheumatism and went to hospital, 
 and that Private Schramm, who for days had never missed an oppor 
 tunity of inquiring for the lieutenant and occasionally lending a help 
 ing hand, came suddenly into prominence. Somebody had to be de 
 tailed as Morgan s "striker." There were always quite a number of 
 the enlisted men who were eager to be placed on such duty, thereby 
 earning five dollars a month, living on better rations, escaping guard 
 duty, drills, and roll-calls, and having only to bring in wood and water, 
 black boots, clean equipments, etc. Schramm was reserved, temperate, 
 studious, a model young soldier, daily acquiring more thorough knowl 
 edge of military duty and of the English language as spoken by the 
 blue-coats on the border. Two or three times the doctor, finding him 
 hovering about the quarters, had sent him over to the hospital for 
 medicine, or the like, and Schramm, saluting with Teutonic precision, 
 had obeyed every order with soldierly alacrity. More than once when 
 Fagan, groaning and coughing and wheezing in the keen wintry air, 
 seemed unable to bear his burden of firewood into the house, Schramm 
 had laughingly lent his aid, and one evening he came suddenly upon the 
 tall, slender, fragile form of Connie staggering into the kitchen door, 
 heavily laden with logs. With one spring the Prussian was at her 
 side, the blue eyes kindling, and he who hitherto had never presumed 
 to address the "gnadige Fraulein" except with hand at temple and 
 heels aclick, briskly dispossessed her of her load, and bore it into the 
 sitting-room, where Lot and Billy were squabbling over their blocks in 
 the wintry gloaming, and Connie blushed to her temples as she thanked 
 the stalwart young soldier, once more standing erect and brushing the 
 bark-dust from his overcoat. 
 
 " Father sent Fagan to town," she explained, " and he should have 
 been home an hour ago. We are so much obliged to you, Schr-r-r-amm." 
 And Schr-r-r-amm seemed so hard a word to say that she blushed still 
 more, hesitated, and stammered, she who, garrison-bred, had never 
 heard the private soldier addressed in any other way. 
 
 It was that evening, later, that old Fagan declared himself all 
 
 13*
 
 150 SERGEANT CECESUS. 
 
 broke up, which meant just the opposite, that he had broken down and 
 must quit work. Mrs. Turner, a light-hearted and thoughtless young 
 matron, was sitting with Connie at the moment. 
 
 "He ll go to hospital, won t he?" she said. "Then how much 
 better it will be ! Captain Manning will let you have Schramm." 
 But, to Mrs. Turner s surprise, Connie promptly declared she would 
 not have Schramm. 
 
 " Why-y, I thought he was so devoted to your father, so nice in 
 every way." 
 
 " Certainly," said Connie, with decision ; " he is devoted to father, 
 and he is simply altogether too nice to be put on any such duty." 
 
 " Did you ever know so strange a child ?" said Mrs. Turner, telling 
 of the conversation a little later. " She fairly put me down as though 
 I were a chit of fifteen like herself." 
 
 " Ye-es, instead of being old enough to be her mother," suggested 
 a fair rival, mischievously, and Mrs. Turner bridled, but said no more. 
 
 But Manning, too, fell into error. Informed by his first sergeant 
 at tattoo that Fagan was down sick and the lieutenant without a striker, 
 in all kindness and desire to help he asked who would be the best man 
 to send, and the sergeant promptly answered, "Schramm. Schramm 
 was all the time over there, and doubtless he would be glad to take the 
 detail." Manning hesitated a moment. He had other views for this 
 young soldier, whose usefulness in the troop could become very great 
 as soon as he mastered a little more English. But he called him forth 
 with. Schramm was among his comrades, awaiting the assembly 
 signal, and, summoned abruptly, he stood attention in a foot of snow 
 and answered, "Zu Befehl, Herr Rittrneister," before he could catch 
 himself and blurt out " Ca-Capitan." His gloved hand remained, 
 Prussian fashion, in salute. 
 
 " Schramm, I hate to lose you from the troop, but would you care 
 to go to Lieutenant Morgan s as orderly ?" 
 
 " I, Herr Rittmeister ?" 
 
 The roll of the r s was almost like that of a drum. The blood 
 mounted to his cheeks. He stammered, looked utterly bewildered, 
 stumbled, and between embarrassment and sense of subordination stood 
 meekly mute. 
 
 " Don t you want to go ?" asked Manning. 
 
 " Bitte, Herr Capitan, unless I haf it to do." 
 
 "Oh, no, by no means. I supposed you d really like it," said
 
 SERGEANT CRCESVS. 151 
 
 Manning. "I would much rather you didn t. That s all." And 
 Schramm nearly fell over himself in the effort to salute and face about 
 in a foot-deep drift and escape before the Herr Rittmeister might 
 change his mind. "Whom can we send, sergeant? I want a good 
 steady man, for Mr. Morgan is far from mending." 
 
 " Well, sir, there s Penner : he ain t good for nothing else." 
 
 And so it came to pass that Penner, a mild-mannered, moony young 
 barbarian, went gladly to duties with which he was far more familiar 
 than the grooming of frolicsome steeds and the tramping of lonely 
 sentry-posts. And Schramm, redoubling the assiduity of his atten 
 tion to military duties, none the less kept up his frequent visits to the 
 Morgans quarters, modestly presenting himself at the rear door and 
 laboriously inquiring how the Herr Lieutenant had passed the night 
 and whether he could do aught to serve him during the day. Penner 
 was soon sufficiently domesticated to answer these queries himself, but 
 not infrequently Constance carne to answer the soldier s knock, and 
 then at sight of the gnadige Fraulein Schramm s manner would become 
 simply extravagant in precision and deference. Within the week after 
 he declined the place the soldiers were saying Schramm " wouldn t be 
 dog-robber, but was bossing Penner s job all the same." And certain 
 it was that Peuner owed much of his usefulness to the suggestions of 
 his better-informed countryman. Meantime, Mrs. Warren and Mrs. 
 Woods were doing all that lay in their power to help about the house, 
 and another loving woman, who devoted two hours each morning to 
 the lessons of her own little ones, had induced Constance to send Lot 
 and Billy to her as recruits in the kindergarten, and the officers, 
 dropping in each evening to cheer the old man up a bit, still striving 
 to hold from him the fact that the Treasury Department had proved 
 deaf to all martial appeals in his behalf, were made glad one bitter 
 evening by a despatch from the Wolverine Senator. The old Michigan 
 brigade had still " a pull," and Tintop himself went whistling down 
 the line to tell Morgan the glad news that he had friends at court. 
 
 " Bill of relief for Morgan will be presented," wired the magnate. 
 " Meantime, no stoppage allowed." 
 
 "Who could have fixed this for me?" asked Morgan, gratefully, 
 with glistening eyes. 
 
 " Oh, your friends at home did it," answered Tintop, promptly, 
 with pardonable thought of how much stirring the friends at the front 
 had first to do. " What they ought to stir about now is to help you out
 
 152 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 
 
 with these these other claims; I don t mean pay them for you, of 
 course, you wouldn t want them to do that, but fix it so that you 
 could capitalize em someway ; raise a little fund that you could repay 
 at so much a month with six per cent, interest, and then wipe out all 
 these pressing things." 
 
 Poor Morgan ! his first thought had been that now he could order 
 a suitable head-stone for Carrie s lonely grave. 
 
 III. 
 
 The winter went out in storm and bluster. The springtide set in 
 with reluctant flow. The prairie wastes, swept clean by furious gales 
 in March, rerobed in glistening white in April, peeped forth through 
 ragged rents in their fleecy mantle at the soft touch of the south wind, 
 then, lulled by the plash of warm summer shower, went to sleep one 
 evening late in May, still thinly veiled in white, and when the rosy 
 breath of wakening dawn stole faintly over the grassy billows, lo ! all 
 in a night the face of nature had changed, and the foot-hills met the 
 sunshine clothed in fairest, freshest green. Who can welcome spring 
 as could the exiles of the old days on the frontier? How those fair 
 women, those restless little ones, seemed to glow and gladden after the 
 long, long months of seclusion when, snow-bound, they were penned 
 within the stockade or limited to the sentry-lines of some straggling 
 prairie post ! Now swarming forth like bees they came to greet the 
 sunshine, the softening air, the tiny, shrinking little flowers trembling 
 in the breeze along the southward slopes, and one exquisite morning 
 late in May, perched on the very verge of the steep bluff overlooking 
 the stream, Constance Morgan had flung to the winds her rippling 
 mane of auburn hair and stood stretching forth a pair of long, slender 
 arms, encased in very shabby and shining serge, as though welcoming 
 the first sight of the distant lowlands, the broad, beautiful valley of 
 the Mini Ska. All the long winter she had borne on her white 
 shoulders the cares of an army home, and that a home without a 
 mother. Loving hearts and hands, it is true, were there to aid her. 
 Morgan s devotion to his invalid wife during her two years of mar 
 tyrdom and his grief over her loss were matters that had won deep 
 sympathy even in a crowded garrison bent on getting all the enjoy-
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 153 
 
 ment possible out of their few months of home life. All the previous 
 summer, spring, and fall officers and men of the cavalry, at least, had 
 spent in exciting campaign, and no man could tell how soon the order 
 would come returning them once more to the field, leaving the wives 
 and little ones to watch and pray. " Make hay while the sun shines" 
 seemed to be the social axiom of the cavalry in those days. Enjoy 
 the too brief days as best ye may, for soon the summer will come, when 
 all men must work at their appointed trade, and seven months out of 
 twelve and sometimes more it meant separation from the loved ones 
 within the guarded limits of the forts, a separation that, in too many 
 cases, proved but the entrance upon that which on earth, at least, is 
 final. There were music and dancing, play-acting and feasting, there 
 fore, through the winter at Ransom, and frequent exchange of jovial 
 hospitality witli the big-hearted townsfolk over and away at the trans 
 continental road, but there wasn t a day when somebody, from Tintop 
 down, wasn t sure to drop in and have a chat or a game of checkers, 
 or in the evening a hand at whist, with Morgan, who sat up in an easy- 
 chair and was made as comfortable as willing hearts and hands could 
 devise, and Mrs. Vinton not only taught Lot and Billy as she taught 
 her own, but time and again sent them home in garments newly 
 fashioned, but with pardonable mendacity represented to be something 
 she had that didn t fit her daughter or that her little Jim had out 
 grown. Connie s clear eyes saw through the stratagem, and her soft 
 red lips quivered as she kissed the fair round cheek of the loving 
 woman who so well knew how to bless and comfort, yet rob the act of 
 every hint of charity. And strangely, too, Connie s scant supply of 
 commissary was eked out by many a dainty sent to Morgan s door from 
 somewhere along the line. No one ever gave a dinner, or luncheon, 
 or supper party, that long winter, without a remembrance of some kind 
 for those motherless kids, oftentimes including some comforting bever 
 age for old Morgan himself. Even the sutler, whom the men damned 
 for a skinflint, found means to " chip in" unknown to Morgan, who 
 didn t at all like him, and the surreptitious dozens of stone bottles of 
 stout, glass dittoes of Bass and Budweiser, that had been smuggled in 
 by the back gate during the last year of Mrs. Morgan s illness, never 
 found their way on the bill. He had sent Connie at Christmas a dress 
 of soft black cashmere over which the child s womanly eyes had glis 
 tened, and which, impulsively, she had taken to her father s room, 
 opening it before him and saying, " Isn t it lovely ? Wasn t it just 
 G*
 
 154 SERGEANT CECESUS. 
 
 lovely of him?" And then she was brought to sudden realization of 
 this rancor towards the trader by the flush that overspread Morgan s 
 face and the heavy frown between his eyes. 
 
 "Connie, child, you shall have it, of course; you need it; but we 
 can t take presents from Curran. He must put it on the bill," he said. 
 But neither on Connie s slender back nor Curran s bulky bill did 
 those dress-goods ever appear. She sent him a misspelled, grateful 
 little note, saying how it touched them all that he should have so 
 kindly remembered her, but papa was " inflexable" in his views about 
 accepting " presants" from friends they might never be able to repay, 
 and honest Curran, honest at least in his desire to do a kindness to the 
 tall slip of a girl with the big brown eyes and auburn hair that made 
 him think, he sometimes said, of a colleen he d lost long years before, 
 honest Curran mistook her meaning entirely, thought her words Mor 
 gan s, and, mindful of some caustic comments the big lieutenant had 
 made anent sutlers checks he sought to collect at the pay-table several 
 years before, had all his Irish aroused and was made fighting mad. 
 " I ll sind him a resated bill, bedad, and cut his acqueentance intirelee," 
 said Curran that night in relating the incident to some of the boys 
 in the club- room, whereupon that ne er-do-well and scapegrace Briggs 
 promptly besought him to take like cognizance of the first thing he, 
 Lieutenant Briggs, might say, as he despaired otherwise of ever squaring 
 his account. 
 
 But the incident bore its weight of woe to Connie, despite the 
 merriment it gave the boys. Acting under the advice of his colonel 
 and his friends, Morgan was diligently turning over to the adjutant 
 fifty dollars a month of his scanty pay in order that critics and creditors 
 alike might know he was doing all a poor devil of a broken-down 
 lieutenant could do to pay his debts without absolutely starving his 
 household. The balance went to Connie, and with this she was ex 
 pected to feed, clothe, and comfort the family, pay the cook, laundress, 
 and striker. Morgan had no life-insurance, and in those days could 
 get none. Curran was one of his heaviest creditors, and Curran had 
 been perfectly willing not only to wait, but to open his storehouse or 
 purse-strings still wider for the struggling fellow s benefit. Only so 
 many dollars a month could be parcelled out for the butcher and baker, 
 the grocer and the commissary, and Connie kept her books, and, aided 
 by her lady friends, kept her accounts. But over and above all these 
 necessary expenses were certain dainties and luxuries which Curran
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 155 
 
 had authorized black Mammy to draw for at the store whenever the 
 supply was getting low, and Morgan, insisting now on auditing the 
 accounts, could find no such items on the bills rendered, and the truth 
 came out. Curran went off East to buy goods just then, and Morgan 
 did not write the letter his heart was pouring out when he learned how 
 in secret the rough fellow had been so long his benefactor, but he for 
 bade all such traffic in future, and Lot and Billy howled for oranges 
 and raisins in vain. Christmas found their little stockings filled. 
 Many an army mother, planning for her own brood, had remembered 
 the motherless in the humble quarters down the row. But no one 
 could tell whose hand had sent the rocking-horse and the big wax doll 
 that were found by Penner at the door when he opened the house on 
 Christmas morning. Suspicion attached to several heads, including 
 Tintop s, whose head, by the way, had been cracked by a shell during 
 the war, and a portion of whose skull, so rumor had it, had been 
 replaced by a silver plate, which led to his wearing a nickname and 
 a wig. But one and all the accused established what Mrs. Whaling 
 once pronounced an alibi, " because they had sent something else." 
 Then they thought of Trooper Schramm, now a fine-looking dragoon, 
 consummately at home in his business; but Schramm hadn t been near 
 the house for two weeks. A paymaster s escort was needed to convoy 
 that official to distant winter cantonments, and Schramm had promptly 
 asked to be allowed to go. This time he didn t say " mit dem fellers" 
 as he had in the field the autumn before, neither did he add " once" or 
 "alretty." Schramm was "studying book English," said the first 
 sergeant. The paymaster got home to his Christmas all right, he 
 needed no escort when his money was gone, but Schramm and his 
 squad trotted in two days later, after the turkey and cranberry sauce 
 were all devoured, so Schramm could have had nothing whatever to 
 do with the gifts sent out from town. So long as they had them, Lot 
 and Billy didn t care who was the donor. They believed all the more 
 in Santa Glaus. It was Connie who thought and wondered ; it was 
 Connie, alas! who hoped and dreamed. 
 
 Among the daily visitors to the house Perry Thornton, second lieu 
 tenant of Manning s troop, had been prominent all winter, and there 
 wasn t a handsomer, blither boy in all the regiment when he joined. 
 He was barely twenty-two, with a face almost womanly fair, and a 
 form as slender and graceful as boy s could be. He rode and danced 
 and sang well. He didn t drink ; he wouldn t gamble. He was a
 
 156 SERGEANT CRCESVS. 
 
 soldier s son, an enthusiastic youngster who had seen some years of 
 schooling and travel in Europe, and who had much to tell of soldiers 
 who had won the V. C. or the Iron Cross. " Now in Europe," said 
 he, " the officer is held as a hero who, at the risk of his life, bore off a 
 wounded comrade to whom it meant death if abandoned." The cross 
 for valor, pinned on his breast by royal hands, was the least reward to 
 which he could look. Joining the regiment just at the end of the 
 autumn work, and reading of the narrow escape of Lieutenant Morgan 
 on the way, Thornton s first longing was to make the acquaintance 
 of the gallant subaltern who had so bravely stood by the humble re 
 cruit and got his wound in saving him. Down went his ideal to dust 
 when a grizzled, careworn, sad-faced veteran was borne from the am 
 bulance into the homely quarters, and somebody said, " The old man s 
 about petered." Thornton could not understand it. " In England or 
 in Germany officers and men would have been lining the way and 
 standing at salute," said he, " for a fellow who did what Mr. Morgan 
 did/ 
 
 " O-h, up there when he went deer-hunting, do you mean ? Oh, 
 yes, I remember, helping Schramm out when he got hit. Ye-es, that 
 was all right," said one of the young gentlemen of the regiment, and 
 in so saying conveyed the idea to the new-comer that there was nothing 
 in that sort of thing to excite remark. It was the rule, not the ex 
 ception, in the American cavalry. " We d all do just as much," as, 
 indeed, very probably they would. But Thornton determined he 
 would cultivate Morgan, decorated or not, and so it had happened 
 that it was the " plebe," the newest comer to the regiment, who spent 
 an hour almost every afternoon before stables playing checkers with 
 the invalid veteran, rarely noticing silent, busy Connie, who came and 
 went, or sat beside them with her needlework, darning the youngsters 
 stockings or sewing on buttons by the dozen, yet saying never a word. 
 Perry had no end of interest in his new profession, but none whatever 
 in children. It was the proper thing for him to be devoted to the 
 senior subaltern who in other armies, perhaps, would have won such 
 distinction, and he wrote with both pride and complacency to his 
 friends at home of his daily intercourse with a fellow who did what 
 Beresford was V. C. d for at Ultindi. " But nobody out here seems to 
 think it worth mentioning," he added. He was immensely proud of 
 being second lieutenant in a troop whose captain had won three brevets 
 with the regulars, and whose first lieutenant had done as much with
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESVS. 157 
 
 the volunteers, botli in the great civil war ; but he hadn t been long 
 enough in the service to find out that brevets followed on the heels of 
 the great Rebellion like rain on the boom of a battle, deluging every 
 body who happened to be around. He found Morgan loved to hear 
 of life in foreign armies, while no one else had time to listen. He 
 loved to talk, and so he came. He loved to hear of cavalry cam 
 paigns during the war, and soon got Morgan to telling and explaining, 
 and so, little by little, he came to be looked upon as the sunshine of 
 their day. He was "pulling Morgan out of himself," and when the 
 spring came on the " old man" was surely better, able to sun himself 
 on the southern porch and watch the drills on the broad parade. Con 
 nie was but a child. Who could have a thought for her ? And so 
 here she stood this exquisite May morning, just bordering on woman 
 hood, as the sweet spring buds were bursting into bloom, and with 
 yearning, outstretched arms, with a deeper, fonder glow in the big 
 brown eyes than mortal yet had seen, gazing longingly away down the 
 distant valley, down along the silver windings of the stream, fringed 
 by the fresh green of the cotton woods, away from the dull brown 
 buildings of the old frontier post, away from barracks, quarters, and 
 corral, away from its bustling life and cares and sorrows, away from 
 that picketed enclosure far out over the prairie where now the loved 
 mother had been resting long months beyond the twelve, away from 
 aging father, from laughing girl and romping boy, Connie Morgan s 
 heart, shining through her steadfast eyes, was following the fast-fading 
 dust-cloud that told where the squadrons were marching sturdily away 
 to drive the Indians from their old haunts down the wild wastes of 
 the Mini Ska, and Perry Thornton riding on his first campaign. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The cavalry battalion had been gone only two days. Some few 
 of the officers families, well assured that it would be Thanksgiving 
 in earnest before they could hope to see the campaigners again, had 
 taken wing to the East and were domiciled with friends or relatives 
 far from scenes which so constantly brought to mind the image of the 
 absent husband and father. In most cases, however, the little house 
 holds remained at the post, assured by department head-quarters that 
 they should be undisturbed in the tenure of their army homes. Mor- 
 
 14
 
 158 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 gan, whose health and spirits had slowly revived as the sun came north 
 ward over the line, had striven to convince Old Tin top and the surgeon 
 that it would do him good to go, but was flatly denied the luxury he 
 craved and bidden to remain at the post. The department commander 
 came out to look over the field in early May, and told Morgan that he 
 meant to keep him on duty at the post all summer, in the hope that 
 the autumn would find him promoted to his captaincy. Then he 
 might be able to get an order to go before a retiring board and so home 
 to the old State and old friends he had not seen for years. Morgan 
 thanked the kind-hearted chief for all his help and consideration, but 
 his tired eyes wandered away over the prairie to the lonely grave he 
 often managed to visit now. If it were only possible to retire for 
 good and all, how willingly would he go and be laid away there by 
 Carrie s side, were there only some provision for Constance and the 
 babies ! It appalled him to realize that they were dependent absolutely 
 upon so slender a thread as his life ; that he must struggle on, must 
 exist, must suffer and try, at least, to be strong that they might not 
 starve. If only those debts were paid, if only he could retire and 
 take the children to some quiet Eastern home, however humble, where 
 they might be sent to school and where Connie might receive the 
 education thus far so utterly neglected, then Morgan could live on, 
 grateful and almost content. He could surely get some clerkship, 
 some desk-work that would enable him to add a few hundred dollars 
 yearly to the allowance of a retired dragoon. He did not begin to 
 know, poor fellow, how universal was the theory among business-men 
 that old soldiers were unfit for business of any kind. He wrote to 
 Carrie s brothers again, saying nothing, of course, of how often and 
 how much he had helped them in the past, and begged them to find 
 some opening that would warrant his retiring. No answer came. He 
 wrote again. Then Bob sent a few curt lines : 
 
 "Yours rec d, contents noted. Tho t Wm. had ans d or wld have 
 done so. Business very slack. Times hard. No opening of any kind. 
 H d to dischg two elks last month. Better hang on to your present 
 situation awhile longer. If anything turns up will let you know. 
 
 " Yr bro. aff y." 
 
 Morgan read human nature well enough to see just how much that 
 meant. He would " hang on to the situation" as a matter of course, 
 despite the fact that the doctor said the rheumatism would hang on to
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 159 
 
 him as long as he remained in that climate. Both General C and 
 
 the colonel had again interested themselves in his behalf, and the rail 
 way managers said they could place him in their office in town when* 
 he got ready to retire. The salary was very small, hut would help. 
 The work was exacting, however, and the doctor said he simply could 
 not do it in that climate. 
 
 " Never mind, old friend, we ll fix it somehow," said Tiutop, cheerily, 
 as he came to say good-by, looking very much the younger of the two 
 as Morgan leaned heavily on his stick. " You just stay here and run 
 the ordnance office this summer. There s bound to be promotion by 
 fall." And so, sadly enough, the veteran trooper had seen the squad 
 rons ride away, and he was left sole representative of the commissioned 
 force of his regiment at old Fort Ransom, and not till they had been 
 gone two days did he note that Connie was drooping. 
 
 " What is it, Little Mother ?" he said, fondly stroking back the 
 tumbling mass of auburn hair and kissing her white forehead. " Tired 
 out with all your household care? Growing too fast? Lot and Billy 
 too much for you now?" 
 
 The big pathetic brown eyes were swimming a little, but she looked 
 bravely up. " Perhaps it s spring fever," she said, with an attempt at 
 laughing it all lightly away. " I m sure there s nothing else. I m 
 only a trifle fagged. It will be all right now that we all can get out 
 again in the sunshine every day." 
 
 She was fastening his necktie for him at the moment, then, patting 
 his grizzled cheek, she took the whisk broom to dust the worn old 
 fatigue-coat preparatory to letting him stump forth on his halting way 
 to the ordnance storehouse, but there came a rousing rat-tat-tat at the 
 front door just at the instant, and, Mammy being up to her elbows in flour 
 and Penner away at the commissary, Connie sprang to answer, and 
 there, precise and soldierly as ever, stood Schramm. 
 
 " Why, Schr-r-amm !" she cried, delightedly. " Why when 
 how did you get back ?" 
 
 "Sergeant Schultz, gnadige Fraulein, was sent back with despatches, 
 and I came with him. Is the Herr Lieutenant within? I bring 
 letters." And he handed her a packet. 
 
 " Come right in, Schramm ; papa will be so glad to see you." 
 
 And thus bidden, yet ever unbending, Schramm stepped to the 
 inner door, and there, hand at salute and heels together, he stood atten 
 tion, his kind blue eyes alight with fidelity and affection.
 
 160 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 " Hello, Schramra !" exclaimed Morgan, limping around the big 
 base- burner with extended hand, which the soldier grasped respectfully 
 an instant, then returned to his invariable attitude. " Well, you must 
 have ridden hard." 
 
 " Only forty-five miles, sir. We left them in camp on Bear Fork 
 at midnight. There was news from the agency. We go back this 
 afternoon with orders to catch them to-morrow at Painted Lodge." 
 
 Hurriedly opening the packet, Morgan glanced over the contents : 
 two official letters for himself, and a smaller note. " Why, Con, this 
 is for you from Thornton," he said, in surprise. Then, never noting 
 the eager, almost incredulous light that flashed into her eyes, or the 
 instant rush of color to her cheeks and brow, he tore open the first 
 letter, an order from Tintop to send on certain arms for the use of 
 scouts. He glanced quickly up to send Schramm for the ordnance 
 sergeant, but Schramm had disappeared. There stood Constance, her 
 eyes dancing, her red lips parted, her bosom heaving, languor and 
 pallor utterly banished from her face, grasping in both hands the letter 
 he had given her, devouring its pages with all her soul in her eyes, 
 utterly lost to him and to the world at large in the rapture of a young 
 girl s first dream of love. For the first time in his life Morgan saw 
 that his child was beautiful. For the first time it dawned upon him 
 she was no longer a child. For the first time in his life the father 
 called her to his side and she did not hear. 
 
 " Connie," he said. Then at last, almost sternly, " Constance !" 
 
 " Oh ! what, papa dear ? Forgive me, I was so I was " 
 
 "Yes," said he, vaguely, feeling all helpless and bewildered yet. 
 " Yes. What does he say ? Why does he write to you ?" 
 
 Another rush of color, a new flash in the great brown eyes, yet 
 more hesitancy, more embarrassment. 
 
 " Why, there s a letter for you, papa, he says so; but this is 
 about something else." 
 
 Slowly Morgan turned, unwilling to think, reluctant to believe, 
 unable to wound. It was all so sudden, so utterly unlooked-for. 
 What on earth could Thornton have to say to her ? Where was the 
 letter to him ? Oh, here, inside Gray s despatch. He tore it open : 
 " Dear Old Man, In the mail sent forward to catch us there comes a 
 welcome letter from father. He says that Wall, of the Ninth, and 
 Clinton, of the Sixth, have applied for retirement. You are sure of 
 your double bars then before September, and we are all rejoicing. I
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 161 
 
 couldn t help writing, as I wanted to be the first to tell you. Please 
 give the enclosed to Connie. Love to the kids, all three. Yours, 
 P. T." Give what to Connie? He turned the envelope inside out, 
 and there was no enclosure other than the letter. Mechanically he 
 stretched forth his hand. 
 
 " Let me see your letter, Connie," he said, and to his dismay she 
 for an instant shrank back. Then, seeing the pain in his eyes, she 
 sprang towards him. 
 
 " Oh, do, papa ; read every word," she said. " Indeed, I d rather, 
 only he only they didn t want you to know it just yet." But he 
 did not seem to hear her. 
 
 " I only asked to see if it could go inside here," he said, slowly. 
 "Thornton speaks of an enclosure, and probably that was it. Here, 
 Schramm," he cried, hastening to the door," will you tell the ordnance 
 sergeant I want him right off? I ll meet him at the store-room. 
 Wait a minute ; just give me your arm down the steps." And, lean 
 ing on the blue-shirted, muscular shoulder, Morgan stumped away out 
 through the little gate, out across the grassy parade where the infantry 
 companies were busy at drill ; and there was a cloud on both faces 
 now, as, saluting at the gate, Schramm fell respectfully to the rear. 
 
 And yet, an hour later, when Morgan returned to his quarters 
 and Lot and Billy came tumbling tumultuously to greet him, and he, 
 moody and troubled, sent them off in supreme content to buy a nickel s 
 worth of gum-drops at the store, then came slowly to his door, a vague 
 sense of new trouble was tugging at his heart, a doubt as to what he 
 ought to do or say numbing his faculties. Pausing at the threshold, 
 he heard Connie s voice, low, rich, tremulous with happiness, singing 
 one of her mother s old dear songs, a thing she had not done since the 
 bitter day they followed the mother to her grave, and the instant he 
 entered she came to throw her arms about his neck and raise her glow 
 ing face to his lips. He took it between his hands and looked down 
 gravely, fondly, yet with such a world of trouble in his eyes. The 
 song was hushed. Once more the color mounted to her temples, but 
 the big, soft eyes never flinched nor faltered. 
 
 " Read that letter now, papa dear," she simply said. " I want you 
 to read it." And then when he would not, but sank wearily in his 
 chair, she went and fetched the letter she had placed upon his desk, 
 and perched herself upon the arm of the chair and nestled her soft 
 cheek against his weather-beaten jowl, and opened the note before his 
 
 14*
 
 162 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 
 
 eyes, which iu turn he promptly shut. Then she strove to pull them 
 open by means of the lashes, and then he turned his head away. 
 
 " I don t want to read the letter, Con," he said, remorsefully. " I 
 never meant to let our Little Mother think I " 
 
 " Then I ll read it, papa," she began, interrupting him, whereat he 
 clapped his hands to his ears. u Well, at least you must see the 
 picture," she cried, and, jumping up, she ran to the mantel with a tin 
 type, a likeness of a tall young fellow with a downy moustache, arrayed 
 in cavalry scouting garb, with prairie belt and holster, a very present 
 able young dragoon, too, the second lieutenant of Manning s troop; 
 but the eyes of the first lieutenant thereof looked less kindly on this 
 counterfeit presentment than ever they had upon the face of the 
 original. 
 
 " Where was it taken ?" he asked, rather abruptly, feeling that he 
 must say something. 
 
 " Mr. Thornton says an itinerant artist drove out from town and 
 met them at the first camp and took quite a number and some groups. 
 He had two of them taken just like this, to send home, and dropped 
 the odd one in here, saying it was a philopo3na and a bribe." 
 
 " Bribe ? For what ?" demanded Morgan. " Why should he 
 bribe my little girl ?" 
 
 " Oh, there was no need," she laughed, blithely. " He they all, 
 he said, wanted something your Connie was only too glad to get ant 
 give. Now you must read it and see for yourself, papa." 
 
 But he would not. He was ashamed of the fear that for a 
 moment had possessed him, that she had consented to a correspondence 
 with Thornton without once asking her father s counsel, she, his 
 little Connie, his first-born. True, she was older at fifteen than many 
 town-bred girls at twenty, for her childhood had been nipped in the 
 bud, and since those slender shoulders had borne the care and burden 
 of woman for two long years, was it to be forbidden her to know 
 aught of woman s glory? Only, had he been blind all the time? Day 
 after day had Thornton been their visitor, yet never in all that time 
 had the father seen or suspected in the young officer any more interest 
 in Constance than he displayed in Lot or Billy. True, she was almost 
 always a silent attendant at their daily game, or an absorbed listener to 
 their talk, rarely leaving them except to go into the other room to 
 moderate the clamor of the youngsters, who, being burly and aggres 
 sive, were too often involved in a game of give and take in which
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 163 
 
 they were fairly matched. But Thornton s manner to her, which was 
 at first simply kindly and jovial, as it was to the other children, had 
 certainly changed to greater deference as the winter wore on. Little 
 by little he saw how her father leaned upon the girl, how thoughtful, 
 how devoted she was. He had been reared a gentleman. He had a 
 mother and sisters whom he dearly loved, and from earliest boyhood 
 he had been taught by his soldier father the lesson of gentleness, 
 courtesy, and consideration. From the other officers in the regiment, 
 most of whom had known her in pinafores, her greeting was simply 
 "Hello, Con !" or " Morning, Connie ; how s dad to-day?" Thorn 
 ton s impulse from the first when he met this tall slip of a girl in 
 solemn black was to call her " Miss Morgan," which made her blush 
 furiously. Later on, laughed at by the veteran sub., he had compro 
 mised on "Miss Connie," but not until he had been a daily visitor for 
 several months had it come to " Connie." Morgan never knew how 
 she had fled to her room and nearly cried her eyes out the morning the 
 battalion marched away. It was after breakfast that Mrs. Woods had 
 come for her and, with other ladies, had driven out to the butte south 
 of the post, from whose side the Mini Ska could be traced for miles, 
 but to whose summit Connie alone had been bold and active enough to 
 climb. All he saw and realized now was that his darling had been 
 pale and languid, plainly drooping for a while, and then all on a sud 
 den, at the coming of that little note, sunshine, gladness, gratitude, 
 joy, all had beamed from her speaking eyes, had bubbled from her 
 girlish heart in song. He had mourned the mother s loss before, but 
 it was as nothing compared with the helpless yearning that possessed 
 him now. Who was there to counsel, who was there to take his beloved 
 child to her heart, and with mother love and sympathy, with mother 
 kiss and clasping arms, in the sure haven of mother s changeless love 
 win from the virgin soul its cherished secret, then guide and guard and 
 counsel as only mothers can ? 
 
 Poor Morgan ! He would not read the boy s frank letter. That 
 might imply doubt of his little girl. He could not consult such 
 friends as Mrs. Freeman ; she had taken her babies and flitted away 
 to the sea-shore for the summer. Mrs. Stannard, once his wife s kind 
 friend and adviser, had gone long months before, when the major went 
 to his new station. There were loving women, kind women, motherly 
 women, at the post, yet not those to whom he could speak of anything 
 so sacred. Neither could he brino- himself to the faintest reference to
 
 164 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 the matter in talking with his child. There was simply one thing 
 which he could do, thought Morgan. All the winter he had been 
 growing fond and fonder of the bright-faced, glad-voiced, soldierly 
 young fellow ; but now, now, if it should transpire that all this time 
 Thornton had been laying siege to Connie s innocent heart, he could 
 hate him and in time crush and punish. 
 
 At noon the sergeant came to say the stores were boxed and ready 
 for shipment. Would the lieutenant sign the invoices ? Over at the 
 adjutant s office the infantry bugler had just sounded mess and orderly 
 call. The companies were going in to dinner, the noise and bustle 
 around the barracks contrasting strongly with the silence and desertion 
 over there across the parade where stood the cavalry quarters. As 
 Morgan came forth into the bright sunshine of the first June day, he 
 noted how the snow-belt on the distant peak had lifted higher in the 
 last forty-eight hours, and thought with a heavy sigh how care and 
 trouble had sunk so much deeper around his heart. Major Rhett, of 
 the infantry, temporary commander of the post, was standing by the 
 sundial as Morgan and his sergeant came trudging along. One or 
 two officers were with him. A telegraph message was in his hand, 
 and he was looking strangely worried. All of the group ceased their 
 talk and glanced at Morgan as he neared them. 
 
 " The ordnance stores are ready for shipment, major," said he. 
 "The colonel will have a couple of wagons at Alkali Station to meet 
 the freight to-night. We have billed it there." 
 
 " How far were they camped from Alkali last night, Mr. Morgan ?" 
 
 " How far, sir ? Well, they were on Bear Fork, probably fifteen 
 miles north of west of Alkali. They camp to-night at Willow Springs, 
 and to-morrow under Painted Lodge Buttes, and " 
 
 " Yes, I know," interrupted the commander, " and it was at Willow 
 Springs Major Graves was to meet and pay them, I believe?" 
 
 " So I heard, sir. Though at first I rather imagined they wouldn t 
 be paid now until after next muster." 
 
 " Well, they won t. Graves was robbed at Minden Station, early 
 this morning, of every dollar, and the robbers wore cavalry uniforms."
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 165 
 
 V. 
 
 Old Curran, the sutler, for sutler he was long years before his 
 designation was changed to post trader, and longer still before his 
 occupation was wiped out entirely by the civilizing process which 
 made bar-tenders of " blue-coats," old Curran had been losing money 
 all winter, and was growling about it. He looked to the payment 
 following the April muster to recoup him for his losses, as many a 
 good soldier was deep in his books. The payment should have been 
 made in May, but for some reason it was postponed, possibly in order 
 that the paymaster might make the circuit of the cordon of posts in 
 the bright weather of early June ; but a pack of young rascals and 
 malcontents at the Indian reservation had been turbulent all spring, 
 and no sooner was the snow out of the Mini Ska valley than the cattle 
 came after the budding grass and the Sioux came after the cattle. 
 They were hungry, no doubt, the Sioux sometimes are, despite the 
 fact that they are excellent providers and know how to take care of 
 themselves, and the difference between them and certain tractable and 
 therefore systematically ill-treated tribes is, that when they are not 
 given what they want they take it. Heaven helps those who help 
 themselves, and in their dealings with the wards of the nation the 
 United States of America have this resemblance to heaven. The 
 Sioux helped themselves so liberally to cattle and herders this par 
 ticular spring that Tintop, with six troops of his devoted regiment, 
 was hurried forth to brush them out of the Mini Ska, and then to go 
 on and help some comrades four hundred miles away who were too 
 few in number for the work in hand. To Curran s disgust, the battalion 
 marched out leaving its score at the shop unsettled. Not that the sol 
 diers could help it at all, but because they themselves were creditors 
 who couldn t collect. Then, to Curran s delight, it was announced 
 that Major Graves was sent out by rail to pay them before they got 
 too far away. Curran rejoicingly set forth to meet him and be present 
 at the ceremony, and thereby, doubtless, collect large portion of the 
 dollars due him. Curran thoughtfully, too, loaded up a couple of 
 wagons with pies, cakes, cheese, pickles, crackers, canned fruits, bottled 
 beer, whiskey, and tobacco, lest the boys shouldn t know what to do 
 with what remained of their money. This load he pushed forward on 
 the heels of the command. Then his own fine team and spring-wagon
 
 166 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 were sent down the valley to Alkali Station, whither he proposed to 
 follow by rail and meet the paymaster on his arrival, and to entertain 
 him royally on the drive out to the Springs. It was estimated that 
 the battalion, breaking camp on Bear Fork at 5.30 A.M., could un 
 saddle and pitch its tents at Willow Springs by noon. It was esti 
 mated that leaving Alkali, say at six A.M., after a hearty breakfast, the 
 paymaster would be trundled away up the valley of the Dry Fork 
 and be landed at the Springs, twenty-five miles north of the railway, 
 in plenty of time to meet them, and Tintop was ordered to detach a 
 sergeant and ten men to ride over to Alkali from their camp on Bear 
 Fork to bivouac at the station over-night and escort the paymaster up 
 the next day. Graves left department head-quarters on the west 
 bound express, his clerk, his valise full of funds necessary for the 
 payment of the battalion, and he himself, all comfortably ensconced in 
 the Pullman car. They were due at Alkali at four A.M. They could 
 retire early, have a good night s rest, and be called by the porter in 
 plenty of time to be up and dressed and to enjoy a camp breakfast with 
 their escort at the little station a mere siding with some cattle chutes 
 and pens before starting on their drive. 
 
 Standing where Constance had stood on the summit of the high, 
 precipitous butte that lay southwest of the fort, one could see the 
 valley of the Mini Ska stretching away to the eastward a distance of 
 nearly fifty miles. Then the stream seemed to bring up suddenly 
 against a line of bluffs that turned it off to the northeast, and this 
 general direction it followed another fifty miles. The land was low 
 and undulating along the left bank, while on the right, between the 
 stream and the bold line of bluffs to the south, there was barely room 
 for the railway. Fordable here near the fort, the Mini Ska speedily 
 deepened and widened and became sluggish in flow as it rolled out into 
 the lowlands after its tumbling rush through the mountain-chain at 
 the west. Every year since its establishment had a cavalry column 
 marched away from Fort Ransom to straighten out matters between 
 the Sioux and the settlers who were venturing too close to the reserva 
 tion. The first year or two the trail led along the west bank, hugging 
 the stream, but, as it was found that this was the longer, hotter, and 
 dustier way, a new route was decided on, cutting across the big bend 
 and winding along over the foot-hills of the range, from which several 
 streams of clear, cool water came pouring forth, speedily to become 
 murky and turbid on reaching the broad plain below. The first day s
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 167 
 
 march lay almost due east from Ransom and parallel with the Mini 
 Ska, the next veered around towards the northeast, and camp was 
 always made at Bear Fork. Not until the fourth camp at Painted 
 Lodge did the trail and the stream again come together, and from that 
 point down to the disputed territory, the pet raiding-ground of the 
 restless " young men," the two were never far apart. West of Painted 
 Lodge the Sioux did not often venture, though the broad bottom-land 
 within this elbow of the Ska was a fine grazing-ground. 
 
 The railway, coming up from the southeast and over a high plateau, 
 dropped down to the valley by means of a long, winding ravine 
 scooped out for it by the Antelope, a little tributary that joined the 
 Mini Ska just at the elbow, and here, at the point where the rail and 
 the river after running parallel for eighty miles suddenly quit com 
 pany, the line shooting eastward, the stream northeast, here stood 
 Alkali Station. Cattle-men had built a low bridge over the stream at 
 this point, with the intention of making Alkali the shipping station 
 for their beeves, and from this place a sandy road ran down the left 
 bank to Painted Lodge Butte and away to the agencies. Once upon a 
 time the mails were carried that way, and a stage ran twice a week 
 between Alkali and the reservation, but when a rival railway sent a 
 line across the Missouri and tapped the lands of the Dakotas far up to 
 the northeast, the agency freight, mail, and passengers were sent around 
 that way, and Alkali became a deserted village. There stood the old 
 stage-house, the cattle-chutes, and the rickety d<pot, but no trains 
 stopped there now except on signal, and the telegraph instrument and 
 operator had been moved to Minden, some twenty-five miles farther west. 
 Here, too, was a bridge over the Mini Ska and a cattle-shipping point. 
 Here the ranchmen who did not care to take the extra twenty-five-mile 
 gallop to Butteville had all their mail addressed, and Minden speedily 
 assumed the mild and modest importance which Alkali had lost. 
 
 And it was at Minden, said Major Rhett, that the paymaster was 
 robbed that morning soon after dawn, and robbed by men in cavalry 
 overcoats. Morgan listened a moment, simply stunned. 
 
 " When did the news come in, sir?" asked he of the major. 
 
 " Ten minutes ago, as soon as they could repair the wires which 
 were cut. The sheriff is on his way out here now." 
 
 " Where is the paymaster?" 
 
 " They re coming up on a freight from Minden this afternoon, he 
 and his clerk."
 
 168 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 " But I don t understand," said Morgan : " how on earth did he 
 get to Minden ? Why did he come so far west ? The escort was to 
 meet him at Alkali, so I was told." 
 
 " That s just what nobody understands, and what he ll explain later, 
 I presume." 
 
 An orderly came hastily from the direction of the office, and, 
 halting, saluted the post commander. 
 
 " The sergeant-major says they were assigned to C Company, sir, 
 for rations." 
 
 There was an awkward silence a moment. Finally the commander 
 wheeled on Morgan : 
 
 " You ve known those couriers some time, haven t you, Mr. 
 Morgan ? What is their reputation ?" 
 
 "Our men, sir? Schultz and Schramm, do you mean? Why, 
 major, the sergeant is one of our veterans, a man we all trust. Schramm 
 is not a year with us yet, but he s as good as they make em, I think, 
 in Germany. Surely they are not suspected? They came in with 
 orders and despatches." 
 
 " Very true, but they passed within sight of Minden if they came 
 back by the trail, and through it if they followed the stage road. They 
 may have seen or heard something. At all events, I wish to question 
 them," was the major s answer. " What time did they reach the post, 
 Mr. Adjutant?" 
 
 " Just at guard-mounting, sir." 
 
 Rhett pondered a moment. " The colonel s note says he was aroused 
 at midnight by couriers from the agency who had had a hard ride and 
 could go no farther. But for his orders to meet the paymaster at 
 Willow Springs to-day, he says, he would have pushed on to Painted 
 Lodge, made a forty-mile march. It really looks very threatening 
 down the valley, and now that the money s gone and the paymaster 
 can t reach him I m in hopes he will push ahead. Already people 
 are wiring out here from town, asking whether the Indian rumors 
 are true. They ve got a story there that ten people were killed yes 
 terday." 
 
 "Yes, sir," put in the adjutant; "our market-man brought it out 
 here an hour ago. It s going all over the post. They say in town one 
 reason there s no chance of catching these robbers is that the cavalry 
 has been ordered to come on with all speed, and that a courier rode out
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 169 
 
 to them from Minden before daybreak this morning. Despatches 
 were sent them before the line was cut." 
 
 Away on the winding road to the southwest towards the distant 
 frontier town a couple of wagons could be seen slowly moving towards 
 the post. Beyond them little dust-clouds, rapidly sailing over the 
 plain, told where fleeter horsemen were speeding. The men coming 
 out from their dinner were gathering in groups on the verandas, 
 chatting in low tones and watching the group of officers. Presently 
 the orderly came hurrying back alone. 
 
 " What orders did you give those couriers, Mr. Wood ?" 
 
 " Nothing especial, sir. Schultz asked if they were at liberty to 
 start back as soon as they wished, and I said yes." 
 
 " Then they must be taking a nap," said the major. " What with 
 
 being up most of last night and having to ride all to-night, they 
 
 need it. Their consciences are clear if they can sleep all the morning." 
 
 The orderly reached them as the major concluded, halted half a 
 
 dozen paces away, and reported : 
 
 " Sergeant Shea says the couriers left nearly an hour ago, sir." 
 
 " Left an hour ago ! Which way ?" 
 
 " He doesn t know, sir. Private Burns says he saw them ride 
 away after the quartermaster s corral at 11.30, going towards town." 
 
 VI. 
 
 It was one o clock that afternoon before the sheriff reached the 
 post. Butteville, the thriving county seat, lay just five miles away 
 to the southwest, and a hard prairie road connected it with the post. 
 As a distributing point to the mines and a market for the ranchmen 
 the growing town had shot rapidly into importance. Two banks, both 
 reliable, two hotels, well patronized, and shops and stores in good 
 number, were barely able to supply the demands. Dozens of bustling 
 men breakfasted every morning at the big eating-house of the railway 
 company, where the west-bound express was supposed to find ample 
 sustenance for its passengers before pushing on for the long day s run 
 through the mountains. The sheriff and the coroner, as was the case 
 in most frontier cities of the day, were by long odds the hardest-worked 
 officials, and just now the sheriff was fairly used up. The first inti 
 mation of anything wrong east of Butteville was the sudden stop of 
 H 15
 
 170 SERGEANT C1KESUS. 
 
 the wires. Up to daybreak train-despatchers and night operators sit 
 ting, red-eyed and weary, over their instruments, after the long hours 
 of vigil, found everything working smoothly. The night had been 
 still, neither storm nor excitement anywhere along the line, until just 
 about four o clock Butte, called up by Pawnee Station, was asked, 
 " What s afire at Alkali ?" Butte didn t know, hadn t heard. Paw 
 nee explained that a despatch for Paymaster Graves from Minden met 
 No. 3 at Pawnee, and said bridge was down at Alkali. Two ranch 
 men from over Painted Lodge way rode into Pawnee at three A.M. 
 and said hell was broke loose down the Mini Ska, Sioux scalping 
 and burning everything in sight. Where were Colonel Winthrop and 
 the cavalry ? Butte answered : The colonel and six companies had 
 marched for Painted Lodge two days before, couldn t be far from 
 Alkali now. Sioux wouldn t dare come that far up the valley. Who 
 said the bridge was down and burnt ? Pawnee replied : Hold on a 
 minute. More refugees from valley are reported hurrying to the rail 
 way, and Pawnee wanted to see the ranchmen who first came before 
 they got good and drunk and couldn t talk reliably. Perhaps Minden 
 could tell about the bridge at Alkali. Butte called Minden accordingly. 
 Minden said some of the cavalry had come up from Alkali an hour 
 before, said they d been sent to Alkali in the first place to meet the 
 Paymaster on No. 3, but they found the bridge across the Mini Ska 
 afire, so the ambulance, escort, etc., were all on the way up to Minden, 
 and these two rode ahead with a despatch for Major Graves, explaining 
 the situation and telling him to keep on and meet them here. Minden 
 sent it to Pawnee, and Pawnee gave it to the porter of the sleeping-car. 
 That s all Minden knew about fire or anything else. Butteville was 
 the west end of the division, however, and Butteville demanded fur 
 ther particulars, told Mindeu to ask the cavalry if any of the build 
 ings at Alkali were reported afire. Minden said wait a minute, he d 
 find out: No. 3 s head-light just coming around Buffalo Bluff. The 
 soldiers had gone out to meet the lieutenant as soon as assured that 
 the despatch had been delivered to No. 3, and they were now watering 
 their horses at the creek. It was just light enough to see them out 
 there. Then No. 3 reached Mindeu, was duly reported in and out, 
 and then the wires went down. No. 3 came into Butteville at break 
 fast on time and all right. The division superintendent asked what 
 was the matter at Alkali Station, and the conductor replied, nothing 
 that he knew of. They had come lively down Antelope grade and
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 171 
 
 struck the Mini Ska valley, running forty-five miles an hour, which 
 they didn t check, as Major Graves s telegram said, " Come on to 
 Minden." Had he seen the despatch? Why, certainly. It was all 
 right, signed by some lieutenant or other, commanding escort. Had 
 he seen no fire at Alkali? Oh, yes, over on the bank of the stream 
 five hundred yards or so from the station there was some fire. Thought 
 it was only a camp-fire or two. There were two or three men, soldiers, 
 he thought, on the old platform, but it was barely dawn, and the 
 engine left such a trail of smoke and steam that the men were en 
 veloped in it, and he couldn t make them out distinctly. No. 3 
 dropped the major and his clerk at Minden, where other soldiers met 
 him, and then hurried on. " What s the trouble?" " Well," said the 
 superintendent, "since the moment you pulled out from Minden to 
 this moment, Mr. Hart, we have been cut off. Not a word can we get 
 from the east." 
 
 By the time the express pushed on for the west again a couple of 
 hand-cars had been despatched eastward in the vain hope of finding 
 the break near town, and these were overhauled ten miles out by the 
 engine and caboose sent scouting down the valley. Not until they were 
 within a mile of Minden did they find the gap, and along there the 
 wires had been clipped in half a dozen places. The superintendent 
 gathered the particulars while his men were patching. Here at the 
 station, surrounded by a knot of excited ranchmen and settlers, were 
 Major Graves and his clerk, but all they had to show was the telegram. 
 It read plainly enough : 
 
 " Minden Station, June 3, 3.05 A.M. Major Graves, U. S. Army, 
 on No. 3, Pawnee Station. Bridge down at Alkali. Cannot cross 
 Mini Ska. Come on to Minden : escort meet you there. 
 
 " EDWARDS, Lieutenant Commanding." 
 
 Never suspecting anything wrong, Major Graves sent his clerk to 
 notify the conductor and show him the despatch. The porter made 
 them coffee and a light breakfast at the buffet, so as to enable them to 
 start at once for the longer ride that their going on to Minden would 
 necessitate. They were met as they jumped off the car by a couple 
 of troopers in overcoats, thimble-belts, and the slouch-hat then much 
 affected by the cavalry on campaigns. " This way, sir," said one : 
 " the lieutenant says the escort s ready to start the moment the major 
 is." He made a move to take the valise, but instinctively the major
 
 172 SERGEANT CBCESUS. 
 
 held on. The train pulled out as they stepped around to the rear of 
 the de"|>6t. Graves could see a little knot of horsemen close to the 
 stream. " The boys will be glad to see you, sir, and we ve a long ride 
 ahead of us," said his conductor, and in another moment Graves was 
 tripped, thrown heavily to the ground, bound, and gagged, and there 
 he lay helpless, while his clerk was similarly handled, and away went 
 the valise with its precious thousands, he had no idea whither. He 
 saw only three or four men in all, but they were all in cavalry over 
 coats, and the horses and equipments, so far as he could judge in the 
 light and distance, looked like those of the regulars, not cowboys or 
 road-agents. They vanished in the twinkling of an eye, and not until 
 they had been gone fifteen minutes or more did the station agent dis 
 cover the plight of the paymaster and release him. Meantime, the 
 wires had been cut. Pursuit was useless. No one knew who the 
 robbers were, or which way they had gone after crossing the bridge. 
 But an early bird around the station said he saw two soldiers gallop 
 ing west along the north bank of the stream, and all Minden what 
 there was of it was ready to swear that soldiers were at the bottom 
 of the whole aifair. 
 
 It was ten o clock before they could send a despatch to Butte. It 
 was barely 4.45 when the robbery took place. It was noon, as we 
 have seen, when the news reached the fort, and one o clock when the 
 sheriff got there. 
 
 " Cowboys ! Road-agents !" said he, indignantly. " No, sir. We 
 hung the last of them two months ago. There isn t a road-agent left 
 in Latimer County. Those robbers were soldiers, cavalrymen, de 
 serters from Colonel Winthrop s command. Fisk, the operator at 
 Minden, will swear to their identity, at least of the two who came in 
 with the despatch. Of course he sent it when he saw Lieutenant 
 Edwards s name signed and they told him so straight a story. You 
 send couriers after Colonel Winthrop, find out who are absent from the 
 battalion, and you ll know who your robbers are. Then I can do 
 something." 
 
 " Did you pass any of our men on your way out from town ?" 
 asked Rhett, after a moment s pause. 
 
 "Your men? Soldiers? Nothing but the ordnance sergeant and 
 some wagons. Who were they, and where d they go?" 
 
 " I don t know that they did go that way, at least. Two cou 
 riers came with despatches this morning from Colonel Winthrop and
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 173 
 
 left at 11.30 to rejoin him. Some one said they didn t go east, how 
 ever, but struck out for town." 
 
 " What were their names ? What were they like ?" asked the 
 sheriff, eagerly. 
 
 " They are two of our best men," answered the major. " Mr. 
 Morgan, here, knows them well. They are Germans, about the last 
 men likely to become highway-robbers." 
 
 " Humph ! I d stake my commission on their innocence," said 
 Morgan, briefly. 
 
 " Oh, of course all men are innocent until proved guilty," said the 
 sheriff, crushingly. " All the same it s my business to look after them. 
 You say they went to town instead of back on the trail of the bat 
 talion, major?" 
 
 " I did not," was the major s chilling reply. " I said somebody 
 else said that they had struck out for town. Very possibly they had 
 business there; and they were not under my jurisdiction, anyhow." 
 
 " No ; they re under mine," said the sheriff. " Men need funds, as a 
 rule, to transact business in Butte, and soldiers without money have 
 little business so far off their track. If they have money when their 
 comrades haven t, where d they get it ?" 
 
 " Well, Schultz, the sergeant, has been in service some twenty years, 
 and is reported to have saved up much more money than I ever hope 
 or expect to," said Rhett. " I presume his bank-account can be 
 ascertained at the First National. Schramm, the other, isn t a year in 
 service." 
 
 " Schramm ?" exclaimed the sheriff. " A good-looking, blue-eyed 
 little Dutchman?" 
 
 "A good-looking, blue-eyed, medium-sized, slender young German, 
 if you like, Mr. Sheriff," said Morgan. " What have you to say about 
 him?" 
 
 " Oh, I m saying nothing. I want you gentlemen to talk. That 
 young fellow gets nearly thirteen dollars a month, doesn t he, major?" 
 
 " Well, rather less than that, Mr. Sheriff." 
 
 " Does he own a mine or a faro- bank hereabouts, or is he in cahoots 
 with Curran ?" asked the civilian. 
 
 " If he is, he s a dead loser this time," said the post adjutant, 
 shortly, he being a young officer deeply imbued with the proper idea 
 of deference to a commanding officer and resentful of civilian imperti 
 nence, even on the part of a sheriff . " Old Curran was at Alkali wait- 
 
 15*
 
 174 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 ing for first pick at the paymaster s dollars. Now his beggars on 
 horseback are off for six months service against the Sioux, and he ll 
 lose most of their accounts." 
 
 " So he has no means outside of his pay, this young Deutscher ? 
 Well, that s what I wanted to know." 
 
 " Fortunes outside of the pay are not often to be found in the 
 army," answered the major. " What makes you think Schramm has 
 one?" 
 
 " Oh, I don t," said the sheriff. " But I believe he has more money 
 than he can easily account for, and the sooner he is overhauled the 
 quicker we ll know something of this morning s work." And with 
 that the sheriff whirled his cayuse about, and, giving him a touch with 
 the quirt, went bounding lightly away to the corrals. 
 
 " Tha fellow s a brute," said Mr. Woods, presently. " You don t 
 suppose he really suspects Schramm, do you, Morgan?" But Morgan, 
 gripping his stick, was already trudging angrily away. 
 
 That night the paymaster himself arrived at Fort Ransom, leaving 
 his faithful clerk in conference with the officials in town. Graves was 
 soon the centre of an eager gathering at Rhett s quarters. By this 
 time, too, Curran was back, coming up on the afternoon freight. He 
 had gone down to Alkali by the east-bound express the previous even 
 ing. The escort was already there, bivouacked for the night at the 
 edge of the stream. They were up betimes and had a hot breakfast all 
 ready for Graves, and were surprised to see the train shoot past instead 
 of stopping to let him off. Not until the engine sent out from Butte 
 came steaming down at noon did they know what had taken place at 
 Minden. Then there was nothing left him but to return by the first 
 opportunity. The sergeant and detachment remained awaiting orders, 
 as the paymaster might draw funds from the bank at Butte and come 
 on again. Just as lie was leaving on the afternoon freight a courier 
 came to Alkali with orders for the sergeant, and the messenger said 
 that the battalion had reached Willow Springs and was surprised to 
 find no paymaster there. News from the lower valley was so threaten 
 ing that Colonel Winthrop had determined, after resting a couple of 
 hours, to push on for Painted Lodge, upon the supposition that the 
 paymaster had missed No. 3. The escort was ordered to wait for him 
 until next train from the east, and then, whether he came or not, to 
 rejoin the battalion by the shortest route, following down the left bank, 
 and bringing the extra ammunition shipped from Ransom.
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 175 
 
 Curran was utterly disgusted with the whole affair. " Ten chances to 
 one," said he, " them fellows will never come back to the post, and I ll 
 never get a cint of me money." Curran, as the party most interested, 
 was persistent in his cross-questioning of the major, who was eager 
 enough to explain, but not to Curran. In brief, he said he had brought 
 in that sole-leather valise nearly twelve thousand dollars with which 
 to pay Winthrop s command. The rest of his funds, sealed in his 
 little iron safe, were turned over to the express company to be for 
 warded to Butte, two days later on, by which time he had expected to 
 return to pay the infantry at the fort and then go on to the outlying 
 posts to the northwest. By evening, too, Rhett had received tele 
 graphic orders to hold his little battalion of foot in readiness to take 
 train to Pawnee and thence march across the range to the lower Mini 
 Ska. Although exaggerated, the reports of rapine and murder were 
 only too true. The Sioux were indeed at their devilish work. In the 
 subdued bustle of preparation the paymaster s excitement and distress 
 of mind created less sympathy than would ordinarily have been the 
 case. Eagerly he was showing his despatch to officer after officer, and 
 asking whether any one would not have acted just as he did under the 
 circumstances and on receipt of so genuine a message, and gentlemen 
 who under other circumstances would unhesitatingly have said yes 
 were now disposed to be a bit conservative, to look judicial and suggest 
 inquiries. Wouldn t it have been better to stop the train at Alkali 
 and see if the report were true? The bridge was only half a mile 
 from the station, and somebody would have been sure to know. These 
 are times when everybody s backsight is so much better than his fore 
 sight. Everybody could see with half an eye that had the paymaster 
 caused the conductor to stop the train at Alkali some of the escort 
 would have been on the platform to meet him, and they would have 
 told him that there was nothing in the world the matter with the 
 bridge, that the whole thing was a plant. But Graves pointed out 
 that he didn t own the road and couldn t make the train stop unless he 
 meant to get off, which he didn t. Lieutenant Edwards had wired 
 him to come on to Minden. Everybody knew Edwards. He had 
 escorted Graves on the winter trip to the Black Hills cantonment. It 
 was most natural Edwards should have been selected to escort him this 
 time. He was with the battalion, first lieutenant of Captain Frank 
 Amory s troop. True, as matters turned out, Edwards had not been 
 sent at all. Old Sergeant Daly, with eight troopers, was considered
 
 176 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 
 
 amply sufficient. Of course it was a plant, a most successful plant, 
 and more than likely, said the paymaster, somebody closely connected 
 with the cavalry had engineered the whole scheme. Everybody knew 
 there were some very shady characters among the men enlisting during 
 the Centennial year. Everybody knew what train would fetch him 
 out from department head -quarters. The plotters would not wire in 
 time to admit of his making inquiries, but waited until the last 
 moment, then, dressed and equipped as the cavalry were dressed and 
 equipped, they had sent two of their number in to Minden Station 
 with a despatch signed by an officer whom they reported a mile or 
 two behind, coming up with the wagon and main body. Everything 
 looked straight to the operator, and so it was sent to Pawnee and there 
 handed to the Pullman porter. What could have been more complete? 
 The troopers who met him at the platform addressed him confidently 
 and respectfully, saluting exactly like old soldiers. Of course he 
 hadn t a personal acquaintance with the entire regiment, but this he 
 would say and did say, that he believed Mr. Lacy, his clerk, was 
 willing to swear that the two men who met him at Minden were bona 
 fide members of the Eleventh Cavalry ; Mr. Lacy had seen them 
 before, and could identify them if he were to see them again. The 
 sheriff s people were already working on the clue. 
 
 It was nearly tattoo that evening when Morgan left the major s 
 and went slowly homeward. Voices in eager conversation were audi 
 ble in the kitchen as he entered, then became as suddenly still and the 
 door was quickly closed. It was his custom to go to the children s 
 room and kiss and pet them a little after Connie had prompted them 
 through their prayers, devotions over which, in their infantile de 
 pravity, they were far more apt to fall asleep than during the subse 
 quent ceremony. But the sounds from aloft as he entered were those 
 of lively contention rather than adoration, lively controversy rather 
 than the lisping prayers of childish lips. Lot and Billy were still up 
 and astir, it was evident, and so engrossed in their tilt that the father s 
 slow coming up the creaking stairway failed to divert their attention. 
 Halting at the door and looking in, the veteran trooper enjoyed a 
 coup-d ceil of the scene. Perched on the bed in the bifurcated vest 
 ment of canton flannel referred to as his " nighties" was the burly son 
 and heir, barefooted, flushed, truculent, bouncing up and down on the 
 bed-springs as he conversed with his sister, who, equally flushed, if a 
 trifle less confident in mien, and just about half undressed, was stand-
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 177 
 
 ing with one of her spring-heeled, buttoned boots in hand, half con 
 cealed, half disclosed, as though she lacked determination to hurl it 
 after its mate, now reposing on top of the bureau beyond the bed, 
 surrounded by the wreck of a glass toilet-set, once their mother s, 
 Aunt Lottie s one present to her army sister. 
 
 " I don t care," said Lot, sturdily ; " you did it." 
 
 " Oh, you re worse n Annanice Afire ! I didn t !" 
 
 " You did, too ! and you shan t call names." 
 
 " I shall if you cuse me again," said Billy, stoutly. " You fired 
 that shoe at me when I wasn t even lookin at dolly, and it smashed 
 everything." 
 
 " I don t care," reiterated Lot : " it was all your fault. It never 
 would have hit em at all if if you hadn t dodged. So there !" 
 And then Lot, triumphant, turned, saw her father s grave face, and 
 lost her nerve. Running to him, she burst into tears, whereupon Billy 
 began to whimper sympathetically. 
 
 " Hush, Lottie. Never mind who did it now," said Morgan, taking 
 her in his arms. " Hush, child. We ll settle that some other time. 
 Where s Connie ? Where was she when this happened ?" 
 
 " Mammy called her to the kitchen. Sergeant Hinkel s wife corned," 
 sobbed Lottie, " and she told Billy not to step on my dolly, and he 
 
 he -just danced it off the bed a purpose, and I and I " and here 
 
 the sobs overmastered her, and Billy came tumbling off his perch in 
 dire dismay. And this was the situation when Connie s low voice and 
 fleet footsteps were heard on the stairway, and Little Mother came 
 hurrying in. One glance told her what had happened. She flew 
 around the bed to the bureau. 
 
 "Oh, Lottie, Lottie, how could you?" she cried. "Our dear 
 mother s set, Aunt Lottie s present !" 
 
 " Never mind, Connie, never mind it now, dear. She wasn t aim 
 ing at it," said paterfamilias, with his patient smile. 
 
 " She was aimin at me !" burst in Billy, whose distress at sight of 
 Lottie s grief was suddenly tempered by the prospect of her getting 
 off scot-free, as was too often the case when the father administered 
 justice, " and then she said I did it cause I dodged." 
 
 " Well, he called me names," sobbed Lottie, " said I was worse n 
 Anuanice Afire." 
 
 "What on earth is Annanice Afire?" asked Morgan blankly of 
 his eldest. 
 H*
 
 178 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 " Nothing, father dear. I read them the story of Ananias and 
 Sapphira when Billy told a story the other day. Let me undress 
 Lottie, now. Come, child." 
 
 But Morgan noticed instantly how nervous and flurried was her 
 manner, how tremulous and cold her hand. His little Connie, his big 
 tall Connie now, so tenderly, so fondly loved. Not until the little 
 ones had forgotten their squabble, had begged each other s forgiveness 
 at Connie s knee and cried themselves blissfully to sleep, did the father 
 see her again. She seemed to busy herself a long time aloft instead 
 of coming down to his den. Meantime, Fenton, officer of the day, 
 came hurriedly in : 
 
 " Here s the latest, Morgan. Schultz and Schramm took dinner 
 together at Conway s restaurant, leaving their horses at the Empire 
 stable, and didn t start until nearly three o clock. The sheriff has 
 sent a posse after them. He claims that Lacy s description of the 
 robbers fits them both." 
 
 " Blatherskite !" said Morgan. 
 
 " Well, that isn t all. Khett s got a despatch from the chief. We 
 go at daybreak. Special train. You ll be K.O. here to-morrow. 
 The despatch from Pawnee says ranchmen report an officer and his 
 orderly killed and scalped not twenty miles from Painted Lodge. 
 Better come over to the office awhile." 
 
 " I ll be there in a minute," said Morgan, rising stiffly. " Con 
 nie !" he called at the foot of the stairs. " Connie !" 
 
 No answer. Slowly, wonderingly, he climbed the little stairs. 
 Her door was open, the room dark ; the night-lamp burning dimly in 
 the children s room threw but a faint beam through the connecting 
 door- way. Groping in, he became aware of something dark upon 
 Connie s white bed. It was his child, her head between the pillows as 
 though to shut out every sound. 
 
 " Constance !" he exclaimed, distressed, dismayed. She started up, 
 her hands clasped to her temples. Then, as though overwhelmed with 
 the realization of some haunting dread, she bowed her face upon his 
 arm, quivering from head to foot, and with one low moan of " Papa," 
 the old baby name seeming to come most readily to her lips, 
 " Papa, they ve killed him !" sank back upon the pillow.
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 179 
 
 VII. 
 
 The doctor was needed for Constance that night, and Mrs. Fenton 
 and Mrs. Woods, loving women both, came in to minister to her, so 
 utterly was she unnerved, unstrung. Morgan knew not what to say 
 or think. It was no time now to ask to see the letter she had begged 
 him to read. It was no time to torture her with inquiry as to why 
 the belief in Thornton s death should so utterly prostrate her, even 
 were the belief itself justifiable, which he did not at all concede. 
 Ranchmen reported an officer and his orderly killed in the Mini Ska 
 valley far to the north of Pawnee Station that evening about dusk. 
 Ranchmen were proverbially sensational. Even if an officer had been 
 killed, why should it be Thornton ? True, Winthrop s was the only 
 command in the valley at the moment. True, the Indians knew of 
 their coming, for what movement of troops did they not know all about 
 as soon as the troops themselves? If an officer had been killed, it very 
 possibly was one of the Eleventh. From the landing at the head of 
 the stairs Constance had heard the abrupt announcement of Captain 
 Fenton, and, waiting for no explanation, had rushed to her bed. Why 
 should she believe Thornton to have been the victim ? And, even if 
 he were, why should it so affect her ? the apple of his eye, his loving, 
 winsome, loyal Connie, his " Little Mother," as he had so long called 
 her? Morgan wrung his hands in distress and perplexity. 
 
 The doctor came in after his brief examination. 
 
 " The child has been running down all winter," he said. " She is 
 in a low, nervous condition, the natural result of the long strain. She 
 has had a woman s cares on a child s shoulders, Morgan, and any shock 
 was likely to upset her. The sudden news that one of her friends was 
 killed was quite enough to floor a stronger woman, let alone Connie. 
 We ll have her up again in a day or two ; but she ought to have rest 
 and change." 
 
 Rest and change ! how glibly the words fall ! How leaden they 
 light on the ear of husband and father impoverished in the service and 
 bound to the wheel ! How was he to offer rest and change to any of 
 his brood ? If rest and change could have saved the life of his beloved 
 wife, how could he have won it for her ? 
 
 " I ve given Constance soothing medicine. Better not disturb her 
 to-night," said the doctor, as he left : so Morgan ventured not to bend
 
 180 SERQEAXT C&fflSUS. 
 
 over his sleeping child, fearful of breaking the spell. Yet at dawn, 
 when the little battalion of foot marched off to Butte, she was up 
 and at the window, importuning him for latest news from the front. 
 Hours that morning he had to be at the office, for despatches were 
 coming in thick and fast, ordering ordnance stores and ammunition 
 sent hither and yon, and up to noon nothing whatever was heard from 
 Winthrop s command, and the big eyes that questioned him, when he 
 came to kiss Connie s white forehead, were rimmed with mourning 
 circles, as though already she believed him gone and for him mutely 
 wore her weeds. At three P.M. came a despatch from Rhett, six miles 
 out from Pawnee, en route for the Mini Ska, dated at twelve : " Report 
 of killing of officer and orderly untrue. Lieutenant Thornton s horse 
 accidentally shot while scouting. No other casualties heard of. Win- 
 throp reported forty miles northeast of Painted Lodge already." 
 
 Morgan took this over home at once. Mrs. Woods, bonny little army 
 wife and mother that she was, came from Connie s room, and to her he 
 gave the message. He would not permit any one to think he supposed 
 his child could be, at her tender age, unduly interested in the fate of 
 any man. Yet he found himself listening at the foot of the stairs. 
 Would she cry out in relief and joy ? No ; whatsoever she might have 
 betrayed to him, Constance was on her guard now. She was her 
 mother s daughter for " pure grit," said he. 
 
 " Connie is so glad it wasn t true," called Mrs. Woods, tossing the 
 brown paper down the stairs. "She wants to know when you are 
 coming up to see her ?" 
 
 " After a while," answered he. " I must go to the storehouse first." 
 He hastened to his stock of arms and munitions of war, thinking little 
 of them, it must be owned, thinking little of anything just now but 
 Connie. Not yet sixteen, an innocent, ignorant, garrison-bred girl, yet 
 so like her mother in her own girlhood, so gentle, unselfish, thoughtful 
 for others ; could it be that all unsought she should have given her 
 girlish heart to the bright-eyed, merry young fellow who had so sud 
 denly left them, and that it was known noted by others? If not, 
 why should Rhett have taken all the trouble to send that message tell 
 ing of Thornton s safety ? Sorrow, trial, trouble of nearly every kind 
 had come to him during the last year or so, but this was something so 
 utterly unlocked for. What could he do ? What should he do ? 
 
 At the storehouse, the ordnance sergeant, aided by one or two semi- 
 invalided troopers, was packing cavalry equipments to be sent to a
 
 CECESUS. 181 
 
 distant command. The glad June sunshine was pouring in at the open 
 door-way, and the mountain breeze was fresh and bracing. The men 
 were chatting in low tones over their work, and the talk was only of 
 the robbery. Graves was in town, in consultation with the civil au 
 thorities. The local morning paper had but two topics to discuss, the 
 Indian outbreak and the robbery. It had but one theory : the Indians 
 were the malefactors in the first case, and the soldiers in the second. 
 That cowboys or settlers, ranchmen or road-agents, could be the real 
 culprits was not for an instant to be believed. Two soldiers closely 
 answering the description given by Mr. Lacy, the paymaster s clerk, 
 had been in town for several hours the previous day, patronizing stables, 
 saloons, and restaurants, and liberally supplied with money, had ridden 
 away as soon as details of the robbery were being circulated about the 
 streets, and they were now " at large," that expressive term which is 
 used by the press when it desires to imply that the party enjoying his 
 constitutional rights is probably a fugitive from justice. The sheriff, 
 with efficient " posses," was scouring the country in pursuit. Officials 
 at the fort, professing to doubt the evidence laid before them, had re 
 fused to co-operate with the civil authorities in securing their arrest, and 
 had insisted that the men were merely returning on the trail of Colonel 
 Winthrop s command. Morgan had read many a screed in similar 
 strain. It was what his own men were saying that aroused him to 
 sudden interest. 
 
 " Who was that red-headed chap was out here last night asking to 
 know where was Schramm s trunk?" inquired Private Geohegan of his 
 comrade. 
 
 " Oh, he s wan of the sheriff s gang. I misremember his name. 
 Sure the quartermaster-sergeant told him Schramm carried his trunk, 
 like the elephants, on the end of his nose. But he said he knew he d 
 left a box or trunk in somebody s care, Mrs. Hinkel s, I think, or the 
 wife of some of the sergeants. He was nosing around the landresses 
 quarters half the evening." 
 
 " Was he ? Did he get anything ?" 
 
 " He did. He got some important information. Mrs. Clancy tould 
 him she d black his eye for him if he stuck his red head inside the 
 door, and while she was entertaining the gentleman Mrs. Hinkel ran 
 up to the post with a box, and when she came back the feller was talk 
 ing about a search-warrant. It s little of Schramm s they d find at ould 
 Hinkel s now. She s took it up to the officers quarters, whatever it is." 
 
 16
 
 182 SERGEANT CRCESVS. 
 
 And then Morgan remembered the eager voice in his kitchen the 
 night before, and Lot s announcement that it was Mrs. Hinkel who 
 begged to see Constance, and a new light flashed across his mind, a 
 new shadow fell athwart his path. What if the authorities were now 
 to ask him where Schramm s effects were hidden? What if they 
 should demand the right to examine them ? Morgan was no longer 
 simply a subaltern officer, he was the commander, pro tern., of the big 
 and important post of Fort Ransom, and bound by every consideration 
 to act in conjunction with the civil officials in the enforcement of law 
 and in the aid of civil process. 
 
 Even as he was pondering over the matter, a horseman appeared 
 in the broad glare of the sunshine on the bare open space in front. 
 
 " I m looking for the post commander," said he, and handed him a 
 telegram. Morgan mechanically unfolded it and read : 
 
 "To the Sheriff, Latimer County, Butteville. Commanding officer 
 Fort Ransom instructed to give every assistance in his power. You 
 will be allowed to make all proper search." 
 
 This was signed by the adjutant-general of the department, and 
 was presently supplemented by another which the operator at the post 
 handed in. He was in conversation with the deputy sheriff at the 
 moment, and, excusing himself, Morgan opened and read : 
 
 " Commanding Officer, Fort Ransom. Civil authorities report 
 they are hampered in search for money stolen from Paymaster Graves. 
 Render every assistance and allow all proper investigation." 
 
 " Do you mean that your people think any of this money is hidden 
 here at this post?" he queried. 
 
 " Well, sir, that s what some of em say. Two of our officers will 
 be out here in a moment. I rode ahead while they were jogging along 
 in their buggy. They were here last night, and Mrs. Hinkel was seen 
 toting a box up into the post just as soon as she heard they were 
 inquiring for her shanty." 
 
 Morgan turned away. Far out across the winding ribbon of the 
 road, twisting and twining over the rolling surface of the prairie, he 
 could see the black dots in the light dust-cloud that told of the rapid 
 approach of the officers of the law. Officially he had no knowledge 
 of the whereabouts of that box, nor even of its existence; personally 
 he had now every reason to believe that it was secreted under his own 
 roof. Confident of Schramm s innocence, he had faith that nothing 
 criminating could be found in Schramm s belongings. But suppose
 
 SERGEANT CKCESUS. 183 
 
 that the box contained papers, personal and family documents which 
 dealt with nobody s business but his own. What right had they to 
 turn his letters inside out, possess themselves of his secrets, and parade 
 them in the columns of the press, as paraded they certainly would be? 
 It was an embarrassing question. 
 
 " What gave rise to the suspicion that Schramm had left valuables 
 in the hands of Mrs. Hinkel ?" he asked. 
 
 "Oh, that was easy to find out," answered the civilian. " All the 
 soldiers, all the laundresses, were full of information about Schramm, 
 and the mere fact that he held aloof from all but a few of their num 
 ber was sufficient to make them suspicious of those with whom he did 
 associate. Mrs. Hinkel and Mrs. Schultz were sisters, I am told, and 
 Schultz and Schramm became very friendly. Schramm, it appears, 
 spent many an evening at Hinkel s, and took a box there when the 
 battalion was packing for the field, and went there with a small bundle 
 the moment he got in from the front, the morning of the robbery. 
 Now we know just what those two men did in town, and what we want 
 to find out is what they did out here, what that packet was and what 
 became of it. To-morrow we expect to have the men themselves." 
 
 "You do? Where?" 
 
 "Oh, well, down the Ska somewhere. They doubtless think that 
 the safest route. You see, they couldn t go in any other direction 
 without their being headed off and its being open admission of their 
 guilt. Possibly they mean to catch the regiment, go through the cam 
 paign with it, and by and by, when the thing has blown over, pull 
 out the money that they ve hidden hereabouts, and have a good time. 
 We have two parties out after them now : one, to head them off, went 
 down to Pawnee by rail and rode north from there ; the other follows 
 their trail. I suppose you know we found the valise ?" 
 
 "No. Where?" 
 
 " On the north bank of the river, not more than a mile west of 
 Minden, sliced open with a bowie and rifled of whatever paper money 
 there was in it originally. Nothing else was taken, so the paymaster 
 and clerk say. They even left the nickels and dimes. Evidently 
 they were in a big hurry." 
 
 Morgan s sad eyes wandered again over the prairie. The buggy 
 was not a mile away, and another was following. If he could only 
 see Mrs. Hinkel a moment before the inquisitors came. "Sudsville," 
 that bustling suburb of the army post of those days, nestled along
 
 184 SERGEANT CR(ESU8. 
 
 under the bank of a little tributary of the Mini Ska, while the cavalry 
 stables and corrals occupied the broad low ground that skirted the 
 stream itself on the southward side of the garrison. He had known 
 the woman for years. She was an honest, sturdy, stout-hearted " frau," 
 devoted to her husband, the Hanoverian sergeant, and proud of her 
 brother-in-law, the Prussian Schultz, whose wife had died some years 
 before. She held herself above the run of the colony of soldiers 
 wives, therefore they were not as ready to lie for as against her. 
 Nevertheless, she had won even their respect ; but the gabble of the 
 laundresses quarters had been amply sufficient to direct the scrutiny 
 of the officials to her doors. Schramm, who left the box with her 
 when the battalion inarched, had left also a small package with her 
 the morning he and Schultz rode in. Where were box and packet, 
 and what did they contain ? That was what the sheriff was deter 
 mined to find out, and so certain was he of being on the trail of the 
 robbers that he had bidden Graves and his clerk to follow and identify 
 the money that might be recovered. When Morgan saw the occupants 
 of the second buggy, as they drove in by the south gate, he went straight 
 to his quarters. 
 
 " Is Constance asleep ?" he asked of Mrs. Woods, as she met him 
 at the stairs. 
 
 " No ; she s awake, and anxious to see you," was the answer. 
 
 Still undetermined what to do, the father slowly climbed the steep 
 stairway. Oh, how fondly and trustfully the big eyes beamed upon 
 him, as he tiptoed in ! Already his child was looking better, almost 
 happy. She stretched forth her arms as he bent to kiss her. 
 
 " Dear old daddy ! All the worry seems to come to you now, and 
 Connie s forbidden to get up and help you. Is there any further news 
 of the robbery, I mean?" 
 
 " Yes." Then he paused a moment. " Constance, dear, the civil 
 authorities claim that they know the robbers, that they are of our 
 regiment and that we are shielding them. The general orders me to 
 aid in the search. They say Mrs. Hinkel had a box which belonged 
 to Schrarnm and contains now some of the stolen money. What box 
 did she bring you last night?" 
 
 "Schramm s box, father, and begged me not to let it go. It con 
 tains no stolen money. It holds papers and personal " But he 
 
 interrupted her.
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 185 
 
 " No matter what it may hold, we cannot hold it now. I do not 
 blame Mrs. Hinkel for fetching it to you, but I must have it and the key." 
 
 " The box is in the lower drawer of the bureau, father. I have 
 no key at all ; Schramm has that. I did not tell you, because we 
 knew that if you were questioned about it you would have to tell the 
 truth, and then poor Schramm s letters would be no longer sacred." 
 
 " They shall touch none of his letters if I can help it/ said Mor 
 gan, " but they must be allowed to examine for themselves." 
 
 A quarter of an hour later, in the office of the commanding officer 
 were Graves and his clerk, the sheriff and a deputy, Morgan and the 
 post surgeon, the latter officer having been summoned at Morgan s 
 request. On the table was a stout sole-leather case about two feet long 
 and six inches deep, shaped something like a despatch-box, something 
 like a valise. It was evidently of foreign make, strong, durable, yet 
 showing signs of service and wear. Such name as had originally been 
 painted on its end was long since carefully scraped and painted out. 
 In addition to its straps, a strong brass clasp and padlock secured it. 
 
 " It seems a pity to burst such a lock and spoil such a case," said 
 the doctor, gravely. " I suppose you gentlemen feel that it must be 
 done?" 
 
 " Oh, I never had a straighter tip in my life," said the sheriff. 
 " I am betting on finding important evidence right here, if not the 
 swag itself." 
 
 A soldier entered with some tools. 
 
 " One moment now, gentlemen," said Morgan. " This box is the 
 property of a comparatively new soldier of ours. I believe he occu 
 pied higher station abroad than here. If money be found herein, well 
 and good, I ve nothing to say ; but I protest against any prying into 
 his personal secrets. This isn t Russia." 
 
 But the very first thing lifted out of the leathern box, as, its clasp 
 shattered, it lay open before their eyes, was a long, official envelope. 
 The sheriff tore it open, and therein lay ten fifty-dollar bills, national 
 currency, crisp and new. 
 
 " My God !" exclaimed Lacy, pale with excitement. " I believe I 
 could almost swear that those are some of the very bills we drew from 
 the First National." 
 
 " Do you ordinarily pay enlisted men in fifty-dollar bills, Mr. 
 Lacy?" asked Morgan. 
 
 " Certainly not," was the prompt reply. " There were over twenty 
 
 16*
 
 186 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 officers with Colonel "Winthrop s battalion : so we brought a thousand 
 in one-hundreds and two thousand in fifties." And Lacy counted the 
 bills over again with trembling fingers. The sheriff s big red hands 
 were dragging out other packets now, bundle after bundle of letters, 
 old, faded, and stained, several little books in German, three or four 
 parcels wrapped in silk, each of which, when unrolled, proved to con 
 tain portraits. One of a soldierly, gray-moustached man of fifty-five 
 or thereabouts, in the conventional broad -breasted undress uniform of 
 the German army. Another, on ivory, this, and in costly frame, a 
 painting of a lovely face with deep blue eyes and a fond, tender smile 
 about the lips, a mother face, which appeared again, with more of 
 silver and less of gold in the curling hair that framed it, in two or 
 three photographs. There was a photograph, too, of a stalwart young 
 lieutenant in the dress of the Uhlans. Another, a boy not more than 
 eighteen or nineteen, in the uniform of the foot-guards, with the iron 
 cross on his breast. There was a sword-knot or two, and then some 
 documents, closely written in German, filed, docketed, and trimly 
 wrapped, and these, one after another, the sheriif was searching through 
 and swearing over because he couldn t understand them, when again 
 Morgan interposed ; 
 
 " There s no more money there, Mr. Sheriif. Surely there s no 
 reason for prying into the man s family affairs. When the arrest is 
 made that will be time enough. You ve got what money there is. 
 Kindly give me a memorandum receipt for that, and then seal the case 
 up again. I say again, I m ready to bet anything both Schultz and 
 Schramm will be able to account for every moment and every dollar. 
 All you have to do now is to get them, which your deputies can effect 
 as soon as they reach the regiment." 
 
 And, seeing how much Morgan seemed to take the matter to heart 
 and that the officers evidently agreed with him, the sheriff finally 
 consented ; 
 
 " All right ; only we ve got to take this with us. We ought to 
 hear through Pawnee from the parties sent to make the arrest by 
 to-morrow night." 
 
 And hear they did, late the next evening. The party sent out 
 from Pawnee rode north to the Mini Ska until they struck the cavalry 
 trail near Painted Lodge, then followed the battalion on to camp. 
 Schultz and Schramm had neither been seen nor heard of by the 
 battalion since they were sent back from Bear Fork.
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 187 
 
 VIII. 
 
 It was on a Wednesday morning that Old Tintop marched away 
 from Ransom. It was on Friday morning at dawn that the robbery 
 occurred at Minden, Friday at guard-mounting that Schultz and 
 Schramm reached the post, Friday noon that the news of the robbery 
 came to Major Rhett, by which time the two couriers were again up 
 and away, going, as we have seen, to have a quiet dinner by them 
 selves in town before starting to return to their detachment. Fanning, 
 proprietor of the Empire stables, said they had unsaddled in his corral 
 about half-past twelve, had told him to feed at four, as they purposed 
 starting in the cool of the evening; but they came back hurriedly just 
 before three, saddled up, paid their reckoning, and left. He knew 
 Schultz well ; the other was a stranger, twenty years younger. Con- 
 way, keeper of the thriving restaurant, said the sergeant and his friend 
 came in about one. He knew Schultz well also, and Schultz ordered 
 a good dinner to be served, with a bottle of Rhine wine, as soon as 
 convenient. They were shown to the curtained alcove at the rear end 
 of the house, farthest from the bar, and were waited upon by the 
 Mongolian combination cook and waiter. Meantime, everybody coming 
 into the bar was talking of the robbery, and finally about half-past two 
 Conway went himself to the box occupied by the Germans, and told 
 them the news. They got up at once, left their wine and coffee 
 unfinished, and hastened out to get further particulars. A few minutes 
 after three they were seen riding briskly away on the Minden road, 
 north of the river. It was Saturday morning when the sheriff s 
 officers were sent in pursuit, one party going by rail to Pawnee, as has 
 been said, then taking horses and riding over to the lower valley of 
 the Ska ; the other followed the trail. On Sunday evening members 
 of both parties met near Painted Lodge, one coming back from the 
 command to report that Schultz and Schramm were not there and 
 hadn t been there, the other riding eastward hard as they could to 
 catch the malefactors whom they believed still ahead of them. Between 
 the two the Germans had slipped out somewhere and gone none could 
 say whither. 
 
 When Monday evening came there was news indeed. Tintop, by 
 a forced march, had jumped between the Sioux raiding-parties and the 
 agency, whither the renegades were now returning, and there had been
 
 188 SERGEANT CECESUS. 
 
 a battle to the death. The fight had come off somewhere among the 
 breaks on the north side of the Ska Sunday afternoon, ninety miles 
 from the agency and a hundred from the nearest railway-station. The 
 news came from Indian sources entirely, but neither agent, interpreter, 
 mission priests, nor soldier guards could tell by what means they got 
 the tidings, and no Indian or half-bred would tell. That they believed 
 it authentic was evident from the wails and lamentations of certain 
 bereaved squaws. All the agent could telegraph was that a collision 
 had occurred and the losses were heavy on both sides. Tuesday morn 
 ing dawned with no further particulars worthy of credence. But 
 when No. 3 came in for breakfast at Butte, Colonel Rand, inspector- 
 general of the department, stepped briskly off and inquired for 
 despatches at the office of the hotel. Receiving several, he was shown 
 at once to Major Graves s room. 
 
 With the paymaster at the moment were the sheriff and a brace of 
 reporters. Mr. Lacy was away on some mysterious errand which was 
 to result, so it was said, in the recovery of a large portion of the stolen 
 funds. He had been gone since Sunday night. Rand thoughtfully 
 read his telegrams as he mounted the stairs. The bell-boy s rap was 
 answered by the sheriff, who was seated nearest the door, a proceeding 
 at which Graves reddened ; it smacked of proprietorship, an indefinable 
 air of authority and possession on the part of the sheriff having become 
 more and more noticeable to the paymaster ever since their visit to 
 Ransom. It galled him, yet was manifested in so intangible a way he 
 knew not how to resent it. The fact of the matter was, Graves didn t 
 know how to do anything when Lacy was away. He had been in 
 service only a year, despite his gray beard, and was the nominee of a 
 man to whom neither Executive nor Senate could afford to say nay. 
 He simply leaned upon Lacy, who for his part was unquestionably one 
 of the ablest and most accomplished assistants a government official 
 could expect to have. 
 
 " What do you want ?" said the sheriff, gruffly. " Nobody rang." 
 " Don t want nawthin ," was the answer, as the boy s eyes wandered 
 past the bulky form which was too familiar to be of interest, and 
 sought out the party who had been " held up." " There s a feller here 
 askin for Graves," he proceeded, the use of a handle to a man s 
 name being regarded in many far Western communities at that day as 
 a virtual admission of personal inferiority. The paymaster heard his 
 name and hastened to the door. Rand, swinging coolly along the
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 189 
 
 corridor, reading his despatches, glanced up, gave no sign of recogni 
 tion of the sheriff, but held out his hand to Graves, whose face lighted 
 with relief and hope at sight of the staff-officer. 
 
 " Come right in, colonel," he exclaimed. " I m mighty glad to see 
 you. I ve been hoping you d come. My God ! did you ever hear of 
 a more perfect plant ? Come in ; I want to talk with you." 
 
 " Had your breakfast ?" asked Rand, briefly, and barely glancing 
 at the other occupants. 
 
 " Not yet. I haven t much appetite to speak of, and these gen 
 tlemen came up to see me the first thing. Let me present " 
 
 " Well, come and take breakfast with me, then. I m hungry as a 
 wolf, and I can t talk until later," interposed Rand. 
 
 " All right, colonel ; I ll go with you in a minute. As I was say 
 ing, the sheriff and these gentlemen " again indicating his friends. 
 
 " Don t let me intrude now, Graves. I ll order for two. Finish 
 your business with your friends, and then join me as soon as you can." 
 And, before the paymaster could present the sheriff or introduce any 
 body else, Rand whirled about and went striding slowly down the 
 corridor, engrossed apparently in another despatch. 
 
 " Give me my old room, if you can," said he at the office, " and 
 order breakfast for two at once. Give us a little table by ourselves: 
 I ll be back here in ten minutes." 
 
 The colonel was not in sight when Graves, still accompanied by 
 the sheriff and the correspondents, came down to the office. Nor did 
 he reappear in the hall. Graves, nervous, anxious, and fretful, kept 
 glancing at the main entrance, and finally led his faithful attendants to 
 the porch without. Here they could command a view of the street 
 both ways. In fifteen minutes a waiter came out to say that Major 
 Graves s breakfast was getting cold, and the other gentleman was half 
 through his n ; wanted to know if the major s friends wouldn t excuse 
 him long enough to let him come in and get a bite. The correspondents 
 saw through the scheme and took it all laughingly. The sheriff said 
 he d go with him. Rand looked neither surprised nor annoyed when 
 the big fellow came bulging in. He bowed civilly, but continued his 
 engrossing work of tearing a territorial chicken to shreds, simply saying 
 they must excuse his apparent haste, he had had no supper the night 
 before and a long day s work was ahead and he was ravenous. The 
 sheriff grimly watched the well-known officer (every town and settle 
 ment in the department knew the general s right-hand adviser, Rand),
 
 190 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 and twice essayed to open talk on the subject of the robbery. Rand 
 listened with every manifestation of polite interest, but vouchsafed not 
 a word of his own. Suddenly pushing back his chair and tossing his 
 napkin thereon as he rose, he said, 
 
 " Now excuse me, major ; finish your breakfast, and I ll write a 
 letter or two. Join me in the office as soon as you re ready." 
 
 Of course Graves was ready in three minutes, and the sheriff also. 
 Rand looked up, nodded cheerily, and went on with his letters. These 
 he presently read over, folded, addressed, and stamped, with easy de 
 liberation, and by this time the correspondents rejoined the major. 
 Rand glanced at his watch, picked up his letters and took them to the 
 desk. Graves and party followed. Then out came Rand s big cigar- 
 case. 
 
 "Smoke?" he said, tendering the bunch to the sheriff, who pulled 
 one forth in his pudgy fingers while Graves was presenting Messrs. 
 So-and-So, of such and such papers, to both of whom Rand extended 
 cordial greeting and his cigar-case, then took Graves by the arm, nodded 
 cheerily a good-day to the party, and popped the paymaster through a 
 side door. For au instant, only, they were too surprised to act. Then, 
 with a "Well, I ll be damned!" the sheriff jumped to the door. 
 There at the side entrance stood Fanning s best bay team and open 
 buggy, Graves just being hoisted in. Rand sprang lightly after him, 
 and, without a vestige of triumph on his face, blithely waved his hand 
 to the party at the door, and away went the bays and the buggy. 
 
 " Well," said the sheriff, " if he isn t a cool one may I be double 
 damned !" 
 
 Not until afternoon could he, or any one else, for that matter, get 
 at either Rand or Graves. Making a long circuit, and keeping him in 
 constant chat, the colonel drove the unhappy paymaster out over the 
 hard prairie roads, and towards noon reined up at the fort, where the 
 team was turned over to an orderly, and the two staff-officers were 
 welcomed by Morgan and regaled with lunch. Rand swore the canned 
 lobster and commissary crackers and cheese, washed down with Bud- 
 weiser, the most delicious things he ever tasted, and was full of sym 
 pathy with Morgan in his anxiety about Connie. 
 
 " Here s what you ve got to do, old fellow," said he. " You must 
 let that brave little woman come and pay us a visit. Send Lot and 
 Billy, too. I ve got a great big house, and my wife will be only too 
 glad to hear child voices in it again. I like Connie. She s a brick.
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 191 
 
 I ll send passes for the whole party, and the change will do her good. 
 Now, speaking about Schramm : had he never told her about his 
 antecedents ?" 
 
 No, Morgan knew he hadn t. So later Rand went down to see 
 Mrs. Hinkel, and thus it happened that he was still at the fort when 
 along about three P.M. the wires began to warm up with other and 
 graver matter. Rand was wanted at the instrument if by chance he 
 was still at the fort, for it was necessary that he should be placed in 
 immediate communication with the general, who was at department 
 head-quarters, and presently the soldier operator s cheek began to pale, 
 as he checked off and jotted down, name after name, the list of the 
 killed and wounded in Tintop s daring fight against the combined war- 
 parties of the reservations. The gallant old dragoon himself was safe, 
 but Morgan s captaincy had come. The flag went down to half-staff 
 unrebuked by the lonely officer in command, for brave Manning, his 
 long-time troop-leader and friend, had fallen fighting hard. The list 
 of the dead, though large, was exceeded by that of the wounded, and 
 supplemented by that of a party of whose fate no man could hazard 
 more than mere conjecture. In addition to the names of Schultz and 
 Schramm were those of ten other troopers reported among the missing. 
 It was the roster of a little detachment sent out on the trail of alleged 
 road-agents or robbers. They had started only a few hours before the 
 fight, and were under the leadership of Lieutenant Thornton. 
 
 IX. 
 
 A special engine and car took Rand, the doctor, and certain hospital 
 attendants eastward to Pawnee that evening, but meantime, on his re 
 turn to town, the colonel had gracefully surrendered to the press. He 
 had so much to tell about the action of Winthrop s command that it 
 left little room for his views or theories as to the robbery. He won 
 the hearts of the correspondents by offering to take them along with 
 him and tell them all he could on the way, and thus get time to look 
 into certain other matters with which he was charged. He asked the 
 sheriff for a description of the bills found in Schramm s box, and the 
 sheriff allowed him to see the packet and make memoranda for him 
 self. He asked to see Mr. Lacy. In fact, he asked twice to see Mr. 
 Lacy ; but, though that gentleman had returned to the hotel at noon,
 
 192 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 he could not be found. He had gone out again after hearing that the 
 major was driving somewhere with Colonel Rand. Up to the minute 
 the special was reported ready, Mr. Lacy did not reappear, and when 
 it was time to start Rand told the telegraph operator to send the 
 following : 
 
 "BuTTE, Tuesday, 5.30 P.M. 
 
 " GENERAL C , on No. 3 : 
 
 "Just starting for Pawnee. No news here of Thornton s party. 
 Rhett s battalion escorting wounded. Shall push forward to Mini Ska 
 to-night. Ordered Graves to return with clerk to head-quarters by 
 next train. Funds in safe by express. Shall stop to question Minden." 
 
 The run to Minden along the level valley was made in thirty 
 minutes, and the agent was on the platform, a green flag hanging from 
 the signal-arm overhead. The engineer, therefore, had orders to stop 
 anyhow. A little knot of loungers had gathered, and with genuine 
 frontier curiosity swarmed about the colonel as he took and opened the 
 telegrams awaiting him. He read as he moved to the door of the 
 station, and some of the party prepared to do likewise. Once inside 
 the office, however, Rand shut and snapped the door behind him and 
 turned on the agent : 
 
 " You were ordered, I believe, to send a written description of the 
 two men who came to you with a despatch for Paymaster Graves 
 and lured him on here Friday morning last. Have you done it ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir. Sent it up to Mr. Burke at Butte to-day, the division 
 superintendent. I couldn t describe much. You see, it was still 
 darkish, although at least it was kind of dark in here, though it was 
 after dawn outside. They wore their slouch-hats down low, and their 
 collars up. I didn t suspect anything. They were both bearded, and 
 in the prime of life, I should say, about thirty, perhaps. Looked as 
 much like soldiers as any I ve ever seen, out here, leastwise." 
 
 " Do you think you d know em again ?" 
 
 "Well, no, sir; to be frank, I don t. I didn t notice them par 
 ticularly. They were so quiet, had so little to say. Only one of them 
 spoke to me at all, gave his message right out soldier-fashion, and 
 said he was instructed to notify the lieutenant of the time it was 
 wired. I sent it right off quick as I could get Pawnee, and then they 
 went out again, leaving me at the desk. When they came back, just 
 as the train hove in sight, although it was broad daylight I was paying
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 193 
 
 attention to the train and not to them, hardly heard a word, or more 
 than even glanced at them, when No. 3 came in. I saw a little clump 
 of men over by the stream watering their horses, and all had on army 
 overcoats. These two fellows who met the paymaster were the ones 
 that first came in ; I m certain as to that." 
 
 " Are you ? Well, why ? What was there to make you certain ?" 
 
 " Because the fellow that did the talking used good English, better 
 than most soldiers, and he ordered the other fellow around. The 
 other called him sergeant/ the time he spoke." 
 
 " Good English, eh ? Out-and-out Yankee, do you mean ? or 
 plains English, or Boston English ? At all events, it sounded like a 
 Yankee talking, not a foreigner, didn t it, a German, for instance ?" 
 said Kand, eying him keenly. 
 
 " Well, now you speak of it, colonel, the fellow called sergeant had 
 just a little accent, German-like. But I mean he didn t use slang 
 nor cuss words. He talked what we call book English." 
 
 " And you thought him only thirty ?" 
 
 u Certainly not more than that. He looked so light and spry. 
 But he had a pretty heavy beard. It covered all his face." 
 
 " No sprinkle of gray in it ?" 
 
 Well, sir, not that I noticed in that light." 
 
 " Where did they leave their horses, and what were the horses like, 
 bays ? sorrels ? chestnuts ?" 
 
 " I didn t see their mounts at all, sir, except in a clump at a dis 
 tance. They seemed mixed colors then." 
 
 "Exactly. Not all one color, as they would be if they belonged to 
 one troop of cavalry, bays, or sorrels, or grays ?" 
 
 " Well, they were a good way off, colonel, and I can t be certain. 
 Mr. Long, here, saw two men riding up along the north bank not 
 more than twenty minutes after No. 3 pulled out." 
 
 "Yes. What colored horses were those two riding, Mr. Long?" 
 
 " Roans, sir. I could see plainly in the slanting sunshine. Clean 
 limbed little fellows, too. They were no plugs or bronchos. They 
 were genuine cavalry horses." 
 
 Rand compressed his bearded lips, as he turned away, signalling to 
 the conductor, " Go ahead." 
 
 That evening a little party pushed away northward from the 
 quartermaster s field depot, established close to the railway-station at 
 Pawnee. A long ride was ahead of them, as the doctor was sorely 
 I 17
 
 194 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 needed. About the same hour, over in the Mini Ska valley, Rhett 
 had pitched his few tents and posted his sentries and outlying pickets to 
 guard the wounded and the helpless against possibility of Indian attack. 
 True, Indians of the plains rarely attack at night, and are scary and 
 superstitious as so many negroes. True, the hostiles were all back 
 under the wing of the agency by this time, probably. But Rhett had 
 never before been on Indian service, and, whether he had or not, 
 determined to neglect no precaution. He had met the convoy return 
 ing from the scene of the fight, had relieved the cavalry guard, sending 
 it back to overtake the battalion, now fourscore miles away en route to 
 a still more threatened point, and, under the orders flashed after him 
 by wire and swift courier, Rhett was coming back to Pawnee, bringing 
 the sufferers with him. The killed had been buried, temporarily at 
 least, at the scene of the savage fight. There were thirty wounded in 
 his care, borne mostly on travois and drawn by captured Indian ponies. 
 When he halted at the end of his day s march Painted Lodge Butte 
 bore southwest by west perhaps fifteen miles away, and the stage- 
 station at the bridge over the Mini Ska lay probably five miles from 
 their up-stream picket. A group of officers, chatting in low tones 
 around the camp-fire among the cottonwoods, dispersed about ten P.M., 
 and all but the commander of the guard rolled into their blankets, one 
 or two of the number enjoying a good-night whiff at their brier-roots 
 as they stretched themselves on the sod. Beyond the heavy breathing 
 of some sleeper and occasionally a feverish moan among the wounded, 
 who, with their attendants, were sheltered in a little hollow out of 
 reach of possible shot, the camp was very quiet. The few horses, the 
 mules and Indian ponies were securely hoppled and guarded where 
 they could graze at will on a bench just to the north of camp, and 
 when the moon came riding up the eastern sky and faintly picturing 
 the bluff 7 - bordered valley, the scene was one of calm and placid repose. 
 Fenton, the officer of the day, could not help remarking upon it, as he 
 went trudging out over the grassy slope for a midnight visit to his 
 pickets. They had been talking of the strange and successful scheme 
 by which the outlaws had lured the paymaster on to Minden and there 
 robbed him, for the theory of the civil authorities that cavalrymen 
 alone were the perpetrators had received something of a set-back when 
 these gentlemen from Ransom met the wounded and the guards from 
 Tintop s command and learned that the only absentees at the time 
 of the robbery were Schultz and Schramm, who could hardly have
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 195 
 
 f 
 
 effected it by themselves; and what opportunity had they had of 
 learning the paymaster s movements? True, the sheriff s people, 
 unable to find out what had become of the two, forbidden to invade 
 the confines of another Territory, which they would do if they followed 
 the cavalry, afraid to linger in the valley after the cavalry had gone, 
 and utterly averse to searching among the Sioux trails for their prey, 
 had returned to the railway. Among the wounded was Lieutenant 
 Edwards, the paymaster s friend, and no one was more interested about 
 this affair in which his name had been so recklessly and effectively 
 misused than Edwards himself. The young doctor with the wounded 
 told him he mustn t talk so much, but Edwards was bound to find out 
 all he could, and so it happened that this very night, catching sight of 
 the officer of the day as he started out on his rounds, Edwards feebly 
 hailed him, on the shallow pretence that he had something to tell. 
 
 "Say, cap., I wanted to ask you if you knew we were just about 
 opposite the gap that Thornton and his fellows took to pursue those 
 road-agents ?" 
 
 "Certainly. They went right up over yonder," said Fenton, 
 pointing to where, dim and shadowy, a ravine seemed to pierce, wedge- 
 like, the barrier of the northward range. " But what do you mean by 
 lying awake and asking conundrums when you ought to be asleep ?" 
 
 " Because I m a damned sight more interested in old Graves s pre 
 dicament than I am in our own, though I may yet have to convince 
 a vigilant treasury that some other fellow, not I, sent that despatch. 
 We were only some twenty miles east of here when that courier caught 
 us with the news of the thing and the statement that the gang had 
 scattered, some coming our way. The courier himself saw two of them, 
 he said, as he came across the bridge, far up across the prairie, riding 
 for Wagon Gap for all they were worth. Then he sneaked over and 
 struck the trail and said that not two but six, at least, had gone to the 
 Gap. That s how Thornton came to be sent back with orders to pursue 
 and punish, capture, recover, and all manner of things that Tintop 
 knew perfectly well he couldn t do, yet had to order him in compliance 
 with his own instructions. He must have ridden right across the line 
 of flight of the Sioux we whipped on Sunday, and, if so, God help 
 him and his ! There s nothing left of em but wolf-bait now." 
 
 " Oh, you re a little used up, Edwards. They ll squeeze through 
 all right, I think. Quit your talking, and go to sleep." 
 
 " I can t sleep. Tten t that this hole hurts me so, or that I m so
 
 196 SERGEANT CROSS US. 
 
 f. 
 
 thirsty, but I can t get that confounded business out of my head, and 
 I m worried about Thornton." 
 
 "Well, shut up," said the captain. "Listen." And he stood 
 holding out a warning hand. 
 
 "What do you hear?" asked Edwards, presently. 
 
 " I can t hear anything, thanks to your clatter. I thought I heard 
 a challenge way up-stream where our picket is. Do be quiet now." 
 
 Both men listened with strained ears. Over at the edge of the 
 bench to the northeast where the drowsy animals were scattered, a 
 slowly-pacing sentry had halted, turned about, and, with the moon 
 beams glinting on his rifle, he too was listening, as though his attention 
 had been attracted by some sound on the up-stream side of the camp. 
 
 " What was it, Lucas?" asked the officer of the day, coming up 
 out of the hollow where the wounded were lying. 
 
 " I don t know, sir. The noise off yonder awhile ago was coyotes, 
 but this cry came from up the bank." 
 
 " So I thought. It sounded like a challenging sentry. Who are 
 out there ?" 
 
 "Corporal Rafferty, sir, and two of B Company. I couldn t see 
 anything, yet about ten minutes ago six or eight of them mules were 
 pricking up their ears and looking out across that stretch of prairie 
 yonder like as though they d seen or smelt something." 
 
 The captain waited no longer. Turning away from the sentry, 
 he walked rapidly out upon the bench which overlooked the river- 
 bottom. Up here the moon illumined his way, while underneath the 
 low crest there were fallen cottonwoods and more or less jungle and 
 tangle to trip over. A camp sentry, well hidden under the bank, 
 waited until his senior was close at hand, then challenged in muffled 
 tone. 
 
 "Have you heard anything unusual off yonder?" asked the officer 
 of the day as soon as he had been formally advanced and recognized. 
 
 "There s voices out there, sir, and horses. Rafferty s party has 
 got em, whoever it is." 
 
 Presently two horsemen, piloted by a soldier afoot, came slowly 
 through the timber towards them. 
 
 " Dc-n t challenge," said Captain Fenton. " I ll hail. What have 
 you there, corporal ?" he sharply asked, when the party had come 
 within a dozen yards. 
 
 " That you, cap. ?" queried a voice with the Western twang in it.
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 197 
 
 " Good Lord, but I m glad to git yere ! We ve ridden seventy-five 
 likely miles since morning, and ain t had a drink for twenty-four 
 hours. Say, any of our other fellows yere? We re the posse sent 
 out from Butte." 
 
 " Oh ! I thought you d given up and gone home," said Fenton, 
 shortly, disappointed somehow that it was not a courier. 
 
 " Well, we did start, till we got word of Lieutenant Thornton s 
 striking the trail, then we turned round and followed him. Luckily, 
 the Sioux headed us off." 
 
 "Why luckily?" 
 
 u Good Lord ! ain t you heard ? The lieutenant and his men were 
 corralled up at Slaughter Cove. I don t reckon there s hide nor hair 
 of any of em left by this time, cept what the Indians have got on 
 their scalp-belts." 
 
 " Slaughter Cove, man ! why, that s not more than thirty miles 
 north of us, through the Gap." 
 
 " That s all true, perhaps, but we had to ride around a whole 
 county to work our way out. The Sioux have got the swag by this 
 time, robbers, troopers, and all." 
 
 X. 
 
 A proud boy was Perry Thornton the night the details of the 
 robbery reached them. Finding no paymaster at Willow Springs on 
 Friday noon, and alarmed by reports of Indian outrages down the 
 Mini Ska, Tintop, as has been seen, decided to push on for Painted 
 Lodge as soon as men and horses had enjoyed an hour of nooning ; 
 and so by sunset of the long June day the cavalry had put some forty- 
 three miles to their credit and gone into camp once more, close to the 
 stream, and not more than ten miles from the bridge over which was 
 carried the broad and once well-beaten trail from Pawnee to the 
 agency. Thornton, eager to win his spurs, and being a prime favorite 
 with Tintop, as indeed he was with everybody, had been accorded the 
 bliss of a side-scout, and was sent over to the stage-station at the 
 bridge to gather news. There was no difficulty in loading up with 
 rumors. The air was full of them. Perry found at the station half 
 a dozen cowboys, ranchmen, and the like, most of whom had escaped 
 
 17*
 
 198 SERGEANT CECESUS. 
 
 by the skin of their teeth and the performance of prodigies of per 
 sonal valor. The old telegraph-line from Pawnee to the station was 
 intact, but north through Wagon Gap and so on to the agency there 
 had been no communication for a week, and no one was venturesome 
 enough to go out and discover why. Around by way of Bismarck 
 and Yankton it was easy, though slow work, to communicate with the 
 agency people, and the situation warranted the belief that the Sioux 
 had slashed the wires running southward from their reservation, and 
 therefore towards the railway and the coming soldiers, but had left the 
 northeastward passage open, under the natural impression that no 
 tidings could ever get to the enemy by a road that ran the opposite 
 way. Perry was urged by his informants to get back to camp and 
 bring up the cavalry, and had not gone a mile before the accident 
 happened which led to the shooting of the horse he was riding. The 
 telegraph company, thinking to be enterprising, had sent a young man 
 out with an instrument only the day before, and reopened the old office 
 at Ska Bridge station, and when a cowboy came running in to say the 
 lieutenant and his party had been jumped on the way back to Painted 
 Lodge the despatch was sent at once which so alarmed the good folk 
 at Ransom and which Rhett found means to modify on the following 
 day; by which time, however, the truth was learned at Ska Bridge, 
 as the cavalry battalion, " going for all it was worth," passed on down 
 stream in a cloud of alkali-dust. Perry was ready for another ride 
 even after a long day s march when, late Saturday night, as they slept 
 far down the Ska, a courier rode in from the stage-station behind with 
 full particulars of the robbery and the news that some of the gang 
 were unquestionably striving to escape towards the Indian agency to 
 the north, and had been seen spurring through Wagon Gap. The 
 telegraph operator at the station had told Old Tintop all that lie knew 
 of the affair during the brief moment that the colonel halted, but now 
 despatches and authentic news came after them. 
 
 " We ve got to send an officer and ten men on the trail of those 
 beggars," said Tintop, sitting up in his blankets and reading by the 
 light of Gray s lantern. " Whose turn is it?" 
 
 " Mine, colonel," sang out a cheery voice from a roll of bedding 
 under an opposite cotton wood, and in a moment Thornton, fresh as a 
 daisy, was pulling on his boots and girding himself for the ride. 
 
 "You ve just got back, you young cub, and the horse you killed 
 was worth the news you brought ten times over," growled the colonel.
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 199 
 
 " Well, that s why I want to have another go, sir," was the prompt, 
 laughing answer. And Tintop would not say him nay. 
 
 It was this way that Thornton came to miss the stirring fight of 
 the battalion on the Sunday noontide, and to stumble into a siege of 
 his own beside which, in point of peril and pluck and long-continued 
 strain, the fierce, brief hour of battle of his comrades was but a 
 bagatelle. 
 
 At one A.M. on Sunday he and his little squad rode away on the 
 westward trail, guided by the couriers who brought the news. Two 
 miles back from camp they left the river and edged away to their right 
 over the moonlit valley towards a rift in the boundary hills just faintly 
 visible in the dim and ghostly light. An hour after dawn they halted 
 in a deep ravine to water their horses, and then went loping on again, 
 Thornton eager and exultant, proud of his trust and determined to 
 overhaul the robbers if riding could do it. By noon Sunday they had 
 pushed northward out of the Gap with the fresh trail leading on ; by 
 one had halted to feed, water, and unsaddle awhile in the midst of the 
 wild scenery at the head of Fossil Creek, the ten-mile pass out of sight 
 behind and the rocky walls of Slaughter Cove no great distance ahead. 
 It was here that Sergeant Jeffers, instead of lying down and resting, 
 as did the others, was seen bending double and examining the tracks of 
 their predecessors all along the bank and among the trees. Wherever 
 a horse had stepped in the mud and the hoof-print remained unbroken 
 he bent closer and studied it with mingled interest and anxiety. At 
 last Thornton, watching him as he munched his bit of hard bread and 
 chocolate, took his tin mug to the brook for a drink and turned on the 
 non-commissioned officer. 
 
 " What are you studying so closely, sergeant ?" 
 
 " These hoof-prints, sir. There are two I ve seen this morning that 
 worried me at first, in view of the charge made that the robbers were 
 cavalrymen." 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 " Just this, sir. Two of these horses we re after wear the govern 
 ment cavalry shoe. Look here, and here. I could almost swear those 
 shoes were fitted and every nail driven and clinched by D Troop s 
 farrier." 
 
 " And do you mean that some of our fellows are actually mixed up 
 in the robbery, after all ? Why, man alive, there s no one out but 
 Schultz and Schramm."
 
 200 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 " That s just exactly what I don t believe, sir, if by being mixed 
 up in the matter the lieutenant means they belong to the gang. No, 
 sir; for the last hour it has been dawning on me that we are not fol 
 lowing one party, but two. An Indian would have told us this before 
 now. The first party went through the Gap hours ahead of the second, 
 and we re as many hours behind. The first party probably were the 
 road-agents ; the second, chasing as hard as they could, were Schultz 
 and Schramm." 
 
 " How do you make it out?" asked Thornton, his bright eyes ablaze 
 with interest. 
 
 " Well, everywhere through the Gap, lieutenant, these cavalry hoof- 
 prints showed atop of the others. In every case where there was soft 
 ground you could see that our print was the last made. The first 
 party camped here, fed, watered, ate, and smoked, and finally went on; 
 our fellows merely fed and watered and hastened after them. You 
 can see where their horses were tethered, where the cooking was done, 
 where they lay and smoked. Some of them had cigars. I picked up 
 three stumps. Our fellows never stopped more than to give their 
 horses what grain they had left in their nose-bags, and a good long 
 drink. It was Schultz and Schramm, simply because they alone were 
 away from the command. They had gained on the gang considerably, 
 too, through the halt of the former right here, and I believe we ll hear 
 from them yet." 
 
 Two hours later, pushing on in grim determination still on the 
 trail, with the opening of the strange, wild, heavily-timbered rift in 
 the hills named but the previous summer Slaughter Cove, just to their 
 left, the party rode suddenly out from among the pines to where a 
 bare, treeless shoulder of the mountains towered between them and the 
 east. Northward up a steep ascent among scattered timber went the 
 trail, and Thornton and Jeffers dismounted to lead and rest their pant 
 ing horses. The others in silence followed their example. Slowly 
 they clambered up the winding path, each moment nearing the crest, 
 and at last within half a dozen yards of the top Jeffers signalled with 
 his bare brown hand, tossed his reins to the nearest trooper, and then, 
 bending low and removing his scouting-hat, went crouching towards a 
 little cairn of stone, an old Indian guide-post made to keep their 
 runners from losing the way in the depths of a Dakota winter, when 
 all the face of nature was veiled in snow. One after another as they 
 closed up on the leaders the weary men halted, and some at once threw
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 201 
 
 themselves upon the sod ; all allowed their horses to graze. For a 
 moment Jeffers lay flat, peering over the crest; then of a sudden he 
 seemed to catch sight of something that set him all of a quiver. He 
 shaded his eyes with his hand and stared, slowly rising to his feet, the 
 muscles of his lips and jaws twitching with suppressed excitement. 
 Thornton, busily engaged at the moment in opening the case of his 
 field-glass, did not at first see him. Just as he had drawn out the 
 binocular and wiped the object-glass with a silken handkerchief, one of 
 the troopers muttered, " Look, lieutenant, he s beckoning." And in a 
 moment, with beating heart, the boy had crept to the veteran s side. 
 
 It was a wonderful view that opened before his eyes. They were 
 halted on the eastward slope of a bold, rock-ribbed, pine-covered range 
 that seemed to stretch away northward without pass or break for many 
 a league until lost in a maze of similar black-crested heights that, 
 perhaps forty miles away, veered around to the east again, curtaining 
 the intervening slopes and foot-hills and valleys until it was merged in 
 the general haze of the far eastern horizon. All the rude, rugged 
 chiin of hills bristled with its growth of pine and cedar, glistened here 
 and there with its outcropping of boulder and quartz, or glinted when 
 the searching sunshine fell on the duller hues of gneiss and granite. 
 All the rolling foot-hills, a tumbling sea of spotless green, shimmered 
 in the unclouded rays. Far as the eye could reach, northeast, east, 
 southeastward again, a glorious stretch of upland prairie, of wind 
 swept, woodless turf, once the roaming-ground of countless thousands 
 of the wild cattle of the Western world, the now annihilated buffalo. 
 Far away to the southeast, dim and indistinct, a dark winding fringe 
 told where the Mini Ska rolled smoothly through its wide and open 
 valley. Far away to the northeast, among rounded bluffs and palisaded 
 buttes, a shining blue ribbon turned and twisted, dove out of sight 
 under grass-grown walls, only to come gleaming into view again still 
 farther on, the Wakpa Wakon, Spirit River, curling through the 
 heart of the reservation, the sacred lands of the Sioux. There, some 
 where to the north, sheltered from the fierce wintry gales by the grand 
 curtain of bearded mountain to its west and north, hidden from sight 
 by its surrounding citadels of bluff, lay the substantial settlement of 
 the agency, a long day s march away. There in every deep sequestered 
 valley, along every babbling stream, lay the lodges of the pampered 
 tribes, old men and children, old women and young, living indolently 
 and in plenty at their guarded homes, while the sons and brothers and 
 I*
 
 202 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 braves, the war-chiefs and the turbulent young men, swarmed into the 
 forbidden grazing-grounds of the settlers, far beyond the treaty line, 
 and in rude and bloody foray found their sole content. The trail the 
 cavalry squad had followed in the early morning along the windings 
 of a feeble tributary of the Mini Ska had left the broad valley thirty 
 miles away to the south, and, bursting through a dividing ridge by 
 way of Wagon Gap, left the old beaten road at the Springs where they 
 made their noonday halt, plunged into the timbered ascent close to the 
 backbone of the ridge, while the road, by a sweep or de"tour to the 
 east, climbed gradually to the level of the upland and could be faintly 
 seen in places five or six miles away like a dun-colored ribbon garter 
 ing the green carpet of the prairie. To their left and rear a frowning 
 gorge in the heart of the range opened the narrow way that led to the 
 basin or cove among the pine-covered hills, the Slaughter Cove the 
 guide had pointed out at noon. To their right, therefore, all was bold, 
 open, undulating, smiling in unclouded sunshine; to their left the 
 west all was dark, frowning, and forbidding; and yet the one was 
 the path of death and danger, the other the only line of escape. 
 
 " By Jove, what a magnificent view !" is Thornton s exclamation 
 after a moment s gaze. "What did you see, sergeant? You looked 
 as though something lively was up. Any sight of the chase ?" 
 
 But Jeffers, crouching low and pointing over along the slope not a 
 quarter of a mile away, simply said, " Look there, sir." 
 
 Two lithe, painted objects, crawling slowly on all-fours, with 
 feathered war-bonnets trailing along their bare red backs, were rapidly 
 nearing a third, who, bareheaded, seemed peering over the ridge in his 
 front at some other objects in the ravine beyond, at something out of 
 sight from where the troopers lay. Behind the two crawling creatures 
 first seen came, at ten or twelve yards distance, others of their kind, 
 eagerly gesticulating and signalling to others still. All on a sudden 
 three or four ponies, placidly cropping the turf down the slope behind 
 their creeping masters, pricked up their ears and glanced nervously 
 around, and in a moment there rode into view, full tilt, one after 
 another, half a dozen more wild warriors in the full panoply of their 
 craft. And it was his first campaign, he was only a boy Perry 
 Thornton s heart leaped up in his throat, for the sunshiny, breezy, 
 billowy upland was simply alive with war-parties of Sioux. 
 
 " I am willing to do my share of fight, fight double my weight 
 of Indians, gentlemen," the guide was saying a moment later. " God
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 203 
 
 only knows what s set them on to us, but the whole Sioux nation s 
 coming up from the Mini Ska, and we re cut off. I can t fight all 
 hell, neither can you. The one chance of getting out of this is by way 
 of Slaughter Cove. There s a game-trail over the range back of it. 
 They ain t seen us yet. Now is our time." 
 
 " Whom have they seen ? What are they watching over there ?" 
 asked Thornton, his lip trembling a bit despite himself. 
 
 " I know without waiting to see. It s your fellers coming back 
 from their chase after the road-agents. They have either got the 
 money or they haven t got it. In either case it ll be of no earthly use 
 to them in ten minutes. Those Indians are laying to lay em out as 
 they climb the trail. See?" 
 
 See? It was plain enough now. Creeping like panthers, the lithe, 
 sinewy fellows were scurrying up to line the crest. Others, dismount 
 ing at the run, were hastening to join them. Others, signalling, were 
 conveying some tidings to another party that, three miles away, could 
 now be seen sweeping at full gallop across the Pawnee road. 
 
 " Come, gents," said the guide, sliding back to his horse and quickly 
 mounting. " My partner had more sense n I when he swore he 
 wouldn t trust his scalp north of Wagon Gap. If you want to save 
 your souls alive, mount and follow while there s yet time. I m bound 
 for the Cove and back to God s country beyond." 
 
 A nervous young trooper started to follow as the frontiersman 
 went sliding and sprawling back down the trail, but a stern voice 
 checked him. One glance in the sergeant s eyes was all the reas 
 surance Thornton needed. The spirit of his soldier father spoke out 
 on the instant : 
 
 " Stay where you are, men ! Let that d d coward go. We re 
 here to save Schultz and Schramm." 
 
 XI. 
 
 A moment longer the two soldiers, boy lieutenant and veteran 
 sergeant, remained crouched at the ridge, peering over, and in low 
 eager tones making their plans. The actions of the Indians clearly 
 indicated that they were, as the guide remarked, " laying" for some 
 party coming back along the trail. There could not be more than 
 four or five in the party, or the Indians would not attack at the
 
 204 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 moment, but wait until they had more of their kind to back them. 
 There could not be less than two or three, or the warriors would have 
 been down on the poor devils before this, six to one. The one dread 
 now was that they might shoot from the rocks before their friends 
 could interfere. All this was hurriedly discussed, then up spoke 
 Thornton : " We ll charge at once. We can drive them off, get 
 Schultz and Schramm out, and then all retire together into the Cove. 
 Mount ! Tumble up there, you men. Drop carbines and draw pistols. 
 Keep watch, sergeant. Wait till we re ready." 
 
 And now the intense excitement of the moment seems to communi 
 cate itself even to the tired horses. Eagerly they begin to toss their 
 heads and paw the earth and sniff and snort. " Smell the Sioux, do 
 you ?" mutters one trooper, as he braces tighter the cinch of his saddle. 
 There is indeed " mounting in hot haste," yet without noise or con 
 fusion of any kind. Perry s young heart is beating like a forge, and 
 for the life of him he can t prevent a trembling at the knees as he 
 swings into saddle and looks to the chamber of his revolver. It s his 
 first fight, yet so constantly has he studied and pondered over all the 
 experiences of his comrades that he feels certain his plan is the right 
 one, to burst from their covert, stampede the dozen Indians close at 
 hand, then slip away with the victims that were to be, before the more 
 distant warriors can reach the spot. Once back within the natural 
 fortress of the Cove, they can bid defiance to five times their number. 
 Meanwhile, the men, some a little white and tremulous, others, veterans 
 at the business, cool and imperturbable, have mounted, slipped the 
 muzzles of their carbines into the ready sockets, and, like their young 
 leader, are testing their pistols. Jeffers raises his hand in signal. 
 " They re getting ready, sir. Two of them are sighting now." 
 
 " Then we haven t a second to lose," says Thornton. "Just follow 
 me now, full dash ; but don t yell till I do. Keep quiet till we get 
 right on em. Then gather in our fellows and get back here quick 
 as you can. Forward now. I shan t give any commands." 
 
 Up the slope they ride in column of twos. There s no space to 
 form " front into line." Perry s heart and Perry s horse alike are 
 bounding. Ten seconds, and they are over the crest and in full view 
 of their foemen four hundred yards away, between them only the open, 
 rolling surface of elastic turf. Quick as each man reaches the summit 
 he plunges ahead, " opens out," and rides up on line with the leaders, 
 Thornton, still curbing his excited horse, riding at plunging lope and
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 205 
 
 glancing back to see his followers out of the ravine. Then Jeffers 
 comes tearing up to join him. Then comes a loud, resonant, Indian 
 warning, shouted from somewhere down the sunny slope, and then 
 there s no time to think. Every man at the instant claps spurs to his 
 horse s flanks and sets up a yell, and then down they go in sweeping 
 charge, straight at the painted, feathered bipeds leaping for their ponies 
 along the opposite rise. Distant Indians let drive long-range shots, in 
 hopes of downing a horse and breaking the impetus of the cavalry 
 dash. There are three or four of these who have reached their ponies, 
 leaped into saddle, and, as they scurry away, bend low and send a wild 
 shot or two at the rushing horsemen, but all to no purpose. Thornton 
 and his followers come cheering, charging on, straight for the second 
 crest, and in an instant one luckless warrior is tumbled over by the 
 leaders, while Jeffers and Malloy, long used to hunting in couples, 
 have run down another, who, farther to the left, had sought to mount 
 and escape. The ping and crack of revolvers and Winchesters echoing 
 back from the rocky range are suddenly dwarfed by the louder bang 
 of the Springfield rifle. Dashing up and over the ridge, occupied but 
 an instant before by the red men, Thornton comes into view of a little 
 party away down the trail ahead of him. Two of their horses are 
 already shot, one stiffening out in death, one rolling in agony. Two 
 white men, dismounted, are battling for their lives against a circling 
 rush of Sioux, and, borne by the mad impetus of the charge, Perry 
 and the half-dozen at his heels swoop headlong down among the com 
 batants, and the Sioux, amazed yet never bewildered, bend low on their 
 ponies necks and go sweeping away up the farther side of the long 
 ravine, then, circling about, spring to earth and at long range resume 
 the fight. Their bullets are whistling about Thornton s ears, as he 
 reins up in the midst of the rescued party. One man, with the film 
 of death already glazing his eyes, a stranger, lies gasping on the turf. 
 Over him, piteously crying his name, a mere boy is bending. Sergeant 
 Schultz, grave, yet with quivering lip and trembling hand, gives greet 
 ing to his young officer. " We were surprised, sir, and cut off. We 
 had no hope of rescue," he is saying, while the men are rapidly dis 
 mounting and running out to kneel and return the fire now coming 
 in from almost every side, Schramm, cheering with delight and enthu 
 siasm, leading them on. 
 
 Then comes the up-hill fight to gain the Cove. Not an instant 
 can be lost. Already, with soldierly appreciation of the situation, 
 
 18
 
 206 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 Sergeant Jeffers has dismounted two or three men to hold the ridge 
 over which lies the line of retreat, and Thornton, directing two men 
 to lead back the horses, disperses his little force as skirmishers. " Get 
 your wounded back up the hill," he says to Schultz. " Jeffers knows 
 where we are to make our stand. Fall back, fast as you can. We ll 
 keep em off." The bullets are nipping the bunch-grass all round 
 them, and the old German sergeant s face is very grave and white, but 
 he never wavers. Schramm, after hoisting the wounded stranger into 
 saddle and giving the reins into the hands of the weeping boy and 
 calling for some one to steady his father, runs back to join the firing 
 line. Slowly up the trail now Schultz marshals the led horses. Back 
 slowly between them and the yelling Indians, now each moment rein 
 forced, comes the little band of defenders. Over to the left, a young 
 trooper, under fire for the first time, suddenly drops his carbine, claps 
 hands to his leg, and sets up a howl of misery. 
 
 " Help him if you can, Schramm," sings out Thornton. " Keep 
 your places, the rest of you." Thicker come the hissing bullets from 
 front and flank. Only Jeffers s forethought saves them from attack in 
 rear. At last the horses, snorting and plunging, have reached the 
 ridge and are led safely over into the swale beyond. At last the Ger 
 man sergeant has convoyed his wounded across the barrier, then turns 
 for one or two shots over the heads of his comrades now backing up 
 the slope. It is the instinct of battle, the impulse of the soldier, 
 and the last of his soldierly life. Finger on trigger, muscular hand 
 grasping the brown carbine in the act of aiming, down, face foremost 
 on the sward, poor Schultz has tumbled, a Winchester bullet tearing 
 through his loyal heart. 
 
 Five minutes later, in a little amphitheatre among the rocks, two 
 hundred yards to the west of the ridge from which the Indians first 
 were sighted, the well-nigh breathless detachment is regathering, and 
 the fight goes on. Here, stretched on the ground, stone-dead now, 
 lies the civilian, the stranger found in company with Schultz and 
 Schramm, while sobbing over him kneels his boy. Here, badly 
 frightened, the wounded recruit has been dropped and told to quit his 
 noise. Here, badly wounded, lies Corporal Treacy, an Irish trooper 
 whose five years in the cavalry have known many a scene of death and 
 danger, but whose only worry now is that he cannot fire another shot. 
 Here Jeffers is posting the men among the rocks as they arrive, so as to 
 cover the retreat of the lieutenant and two or three still out at the
 
 SERGEANT CRCESVS. 207 
 
 front and for the moment invisible. Schramm, having dropped his 
 wounded comrade under a sheltering boulder, has run up to Jeffers 
 just as two men come drifting in, one supporting the other, who is 
 bleeding and deathly white. 
 
 " They have killed Bredow, my horse," he cries, his blue eyes 
 snapping and great beads of sweat starting from his face. " Where is 
 the lieutenant?" 
 
 " Back there, trying to lug in Schultz s body," gasps the wounded 
 
 man. " Only two fellows left. Hurry save " and down he goes 
 
 in a dead faint. 
 
 " Schultz s body ! Gott in Himmel !" cries Schramm, as with 
 one bound he is over the boulders and rushing out to the front again. 
 
 Two hundred yards away, just over the ridge, with whoop and yell 
 and flashing rifles, the Indians have concentrated their energies on one 
 devoted little squad. Stumbling up the slope, Thornton has come 
 upon the prostrate form of the veteran soldier, stone-dead, yet in mute 
 appeal seeming to beg that he be not left to the savage mutilation of 
 the Sioux. " Here, Connor ! Help me, Fritz !" he shouts to the 
 nearest men ; and so, desperate and daring, the three join forces to save 
 their friend. One drags, the others fire, and they have just got the 
 senseless clay to within ten yards of the crest, when with triumphant 
 rush and yell the mounted Sioux come charging at them. Poor Perry ! 
 All in a flash he sees that hope has fled, that here on this wild upland, 
 far from home and loved ones, just at the opening of the career so long 
 sought, so proudly entered, his gallant, manful, soldierly effort has cost 
 him his lite. But he has lived like a Thornton, like a Thornton he ll 
 die ; and, kneeling by Schultz s lifeless form, he drives the last shot 
 from the sergeant s carbine, tosses it aside, grips tight his beautiful 
 revolver, a proud father s gift, and with a last prayer on his lips, and 
 mother s face swimming before his eyes, braces himself for the shock. 
 There is sudden clamor of shots behind him. Straight in front, not 
 forty yards away, a charging Sioux plunges head-foremost to the 
 ground, his pony veers wildly, so do two others, and the well-aimed 
 shots have taken effect. " Courage !" he shouts. " They haven t got 
 us yet." For, checked by this unlooked-for salute and dreading more, 
 the warriors duck and swerve and circle away. Then down comes 
 Schramm, with Jeffers a close second. 
 
 " Quick, lieutenant ! Quick ! Back to the ridge ! We ll bring 
 Schultz."
 
 208 SERGEANT CRCESVS. 
 
 Too late. Seeing how puny in numbers are the little party of 
 rescuers, the Sioux come on again, firing as they dash, and then for the 
 first time Thornton finds his hands and arms covered with blood. A 
 deadly faintness overcomes him. The earth begins to swim and rock 
 and whirl, and he only knows that Schramm has swung him on his 
 broad and muscular shoulders before he swoons away. They are hold 
 ing his flask to his lips when safe for a time at least he reopens his 
 eyes among the rocks at Slaughter Cove. 
 
 " Where are the Indians ?" he faintly asks. 
 
 " It s what I can t understand," says Jeffers. " We could see whole 
 troops of them riding away like the wind, southeastward towards the 
 Ska. There ain t more n a dozen round us now, I reckon, not enough 
 to attack, yet too many to admit of our getting out, with all our 
 wounded. Thank God, sir, we got you back in time to check the blood. 
 That bullet just missed the jugular, but you bled like a stuck pig. 
 Schramm says you were all covered with it when he reached you." 
 
 " I didn t know I was hit more than a mere graze," said Thorn 
 ton, faintly. 
 
 " Hit twice, sir. You got the other when they dashed on us at the 
 crest and Schramm had to drop you for a minute." 
 
 "Did Schramm carry me out?" 
 
 " Every foot of the way, sir. The little Dutchman is made of 
 steel : only he s heart-broken about Schultz. We couldn t fetch him 
 in, sir. They got the body, after all, and I had to order Schramm 
 under arrest to prevent his going out a second time." 
 
 Thornton closes his eyes a moment. Faint from loss of blood, the 
 realization of the peril of the past hour and the danger of the present, he 
 knows no pain from his wounds, he realizes that he is in command, 
 responsible for all, and that there may yet be a demand for his every 
 energy. He needs to think; yet everything seems awhirl. 
 
 " Take another pull at this, lieutenant," says Jeffers. " You re 
 very weak yet, but we re all right now." And he holds the flask to 
 the boy s lips and raises him on his arm. " It s my belief the battalion 
 has struck the main body of these beggars over near the river, and 
 flash-signals have been going for the last hour. We can see em with 
 your glasses. If they have, we re well avenged, for there isn t an old 
 hand in all the regiment that isn t just mad for a fair fight with em. 
 They won t bother us more this day, so long as we keep inside and
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 209 
 
 under cover, and if the colonel s after them the rest won t stop to 
 inquire for us to-raorrow either." 
 
 " How many are wounded ?" asks Thornton, feebly. 
 
 " Well, sir, there s yourself and Corporal Treacy, you re the only 
 ones seriously hurt. Little Reddy there is shot in the leg, and three 
 or four are scratched. Schramm s shirt is full of holes, and I thought 
 he must be hit, he was so covered with blood. Between losing Schultz 
 and Bredow, he feels pretty well broke up ; but there won t be anything 
 too good for him in the regiment when we get back, sir. Here he 
 comes now : he s been over at the spring, washing off the blood." 
 
 Thornton feebly turns: "Schramm, my brave fellow! it seems 
 I owe my life to vou. Where would I have been but for your cour 
 age?" 
 
 And Schramm, apparently not seeing the hand feebly outstretched, 
 stands at salute and replies, 
 
 " Where would I have been, sir, but for the lieutenant ?" 
 
 XII. 
 
 " HEAD-QUARTERS DETACHMENT TH INFANTRY, 
 CAMP AT SLAUGHTER COTE, June , 187 . 
 
 "PosT ADJUTANT, FORT RANSOM: 
 
 " SIR, I have the honor to report that in compliance with the 
 verbal orders of the major commanding the battalion I marched with 
 four officers and seventy men of Companies E and H, th Infantry, to 
 the relief of Lieutenant Thornton s detachment of the llth Cavalry, 
 reported besieged by Indians at this point. Leaving camp of the 
 battalion on the Mini Ska at 1 A.M. on Wednesday, with three days 
 cooked rations, we reached Buffalo Springs soon after dawn (6J miles), 
 pushed on through Wagon Gap, reaching the head- waters of Fossil 
 Creek (27J miles from camp) at 10.45. From this point our advance 
 was slow, as Indians could be seen along the heights, and we had reason 
 to expect attack. They drew off at our approach, however, and we 
 reached the besieged party near Slaughter Cove about 1 P.M., much to 
 the relief of its members, who, though at no time suffering fqr food or 
 water, were without surgical attention for their wounded, and had had 
 
 18*
 
 210 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 a sharp fight with a large force of hostiles on Sunday, and had been 
 under fire much of the time ever since. Fortunately for them, the 
 general engagement between their comrades of the Eleventh and the 
 main body of the enemy, forty miles to the southeast, had the effect of 
 drawing all but a small number away from their front and of driving 
 them thence to the agency. There is every reason to believe, however, 
 they would have returned by this time to finish their bloody work had 
 we not been hurried to the scene. 
 
 " The killed are Sergeant Schultz and a civilian by the name of 
 Stearns, whose son, a lad of eighteen, is with us, but seems so dis 
 tracted by his recent experience that his mind is unbalanced. The 
 civilian was one of a party of four who had ridden northward and 
 were pursued by Sergeant Schultz and Private Schramm on the sup 
 position that they were connected with the paymaster s robbery at 
 Minden and had the money with them. Schramm reports that these 
 two met them close to the scene of the fight, galloping back, saying 
 they were attacked by Sioux, and their comrades, who were some dis 
 tance ahead, were probably killed. The speedy appearance of the 
 Indians proved the truth of part at least of their story. Lieutenant 
 Thornton s prompt charge saved the lives of the two troopers, but in 
 the engagement which followed Schultz was killed, and the other 
 casualties were the result of an attempt to save his body. Lieutenant 
 Thornton, who appears to have behaved with great gallantry through 
 out, being twice wounded in the effort, was himself saved from death 
 by the devotion of Private Schramm, who bore him away on his 
 shoulders in the face of a dozen enemies. Among the other wounded 
 are Sergeant Jeffers, Corporal Treacy, Troopers Reddy and Gross. Dr. 
 French reports that they can speedily be moved to Pawnee, and urges 
 that as soon as possible ambulances be sent to meet us. 
 
 " After the wounding of Sergeant Jeffers, the active command of 
 the defence was vested in Private Schramm, whose bravery and skill 
 were so marked as to win from his superiors the most unstinted praise. 
 He is new threatened with fever as the result of exposure and ex 
 haustion and grief over the death of his friend, but Dr. French hopes 
 that it will prove nothing of great gravity. 
 
 " We begin the homeward march, carrying the wounded on litters, 
 to-morrow morning. The body of Sergeant Schultz, fearfully muti 
 lated, was found and afterwards buried by our men this afternoon. 
 
 " The conduct of the detachment under my command was excel-
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 211 
 
 lent: every man was in his place at the end of the thirty-five-mile 
 march. 
 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " D. G. FENTON, 
 " Capt. th Infantry, Commanding" 
 
 Such was the official report which had followed Rhett s command 
 back to Ransom and brought a gleam of sunshine through all the 
 gloom. The death of Captain Manning, an officer of sterling worth, 
 and that of so many good men and true, three of whom had families 
 at the post, could not but weigh heavily on the spirits of one and 
 all. The home-coming of the wounded, however, called for the active 
 services of many hands as well as the liveliest sympathy of every 
 heart, for the journey by field and rail had been a trying ordeal in the 
 fierce heat which for seven days after Winthrop s fight had seemed to 
 hard-bake the broad valley of the Ska even to the westward moun 
 tains. Then the grief aroused by the casualties in the main engage 
 ment had been supplemented by keen anxiety as to the fate of 
 Perry Thornton and his party. Rhett was a cool-headed fellow and 
 had done about the right thing : even Edwards and other cavalry 
 cranks were ready to admit that. Aroused soon after midnight by his 
 officer of the day and the demoralized deputy, he had little time to 
 think. Orders required him with his battalion to march back to 
 Pawnee as escort for the wounded. Communication with department 
 head-quarters in the dead of night would have involved hours of 
 delay. The deputy might be lying, yet the chances were in favor of 
 the truth of his stories. Rhett knew the bulk of the Indians must 
 have scampered for home in order to show up at the muster sure to 
 be made, so as to convince the agency officials, at least, of their pres 
 ence, and that they therefore could have had no part in the recent out 
 rages. The general had taken the field, going cross country after 
 Winthrop, and was now far beyond telegraphic reach. If the Sioux 
 had surrounded Thornton near Slaughter Cove, the sooner help was 
 sent the better. Fenton, always ready for anything and keenly relish 
 ing the idea of footmen marching to the relief of cavalry, was promptly 
 told to take his own company and Company E and " get there." The 
 cooks were up, coffee boiling, and bacon sizzling, before the order was 
 fairly out of the major s mouth, and the command marched away
 
 212 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 towards the gap in the far blue hills under the twinkling pole-star 
 within the hour. 
 
 " God speed you, old man ! Send us word quick as you can," said 
 Rhett, as the dusky little column went swinging away out of camp. 
 "Give em a lick for me, Mickey," called Private Toohey to a chum 
 in a luckier company than his own. And that was the last heard of 
 them for twenty-nine hours. Then two of the lately-besieged troopers, 
 Fritz and Renter, came trotting in among the travois just as the con 
 voy broke camp at the mouth of Pawnee Gorge, twenty miles nearer 
 home. Leaving the Cove at dark the previous evening, they had 
 ridden all night with the news of the rescue, had routed out the tele 
 graph operator at Ska Bridge and sent away certain despatches with 
 which they were charged, had learned that the major and his command 
 had passed on about nine A.M. and would be found somewhere to the 
 south along Pawnee Fork, and then pushed ahead with the glad 
 tidings. Everybody, therefore, at Ransom knew the main facts long 
 before Rhett and the wounded got home. Everybody mourned for 
 Schultz, a veteran of nearly twenty years service in the regiment, and 
 rejoiced for Schramm, who had covered himself with glory. Every 
 body was proud of Thornton s spirited behavior in his maiden fight, 
 and full of genuine distress over his wounds. Edwards, badly shot 
 and a veteran of many a tough cavalry campaign, wasn t the object of 
 one-tenth the sympathy that was lavished on " Pretty Perry," one of 
 whose hurts that slit along his neck was a mere scratch, that would 
 be an ornament to him all the rest of his life, while the hole bored 
 by the little Winchester in his side was something that would soon 
 heal and seldom hurt him. But who can paint the sensation at the 
 Thorntons happy home? Delight and dismay intermingled! Tele 
 gram followed telegram, that which came from the general late in the 
 day blinding Colonel Thornton s eyes : " The regiment glories in your 
 gallant boy. We ll send him East on leave at once. Full report by 
 mail." 
 
 Then with what eagerness they waited the coming of letters and 
 particulars ! with what emotion did they read Perry s modest pencil 
 scrawl, bidding them ascribe all credit to Jeffers and give all gratitude 
 to Schraram ! with what fluttering hearts, what tearful eyes, did they 
 strive to read Fenton s letter telling the story of Perry s dash to the 
 rescue of the imperilled troopers, of his heroic effort to save poor 
 Schultz s body, of the daring and devotion of Trooper Schramm, of
 
 SERGEANT CRCKSUS. 213 
 
 the enthusiastic praise the little detachment lavished on their young 
 lieutenant ! Here at least there was no division of sympathy or senti 
 ment. Here at least was Perry the hero of the Indian campaign, the 
 future leader in many another. Stopping only long enough to drop 
 in upon a little coterie of old campaigners, receive their hearty con 
 gratulations, and read them the despatches from the seat of war, the 
 veteran colonel left by first train for the far West to meet his boy and 
 to bear to that brave and devoted Prussian trooper the blessings, the 
 gratitude, and the assurance of the fervent prayers of mother and 
 sisters for his own happiness and prosperity for all the years of his 
 life and beyond. 
 
 Four days and nights of ceaseless travel it took the colonel to 
 reach Pawnee. By that time the general with Tintop and the regi 
 ment was far to the northeast, straightening out another squabble, the 
 army as usual acting as buffer between the Indians and the people 
 and getting hard knocks on both sides. By that time Rhett with his 
 command was back at Ransom, and Fenton with the wounded from 
 Slaughter Cove was on the homeward march. They were breaking 
 camp in Pawnee Gorge, thirty miles north of the station, just about the 
 time that No. 3 went whistling down the grade, shooting the sharp 
 curves of Antelope Fork after leaving the colonel to be received by the 
 quartermaster at Pawnee Station. His first question was for news of 
 his boy, who was doing splendidly, said the officer, when they passed 
 Ska Bridge yesterday. " Fenton s going to send him with one or two 
 others ahead in the ambulances this morning. They ll be here before 
 noon. Schramm comes in at the same time, poor fellow. He s got an 
 ugly touch of fever, Dr. French wires, and they want to get him to 
 hospital as soon as possible. The death of his friend Schultz seems to 
 have been a hard blow." 
 
 " I wish they d let me take him home with us," said Colonel 
 Thornton, with glistening eyes. " I know a little woman who followed 
 the drum many a long year with me, and two pretty girls as ever were 
 born under the flag, if it is their father who says it, who would be 
 only too happy to spend nights and days for weeks to come nursing 
 that young gentleman back to life. Do you know him at all ?" 
 
 " Only by sight, sir. He was quite a character at the post, owing 
 to his devotion to Captain Morgan, who helped him out of a close call 
 last year just after he enlisted. They all agree that he is a gentleman
 
 214 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 by birth and breeding, whom some freak of fortune has landed on our 
 shores. He d get the Iron Cross at home for this exploit." 
 
 " Well, we ll show him here that if we have no decorations to offer, 
 we Americans know how to appreciate heroism and reward it. There s 
 nothing much too good for such a fellow, in our eyes." 
 
 An hour later, the sun just peeping up over the eastern verge of 
 the plateau and the colonel and his host being comforted with early 
 coffee, the quartermaster could not help but note how wistfully the old 
 soldier s eyes kept turning to the northern road. An inspiration seized 
 him. 
 
 " Look here, colonel, it s going to be a hot day, and those fellows 
 would be glad of a little ice. Suppose we take my buckboard and 
 drive out and meet them ?" And Thornton, after the proper amount 
 of hesitancy as to taking an officer away from his duties, gladly 
 assented. So the quartermaster ordered out his team, and by six o clock 
 they were bowling over the magnificent prairie road, with the sun 
 clambering higher every minute, and with a couple of buckets of ice, 
 blanket-swathed, swinging under the rear axle. Two hours later, 
 rounding a bold shoulder of bluff among the bends of the Pawnee 
 Gorge, they caught sight of white wagon-covers halted at a little clump 
 of willows half a mile ahead. " Hurrah ! Yonder they are at the 
 Springs," said the quartermaster. 
 
 And there they found them. Two or three soldiers were passing 
 cups of the cool, sparkling water to the fevered hands under the 
 canvas screens. The young doctor, dismounted, catching sight of the 
 coming buckboard, sauntered forward to meet it, in hopes of letters. 
 One glance at the gray-moustached soldier by the driver s side was 
 enough. 
 
 With extended hand he hastened to help him alight, as the quarter 
 master reined in his braying mules. 
 
 " Colonel Thornton, I feel certain," said he. " Tender s your boy 
 in the ambulance, jolly as any Mark Tapley you ever heard of." 
 And Thornton, unable at the moment to speak a word, grasped and 
 shook the doctor s hand, bowed his gray head, and passed him by. 
 
 " There s a meeting that would disarm the cynicism of a Carlyle," 
 said the doctor, an instant later, though both men turned their backs 
 and looked away, for under the lifted curtain of his trundling litter 
 Perry had peeped and seen his father s face, the father whom he sup 
 posed two thousand miles away.
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 215 
 
 Just before noon that day, under the doctor s careful supervision, 
 the wounded were being lifted from the wagons and borne beneath 
 the canvas flies stretched for them in the coolest and breeziest part 
 of the quartermaster s guarded corral. Perry, boy-like, had insisted 
 on scrambling out on his feet, partly to show how lively he was, 
 partly that he might be close at hand when there was borne with meas 
 ured tread and gentle hands the prostrate form of a trooper whose 
 flushed face and twitching hands and glittering eyes proved him to be 
 in the clutch of burning fever. About his litter, anxiety in every 
 look, hovered the colonel and his wounded boy, for there lay gallant 
 Schramm, blind to their solicitude, deaf to any word of cheer. 
 
 u I think we can bring him round in a few days of quiet here," 
 said Dr. French, " but quiet we must have." 
 
 " Well, sir," said the colonel, decidedly, " we don t leave here until 
 you do. There are mother and sisters hungering at home to get at 
 Perry, but neither my boy nor I can turn a back on a soldier like 
 Schramm. Let me know just what he needs, and every cent we ve got 
 is at your service." 
 
 " It is a serious fever, I fear," said the doctor, " but what he needs 
 most now is absolute repose. We ve got to guard him against disturb 
 ance of any kind." 
 
 " Do you mean he can t be moved at all, doctor ?" asked a man 
 who, with one or two other civilians, had entered the enclosure despite 
 the efforts of the corral-master, who, positive at first in his refusal, had 
 stepped back bewildered at sight of a formidable paper. 
 
 " Certainly," said Dr. French, shortly, with the " Who are you ?" 
 expression that comes into the faces of the most even-tempered of men 
 when disturbed in the midst of their duties. 
 
 " Then we ve simply got to camp here till he can be, me and my 
 party." 
 
 " You have ? I d like to know why." 
 
 " Cause I don t mean to lose my position through losing him. 
 Here s my warrant. That man s wanted for the Minden robbery." 
 
 XIII. 
 
 It was July before the sheriff of Latimer County would have been 
 allowed the undisputed custody of the person of Trooper Schramm, and
 
 216 SERGEANT CE(ESUS. 
 
 by that time the sheriff began to wonder whether he really wanted him 
 or not. To begin with, the young German lay at Pawnee for nearly 
 a week in about the hottest fever Dr. French had ever encountered. 
 The infantry went on home to Ransom with most of Thornton s little 
 squad and the wounded, but Colonel Thornton s influence with his old 
 comrade the adjutant-general of the department was amply sufficient 
 to have the doctor and some attendants remain there with his son and 
 Schramm. There were days of delirium in which the young Prussian 
 babbled of the Rhineland, of home and mother, of old days in saddle 
 with the Hussars on the sunny slopes beyond Metz, of mad envy at 
 sight of Bredow s squadrons riding away eastward from the heights of 
 Tronville, down the sheltering ravine, then up the slopes again and, 
 in headlong charge, full on the front of the battling French. Then, 
 exultant, he seemed to hear the longed-for order for his own fellows, 
 to recall the keen soldier rivalry between Uhlan, cuirassier, and hussar 
 as the three regiments " lined up" for their charge, with dragoons 
 and hussars in support, and with the August sun just sinking in the 
 west they swooped down upon the arrayed divisions of Moutern 
 and Clerambault to the north of Mars-la-Tour. And then he lived 
 again the perilous hour of his first experience with the Sioux, and 
 poured out his heart in gratitude to the officer who so pluckily saved 
 him. Old Thornton, sitting by his camp cot, his father-heart yearning 
 over his own boy lying in placid slumber close at hand, learned enough 
 to guide him in a letter to the American legation at Berlin, a sol 
 dier father s letter to another soldier father in a foreign laud, angered 
 at and estranged from the son of whose very existence, perhaps, he was 
 in doubt. The letter was posted before Thornton heard him babble of 
 other names, and tell of the gnadige Frauleiu, Morgan s oldest child, 
 and with grave face the colonel rose and looked at his sleeping boy, 
 and went out upon the breezy prairie, walking for hours before his 
 return. Many things did Schramm mutter and murmur and reveal 
 that Thornton could not understand at all, but he knew enough Ger 
 man to divine much of the soldier s past, and to demand of his son 
 what letter was that he sent to Constance Morgan ; whereat Perry, 
 looking much amazed, answered, with all promptitude, "Letter to 
 Connie Morgan ? Why, certainly ! I wrote to her the second day 
 out from Ransom to tell her what you told me about promotion and to 
 ask her to send us the measures for her father s belt and helmet. The 
 men of the old troop were bound to send him his captain s shoulder-
 
 SERGEANT CRfESUS. 217 
 
 knots, and some one suggested that it might be a pious idea to chip in 
 and order a complete new outfit, helmet and knots and belt and all, 
 just to surprise him. Some thought he might take offence, but old 
 Tintop swore he shouldn t." And Thornton pre walked out again. 
 Perry had never lied to him in his life. Would it be fair to ask the 
 boy if he had been making love to Morgan s motherless daughter? 
 
 But within the week the crisis was over : Schramm was out of 
 danger. Mother and sisters were clamoring for Perry at home, so 
 eastward went the colonel and his boy, and presently, by easy stages, 
 westward went Schramm, his escort camping at Alkali, crossing to the 
 north bank and going on to Miuden, where camp was made again, and 
 where Mr. Fisk, the agent, came over, ostensibly to see if he could be 
 of any service, and then went back to his office and said to a deputy 
 sheriff that if that was one of the men who came in with the despatch 
 that Friday morning of the 1st of June he d changed so he couldn t 
 tell him. 
 
 Meantime, Rand had been clear around to the agency by the other 
 route, and turned up again at Butte the day Schramm was returned to 
 Ransom. "Don t you disturb him, Mr. Sheriff," said he; "and just 
 take my advice now, don t go too fast on this trail ; you may get in so 
 far you can t get back with credit to yourself." And out at the post 
 the doctor had given strict orders that nobody should breathe in 
 Schramm s hearing what everybody knew, that he was" wanted" for 
 the Mindeu robbery. " My first duty is to see him restored to health 
 and strength," said he : " then the law must take its course." And so, 
 with the regiment long miles away, Schramm lay patiently in hospital, 
 tenderly thought for by every one, frequently remembered through 
 the mails by the distant family of Thorntons, promoted corporal of his 
 troop in regimental orders promulgated from head-quarters in the field 
 and read to the whole assembled command both there and here at 
 Ransom, reciting the heroic nature of his conduct in the affair at 
 Slaughter Cove and the skill and bravery with which, his superiors 
 being disabled by wounds, he had conducted the defence. All this was 
 very pleasant to Schramm, whose eyes lighted with joy when Morgan, 
 his captain now, and Jeffers, invalided by wounds, and Treacy ditto, 
 all came in to congratulate him ; but the sweetest thing in life to the 
 convalescing soldier was the sight of Connie Morgan s pretty face 
 when, regularly as the day came round, the gnadige Fraulein appeared 
 with some little bunch of wild flowers, some little dainty or cool drink, 
 K 19
 
 218 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 but always with her gentle voice and soft brown eyes and sweet, serious 
 smile, to ask how the corporal was feeling this bright day. The only 
 trouble now was that he began to get well too fast. His fellow non 
 commissioned officers, Jeffers and Treacy, limping in one day, said there 
 was a big row among the railway people all over the East. " Riots 
 and ructions" had followed. The militia and police were whipped. 
 The regiment had been whisked in from the field, piled into passenger- 
 cars, and sent away towards Omaha, and they, the wounded of the 
 Indian war, were losing this trip to civilization and beyond. Next 
 day Rhett and his men were suddenly telegraphed for, and again was 
 Captain Morgan both ordnance- and commanding officer. 
 
 And then one beautiful day Schramm sent for Mrs. Hinkel and his 
 box, and she, weeping, came to Constance, and together they appealed 
 to Morgan, and then the old man in the new shoulder-straps realized 
 that the matter could no longer be hidden, and before nightfall Schramm 
 learned that he was under the surveillance of the sheriff, charged with 
 being accessory to the robbery of Paymaster Graves, at least to the 
 extent of receiving and concealing a certain part of the money. And 
 Schramm, speechless with wrath and amaze, stood attention to his 
 captain on the hospital porch, and simply quivered and shook and 
 clinched his hands. Morgan made him sit down, and, prefacing his 
 statement with the assurance that no one who knew him believed him 
 in the faintest way connected with the robbery, went on to say there 
 were certain matters that, unexplained, seemed to point to him with 
 the finger of suspicion. He and Schultz left camp on Bear Fork 
 toward half-past twelve A.M., and though they started back by the 
 trail of the regiment they had probably left it and borne away over 
 to the south so as to ride along the bank of the Ska, in plain view of 
 Minden, ten minutes after the departure of No. 3 and just after the 
 robbery. A Mr. Long had seen two troopers on roans riding briskly 
 west at that time. The operator said the troopers had come in before 
 hand with the false despatch, and he thought they might have looked 
 like Schultz and Schramm. The paymaster couldn t be sure, couldn t 
 identify him ; but Mr. Lacy, the clerk, had described the two who met 
 them at the train and led them back from the de"pot while he followed 
 in rear, and Lacy s description certainly pointed to them. Then on 
 reaching the garrison Schramm had gone to Mrs. Hinkel, got his box, 
 put a package in it and charged her on no account to let it fall into 
 other hands, and this box the sheriff had opened in presence of the
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 219 
 
 commanding officer, and the first thing found was an envelope contain 
 ing five hundred dollars in fifties, which Lacy was ready to swear was 
 some of the lot taken from the paymaster s valise. Then they were in 
 town together and hurried away the moment they learned that the 
 robbery was known and soldiers suspected, and instead of returning to 
 the regiment they had turned off and gone away northward through 
 Wagon Gap until met and run back by the Sioux. This, said Morgan, 
 was the case against him as far as he knew. 
 
 Schramm s first question was as to the letters and papers : where 
 were they ? " Sealed up and safe," said Morgan. " We have the 
 officer s pledge as to that. So is the money sealed up." But Schramm 
 didn t seem to care about the money. That was of little consequence. 
 He could explain at once where it came from. A draft from the old 
 country had reached him early in May at a time when he wished to 
 use money, and Schultz cashed it for him. Schultz would not put his 
 savings in the Butte banks. His money was in Chicago. He had had 
 money sent out to him by express. This could be verified at the 
 express-office, and the draft could doubtless be traced back through 
 Schulty/s Chicago banker. As for their taking the Minden road, it 
 was not much longer, they had plenty of time, and the road near the 
 river was prettier. Close to the bridge on the south side they had seen 
 some horses held by one or two men just as the train pulled away. 
 Then away over by the d6p6t were some fellows who appeared to be 
 wearing cavalry overcoats, ranchmen probably who were going to drive 
 out some distance, as troopers wouldn t think of wearing overcoats in 
 June. They were interested watching the distant train, however, 
 speeding away westward, and they rode at a brisk lope up the valley, 
 never thinking of the party of men and horses again until that after 
 noon. Then, hearing of the robbery, it flashed upon them that they 
 had seen the perpetrators, and back they went, heard of them down 
 the stream drinking and quarrelling among themselves, were close 
 on their trail opposite Wagon Gap, and decided to follow, thinking 
 they might possibly overhaul and recapture some of them, at least, 
 with the result already known. Beyond the Cove they came upon 
 Stearns and his boy racing back for their lives, pursued by Indians. 
 No time to ask questions then. It was fight for life against the common 
 foe. The man was killed before he could tell his story, and now 
 Schultz was gone. Schramm had to face it alone. 
 
 " No, not alone," said Morgan. " We believe you guiltless and
 
 220 SERGEANT CROSS US. 
 
 mean to see you through." And then Colonel Rand came out to see 
 him. What Rand wanted was to know what had been done with the 
 papers, etc., taken from the civilian who died of his wounds at the 
 Cove. All Schultz s effects, of course, were in the hands of the 
 officers whose duty it was to take charge of the papers and property of 
 deceased soldiers. Rand said the boy had been taken to an asylum 
 and was recovering, but had neither money nor papers of any kind. 
 Schramm could hardly be persuaded to sit in the presence of an officer 
 of such distinction as Rand, but succumbed to orders. A wallet with 
 letters and papers and a little money, a silver watch, and a tobacco-box, 
 had been taken from the body before burial. These were all turned 
 over to Captain Fenton when he came. The man s name was Stearns, 
 and his post-office address Minden. And then up jumped Rand with 
 light in his eyes. 
 
 " That s what I wanted to know," said he. " I thought I d seen 
 that poor boy before. Now, corporal, don t worry about this matter. 
 We could acquit you easily enough, but there s something else to be 
 done. We want to nail the real perpetrators and get that money back 
 if possible : so the trial can t come off just yet." 
 
 " But pardon, colonel," said Schramm, rising again. " May I 
 not my box have? There are letters, portraits, home-gifts." And 
 Rand said he was going in to see the sheriff then and there. 
 
 A month the troops from the plains were kept on duty in and 
 around the rail way -centres of the West. Four long weeks the garrison 
 at Ransom consisted of Morgan, the surgeon, the band, the ordnance- 
 sergeant and clerk, quartermaster, employees, and so on, with the 
 hospital steward and attendants, the sick and wounded. Schramm, 
 convalescing rapidly now, was assigned to daily duty at the adjutant s 
 office. Jeffers, still limping a little, with Treacy and others, became 
 the nucleus of a species of running guard, and did patrol and watch 
 duty. The railway company, grateful for the services of the troops in 
 saving their property, sent a sleeper to Butte and an invitation for such 
 of the officers families as would like to go to Chicago, Omaha, or 
 wheresoever the husband and father might be, as the guests of the 
 road, and many went, and Rand wrote asking for " Connie and the 
 kids" to come on and pay Mrs. Rand a visit, but Connie wouldn t go. 
 Who would take care of daddy? she asked, nestling her face against 
 that veteran s stubbly cheek ; and Morgan gave it up. 
 
 The sheriff, who had been a frequent visitor, quit coming out to
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 221 
 
 the post, and began to talk around town about the way the fort people 
 had behaved from the start in this robbery business. He would have 
 had the robbers at the time, only the cavalry had interfered. He and 
 his posse would have nabbed those fellows skipping for Tomahawk 
 Range if it hadn t been that those d d meddlers of troopers drove 
 them beyond his jurisdiction. The Tomahawk was the name given 
 the black-fringed spur that came down from the mountains west of 
 Wagon Gap almost to the valley of the Ska. It was famous for bear, 
 elk, and black-tail deer, and all its length, except a few miles at the 
 southern end, lay within the Sioux reservation, and no one could go 
 thither to shoot except by previous arrangement with the agency 
 people. Nevertheless old Stearns, the recent victim of Sioux ven 
 geance, had for more than a year kept a shooting-box somewhere in 
 the mountains, where with his half-witted boy he lived a hermit life, 
 coming down to Minden very seldom, yet frequently being seen about 
 the agency at the north. Keen sportsmen of Omaha, Yankton, and 
 Sioux City, it was said, sometimes made up hunting-parties, and, 
 having properly and previously " fixed" the Sioux chiefs through 
 agency interpreters, went up by way of the Indian villages and, with 
 Indian guides, had many a day of famous shooting, and came home, 
 the envied of their kind, with a baggage-car-load of carcasses they 
 could not always even give away. The strikes and riots ended, it 
 suddenly occurred to Colonel Rand that he hadn t shot a bear in years, 
 so he went up around by the all-rail route, taking a couple of friends, 
 and such was his enthusiasm that he could not hear enough about what 
 other parties had been doing in that line. Game-laws did not obtain 
 on Indian lands in those days, except such as the Indian and his 
 keepers agreed upon, and even late in May, it seems, some eager sports 
 men had come out from the Missouri and gone into the Tomahawk 
 Range, guided by a clerk in the agency and " Lame Johnny," a half- 
 bred Sioux. For a man so interested at the start, it must be owned 
 that Rand tired rather soon of the sport. He left his friends at the 
 agency after a day or two of desultory shooting, and went back to 
 head-quarters. 
 
 Then the troops began to reappear at their old station, as their 
 services were no longer needed ; and the August suns were beating hot 
 and dry on the valley of the Ska ; and presently Old Tintop and the 
 Eleventh were once more restored to Ransom, and began the work of 
 straightening out their quarters and stables, and the new first lieu- 
 
 19*
 
 222 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 tenant of Troop D saluted his predecessor, its present captain, and 
 Schraram blushingly invited his brother non-commissioned officers, all 
 who could be spared, one evening after their duties at the post to meet 
 him at Conway s restaurant in town, where a bountiful supper was 
 provided, and where each man was regaled with such drink as he most 
 fancied, and where Schramm in a very effective little speech proposed 
 the health of their new captain, which they drank with cheers, and 
 the memory of their gallant comrade Schultz, which they honored in 
 soldier silence. Nothing like this had happened in the annals of the 
 regiment. " Why, it must have cost him sixty or seventy dollars," 
 said Sergeant Bowman, as they rode back to the post that night. One 
 of their number in jocular mood thought it appropriate to ask Schramm 
 had he been " holding up" another paymaster, or was this what was 
 left of the last one? whereat Schramm looked his interrogator full in 
 the face a few seconds without so much as changing color or saying a 
 word, and then, turning calmly away, resumed his chat with their first 
 sergeant, who as the senior guest at the feast was placed at the right 
 hand of their host. It was evident that Schramm would have no 
 witticism on that head. 
 
 But if Schramm took it in dignified silence, the sheriff did not. 
 It grew to be the popular thing for the troopers just then to hail this 
 magnate with the query, " Hullo, sheriff, when s the trial coming off?" 
 The " boys," as they sometimes called themselves, had much resented 
 it that the officials and the public were so ready to accept the theory 
 that only members of the Eleventh Cavalry could have planned and 
 perpetrated the deed. Hence, as time wore on and the evidence 
 against Schultz and Schramm wore off and the sheriff seemed drifting 
 further from a solution of the mystery, the boys took keener delight 
 in chaffing the civil authority on the public streets and inspiring him 
 to mighty blasphemy and portentous threat. 
 
 "You fellows had better keep civil tongues in your heads," said 
 he, with many a lurid expletive, the night after the Schramm supper. 
 "You may think it d d smart to chaff about this. Perhaps you 
 soldiers can turn to now and catch the fellers that ran off with your 
 money. If it wasn t soldiers that did it, by , I ll lay any bet no 
 soldier can say who else done it." 
 
 A week later, however, when the story of the sheriff s wager, "with 
 weeping and with laughter," was being told at Ransom in connection 
 with the liveliest episode in Ransom annals, there fell from the oracu-
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 223 
 
 lar lips of Mrs. Whaling, the relict of a former commanding officer 
 and now a prominent figure in Btitte society, the memorable words, 
 " Well, I guess he wishes he hadn t been so precipitous." 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Pay-day at the post ! Old Curran had ordered an extra stand put 
 up in the bar-room, an extra load of keg beer out from Butte, and a 
 choice supply of cabbageros for the defenders of their country s flag, 
 who on these occasions deemed it their duty not to be seen out of ranks 
 without a weed in their teeth, no matter how high in price nor how 
 low in grade. The laundresses, arrayed in their best bib and tucker 
 and smiles, had spread the cloth in their shanties down under the hill, 
 with the bucket of punch and dozen of tumblers in readiness for 
 callers, it being one of the unwritten laws of the rank and file in 
 the good old days to square with the laundress if you didn t square 
 with anybody else. The non-commissioned staff, the band, and the 
 troops had all been ordered to hold themselves in readiness, the one 
 function of the military year in which such orders were totally un 
 necessary, even the sick in hospital manifesting a strong desire to get 
 iip and go to duty, on that day at least ; and Lieutenant Phipps with 
 twenty troopers had met Paymaster Graves as he and Mr. Lacy stepped 
 forth from No 3, bustled them into the waiting ambulance and around 
 the corner to the express-office, where they receipted for the little iron 
 safe, and then at spanking trot set forth across the prairie and were 
 deposited at the hospitable door of Old Tintop, where breakfast 
 awaited the major, where his safe was stored pro tempore under the 
 vigilant eye of the officer of the guard, while Mr. Lacy, pleading 
 previous engagement, begged to be excused and went to take his sus 
 tenance under the Currans roof. Guard was mounted in full-dress 
 uniform at the usual hour, everybody being out for to see, and Gray 
 being in his glory. Even more than usually jubilant and stirring 
 were the strains of the band as, to the rollicking airs from " Arrah na 
 Pogue," the yellow-crested column came swinging around in review, 
 for it was " Cavalry Day," one of Tintop s fads being that it spoiled 
 the ceremony and ruined the guard to have foot and troopers march 
 on together. " Uniform, arms, and manual are all unlike," said he, 
 " so what s the use ? They no more mix than oil and vinegar : we re
 
 224 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 the oil and you re the vinegar." And so, being a favorite at depart 
 ment head-quarters, the old fellow had been sustained in his idea of 
 having alternate guard, cavalry one day and infantry the next, a 
 system which worked in with the " percentage" fairly well and which 
 the colonel pronounced a triumphant success, " and anybody who don t 
 believe it had better not say so." 
 
 Then, right after guard-mounting, in their full-dress uniforms, 
 with gloves and side-arms, the garrison was paraded for payment. 
 Graves sat beside a table in the administration room, big stacks of 
 greenbacks, tens, five, twos, and ones, and cylindrical columns of 
 silver and nickel, in front of him. Off to his left, muster- and pay 
 roll of the first detachment, head-quarters staff, and band open on the 
 table before him, his keen eyes glancing about the room and studying 
 every face, sat Lacy. The adjutant took a seat at another little table, 
 midway between the paymaster and the door, with his duplicate roll, 
 and, all being ready, called the sergeant-major s name. Mr. Lacy 
 called out the amount due. The paymaster rapidly counted out the 
 money and handed it to the soldier who stood attention in front of the 
 desk. The staff and band were speedily settled with and sent about 
 their business. Then came the senior captain with his company, a 
 change of rolls, and so for three hours, without incident of any kind, 
 the interesting yet monotonous ceremony went on. Not until near 
 noon did it come the turn of the captain youngest in commission at 
 the post, and then at last D Troop came swinging across the parade 
 from their barracks, and gray-haired Morgan took the little table just 
 left vacant by Captain Prime. The windows were open, and a soft 
 air was blowing through, and yet it seemed hot and oppressive. 
 
 " This is the last company, is it ?" said Graves. " Thank God ! 
 I m about tired out now. All ready, captain ?" 
 
 " All ready, sir," answered Morgan, and then called " First Sergeant 
 Warren." 
 
 A buggy drove up in front of the office, and some of the men 
 nudged one another. It was the sheriff who alighted, followed by 
 Colonel Rand. Behind them came another, and a deputy or two in 
 the saddle. D Troop, standing at ease along the gallery in front of the 
 administration building and from there to the walk leading to the 
 gate, exchanged remarks in an undertone as to the cause of this sudden 
 and suspicious arrival, but no one within the building apparently took 
 notice thereof. A long hall ran through the building from east to
 
 SERGEANT OECESUS. 225 
 
 west. The men entered the room by the door at the east end, and, 
 receiving their pay, passed out through the other, and so to the rear 
 porch. The paymaster and his clerk sat facing the door at the east 
 ward end of the big room, with their backs to the northern windows, 
 and so took no note of a party passing around on that side of the 
 building. Several officers, clerks, etc., were grouped about the room 
 west of the pay-table, and these were presently reinforced by the new 
 arrivals, Rand entering, followed by the sheriff and others, but signal 
 ling to the officers who greeted him to make no unnecessary to-do. By 
 this time Morgan had read down among the names of his corporals. 
 Rand, quietly suppressing the greetings accorded him, made it known 
 that he wished to listen a moment. Corporal Treacy had just picked 
 up his money, faced to his left, and made room for the next man. 
 " Corporal Hugo V. Schramm," called the captain, and, straight as an 
 arrow, quick, lithe, soldier all over, in stepped the man of Slaughter 
 Cove, hand at visor in salute as he halted. Lacy glanced quickly, 
 curiously up and studied the clear-cut face an instant with his steely 
 blue eyes, then as quickly dropped them. Graves, too, looked up in 
 mingled interest and embarrassment. Here stood the soldier virtually 
 branded by him and his as a robber, yet pronounced by officers and 
 comrades a hero. Graves felt that his first impulse was to hold forth 
 his hand, but it occurred to him that that would hardly be in accord 
 ance with military propriety and etiquette. " I should like to see 
 you, corporal, after we finish," said he, in a most conciliatory tone. 
 Schramm thrust his money into the palm of his left-hand glove, 
 saluted precisely, and, merely saying, " Yes, sir," strode away to the 
 west door, but there his name was called in low tone and he halted. 
 An officer beckoned to him to wait, and, wondering not a little, he 
 stopped, then turned to a vacant corner behind Rand. 
 
 Rapidly the list was finished, the last man paid. The paymaster 
 stretched his legs and arms and looked around for some one to suggest 
 an adjournment to the club-room, and the first thing he saw was Rand, 
 with the sheriff in his trail, and Graves s eyes began to dilate. Lacy 
 was repacking coin and paper money at the instant and bending over 
 a leather satchel which he had placed on his chair. A strange and 
 sudden silence had fallen upon the crowded room. Old Tintop from 
 his office across the hall, with faithful Gray at his elbow, came lounging 
 to the door, and, catching sight of the civilian garb, stopped short and 
 glared. Lacy, just snapping the clasp of his bag, felt the sudden fall 
 K*
 
 226 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 of a muscular hand on his shoulder, and, with a perceptibly violent 
 start, looked up. The bearded face of Colonel Rand was close at his 
 side, the dark eyes sternly fixed upon him, and Lacy turned ashen and 
 his limbs began to tremble and quiver, despite his fiercest effort, for 
 there confronting him stood the sheriff of Latimer County, a pair of 
 steel wristlets in his extended hands. 
 
 XV. 
 
 The sensation caused by the arrest of Mr. Lacy, the paragon of 
 paymasters clerks, as he had been described in one of his letters of 
 recommendation, ended not with the going down of the sun that day, 
 nor many thereafter. Graves himself sat in a state bordering on 
 collapse for a few hours after the occurrence. 
 
 " Why, that gentleman was recommended by half the Senate, and 
 almost insisted on by my bondsmen," said he, with tears in his eyes. 
 "What will they say to me? Why, Rand, he actually had to be 
 named as my clerk before I could be confirmed at all." To which the 
 imperturbable inspector-general responded, " Yes, no doubt. You see, 
 Graves, they had to get him out of Washington : he knew too much;" 
 and when Graves besought him to say why he suspected the paragon, 
 Rand serenely answered he didn t : he had suspected him a month 
 ago, perhaps, but now he knew: so should everybody else just as soon 
 as the case could be brought to trial. But meantime other entertain 
 ment was provided for the cavalry. .Even while Lacy was frantically 
 sending telegrams and letters to officials of high degree all over the 
 East, demanding investigation, vindication, etc., there came an order for 
 the immediate detachment of three of Tintop s companies to take the 
 field far to the northwest. D Troop went as a matter of course. This 
 time Schramm did riot have to ask "to go along mit dem fellers." It 
 was their veteran captain who was left behind. 
 
 Just as Perry Thornton had told his father, the men of the troop, 
 thankful for, yet declining, the proffered subscription of the officers, 
 had ordered from tho East as handsome an outfit of belt, helmet, spurs, 
 shoulder- and sabre-knots, as money could buy, Connie alone of the 
 household being in the secret. Her father never again had asked to 
 see Thornton s letter, and she, who once had been so insistent, ceased 
 all mention of it or of its writer. The glow of delight with which
 
 SERGEANT CRCE8US. 227 
 
 the child tat! received err! rec,d that jolly, warm-hearted, yet utterly 
 unsentimental note had opened the father s eyes no more than it had 
 her own. Constance Morgan stepped from girl- to womanhood in the 
 day and hour which taught her how, little by little, there had been 
 kindled in her heart a tiny flame of tenderness that burned as incense 
 at the altar, an offering at the shrine wherein the boy sat installed, 
 the hero of a girl s imaginative and impulsive nature. With what 
 burning cheeks did she own it to herself! With what womanly shame 
 did she realize that she had betrayed it ere she herself fairly knew of 
 its existence ! She ! an army girl, a soldier s daughter, with Lot and 
 Billy to look after, with dear old daddy to nurse and comfort, she, 
 Constance Morgan, daring to indulge in idle day-dreaming over a boy 
 in his first uniform ! It was simply shameful. She could have scratched 
 the eyes out of any woman who saw her poring over that letter, had 
 there been any there to see. She raged within herself to think that 
 for that moment she had been blind and deaf to her father s presence 
 and lost in reading Thornton s laughing words. No one on earth ever 
 knew what pangs of maidenly wrath and shame " Little Mother" 
 endured for several days, but whenever after that initial exhibition 
 Morgan looked for further symptom of sentimental regard for the 
 absent lieutenant, he failed entirely, and wished that he might write 
 himself an ass for ever having believed it. 
 
 The presentation came off at the assembly-room one lovely evening 
 in July, Sergeant Jeifers being spokesman for the troop and utterly 
 routing Morgan, who knew not how to formulate reply to words so 
 rich with soldierly trust and affection. Close behind the speaker 
 stood Corporal Schramm, his glistening eyes fixed on Connie s beau 
 tiful, blushing face, with its swimming eyes, for Jeffers s voice was 
 tremulous when he went on to say how for ten long years the old 
 hands had soldiered under Morgan and never once could recall a harsh 
 or an unjust word, never once a day when his voice or heart or hand 
 had failed them when they looked to him for leadership or aid. The 
 old fellow was worn and ill and heavily laden, and this unlooked-for 
 tribute from his men completely floored him. " Why, men," he stam 
 mered, " I always stood by you as a matter of course. I never 
 dreamed of doing anything else. What s an officer for, if it isn t to 
 be a friend and leader to his own troop first of all ? I m more obliged 
 to you than you can imagine. This isn t strictly according to law and 
 regulations, I am afraid, and if I d got wind of it in any way before, I
 
 228 SERGEANT CRCESVS. 
 
 should have stopped it ; but precedents seem to be plenty of late, and I 
 only wish I might think it would be my luck to wear them as your 
 captain for years to come, but your old lieutenant makes an older 
 captain, and I m soon to step aside for a younger soldier and better 
 man ; but so long as I live, men, this gift of yours and these words of 
 Jeffers s will will God bless you all, lads, I can t finish it." 
 
 And then the men in their full-dress uniforms had escorted their 
 captain and Connie and the invited guests homeward that night, and 
 the first thing when father and daughter were left alone old Morgan 
 turned to Connie. 
 
 " So that was what Thornton s letter was about, was it, Connie ?" 
 
 " Certainly, father," she replied, looking straight into his eyes with 
 those clear brown orbs of hers. " What else could it have been ?" 
 And that was the last mentioned of the subject between them. 
 
 Each and every one, the men had shaken hands with their captain 
 and pledged his health in the foaming beer old Curran had insisted on 
 "setting up" for the occasion. They swore, soldier-like, they d never 
 let the captain retire; but that was a matter beyond their jurisdiction. 
 Wind and weather and many a worry laid the veteran by the heels, 
 and his old enemy, rheumatism, took fresh and forcible hold. When 
 D Troop rode away to take the field, poor Morgan was groaning both 
 in flesh and spirit, and when late that autumn Schramm came posting 
 homeward under subpoena to testify in re The People vs. Lacy, the 
 chevrons of a sergeant decked his sleeves in recognition of a ride of 
 over a hundred miles through Indian-haunted wilds to bear despatches 
 to a distant command, but neither captain nor Connie was there to bid 
 him welcome. The lonely grave out on the prairie lacked the bunch 
 of wild flowers which formerly decked it every Sunday morning. The 
 old quarters down the row were peopled by strangers to the German 
 soldier now. The sweet face of the gnadige Friiulein smiled no more 
 from the dormer window over the veranda : the Morgans, one and all, 
 were gone. A retiring board had pronounced the old dragoon unfit 
 for further service, and with his own fuel and quarters to furnish now 
 as best he could, with no more medical attendance or supplies from 
 Uncle Sam, with all the brood to feed and clothe and educate, without 
 a word of aid or welcome from the kinsfolk in the East, poor Morgan 
 meekly took his discharge and his retired pay, and a tiny two-storied 
 cottage in an out-of-the-way street in Butte, and strove to set up 
 housekeeping with Connie at the head and a Chinese man-of-all-work
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 229 
 
 at the foot of the new establishment. Rand had been to see them 
 and urged their all coming eastward awhile as his guests at home, 
 but the railroad company had offered Morgan a little berth which he 
 considered it his duty to accept at once, and Connie scouted the idea 
 of her being in need of rest or change ; she could not think of leaving 
 father ; and within the month it seemed as though her vision were 
 preternaturally clear, for presently poor Morgan could not leave the 
 house at all. It was at this stage of the proceedings that as Connie, 
 broom in hand, and an old silk handkerchief over her head, was 
 sweeping out the hall one sharp October morning, the Chinaman 
 having been discharged as the result of a strike for more wages and 
 less work, she sent a whirl of dust upon the glistening boots of a 
 statuesque trooper with hand at salute and blue eyes beaming in delight 
 at sight of his friend the captain s daughter. 
 
 " Oh, Schr-r-r-amm !" she cried, throwing down her besom and 
 joyously grasping his gauntleted hand. " Where did you come from? 
 Come right in ; papa will be so glad ! Here s Schramm Sergeant 
 Schramrn, daddy dear;" and, first closing the outer door, she opened 
 that which led to the Den, and ushered the sergeant in and watched 
 with glistening eyes the greeting of the two soldiers. Schramm must 
 stay and take luncheon with them. " We are no longer on duty, lad," 
 said Morgan, with a sad smile, " and if you ll have a bite with us and 
 tell us all about the old troop it ll be a comfort." And Connie s eyes 
 and lips were even more insistent. Off came the blue overcoat, and 
 there in all the glossy sheen of the new, snug-fitting blouse, with the 
 triple bars of his sergeant s chevrons, the athletic frame of their sol 
 dier guest stood revealed, and they made him sit, and Connie poured 
 his tea and bustled in and out of the kitchen, and Schramm sat with 
 his old captain and talked by the hour of the troop, and how well 
 Jeffers held his own now as first sergeant, and what a fine soldier 
 Treacy was, and yet he did not say how or why, but fast as their 
 term of service expired the old hands took their discharge, and then 
 "took on" in some other troop. And all the time he talked, whenso 
 ever she flitted in or out or by, the blue eyes would follow and were 
 full of light and reverence and watchful care. It was as he walked 
 slowly away, two hours later, eagerly promising to come again, that 
 those same blue eyes were clouded with deep anxiety, Morgan was 
 failing so fast. 
 
 The trial, he told them, was to begin forthwith ; but it never did. 
 
 20
 
 230 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 In some of Lacy s appealing letters to former employers in official 
 station in Washington reference was made to the malignant hatred 
 of Colonel Rand as the inspiration of all their proofless and damnable 
 accusations, and these getting to the War Department and so coming 
 to Rand for remark, the placid colonel finally waxed indignant. It 
 was bad enough, said he, that Lacy should be an expert thief and 
 blackleg, but that to cover his own tracks and those of his pals he 
 should seek the ruin of innocent men was rather too much of a good 
 thing. Then the general came back from the field about this time; 
 Rand made his report, and on went a four-page letter to Washing 
 ton reciting briefly the evidence now in their possession as affecting 
 Lacy. This was shown to the ex-clerk s friends at court, and two 
 letters from the East, after being opened and examined by the sheriff, 
 were handed in to Lacy s cell the day after Schramm s arrival. That 
 night the prisoner asked for more paper and permission to write till 
 late, and when morning came the neatly-folded document proved to be 
 the final statements of the clerk who had cashed so many papers of that 
 name within the past year but would cash no more. What was left 
 of Lacy lay stiffening on the narrow cot. The night-watch had not 
 even heard him groan. 
 
 A fellow of much inventive genius was Lacy, and of uncommon 
 usefulness until luck turned. Cards, mining stocks, wheat, wine, and 
 women all combined against him. He had to cover the money ab 
 stracted to pay his losses and put up more margins. He owed still 
 more, and his creditors, gamblers like himself, said, " Pay or we peach." 
 There was just one way to " raise the wind" without reaping the whirl 
 wind : the paymaster must be robbed on the very next trip ; and the 
 plan was to have the train " held up," until the sudden move of the 
 cavalry suggested an easier way. Out went two of his sportsmen 
 friends with letters of introduction to the hunter hermit in the Toma 
 hawk Range. Down they went with him as their guide and com 
 panion and scout. Cavalry overcoats and slouch-hats and equipments 
 such as were worn in the field in those days were to be had almost 
 anywhere. Armed with their bogus despatch, they rode to Minden, 
 dodging Sergeant Dolan s escort from Bear Fork to Alkali. Leaving 
 their horses with the boy at the bridge, the three men received the 
 paymaster and Lacy at the station to which he had been lured, and 
 the rest was easy until it came to getting away with the money. The 
 hermit forbade their returning by way of his hut, as they would be
 
 SERGEANT QRCESUS. 231 
 
 trailed thither and he and his boy instantly suspected. They must go 
 farther east, by way of Wagon Gap, and back to the agency with their 
 game, as though from innocent and successful hunt. But, in dodging the 
 troops and certain couriers they saw, time was lost, in which they got 
 to drinking and quarrelling. Lacy s friends were two well-known 
 contractors for Indian supplies, long accustomed to agency ways, well 
 versed in Indian affairs, and often suspected of being knaves of deeper 
 dye than mere swindlers of the aborigines,* which species of crime was 
 not bereft of virtue in frontier eyes. They were known to the trade 
 by the names of Stein and Wirtz, and their intimacy with Lacy and 
 certain employees of the quartermaster department had attracted Rand s 
 attention to them months before the robbery. Hearing of their ab 
 sence from town, he traced them to the agency, thence to the range 
 beyond, and found that the date of their return that way corresponded 
 exactly with that of Thornton s fight. Young Stearns had at last 
 made a coherent statement. Promising to give his luckless father his 
 share as soon as they got back within sight of that harbor of refuge, 
 but plying him with liquor all the time, these men rode to Fossil 
 Creek in company, then gave their dozing guide the slip and dashed 
 rapidly ahead. Being aware of the Indian outbreak, they probably 
 studied the country with their glasses and saw the commotion among 
 the distant war-parties, and so dodged into the range away from the 
 road, and by a wide detour got safely in, while their hapless guide, 
 following in drunken pursuit, ran foul of the Sioux, was chased and 
 killed. Wisely they hid such of the money as they did not need at 
 the moment, and kept away from head-quarters and Lacy awhile, 
 until the announcement in the papers that the crime had been definitely 
 fixed on the soldiers Schultz and Schramm gave them courage to un 
 earth their plunder and fetch it nearer home. Not that they intended 
 to divide with Lacy by any means, he was in their toils now, and 
 could be further bled, but to hold him with mingled threat and 
 promise. And all the time Rand was weaving his web about them. 
 The more coherent statements of the half-witted son, now being grad 
 ually restored to such intellect as he possessed, had given ample clue, 
 and the arrest of Lacy at Ransom was the result of a despatch to 
 Rand that his confederates had been pounced upon the previous night 
 at Yankton with over ten thousand dollars of the stolen money in 
 their possession. So long as they did not peach, however, Lacy was 
 still safe, and he played the indignant and wronged and faithful
 
 232 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 
 
 servant, and played it well, for just six weeks; then "Dux femina 
 facti" the woman who was leader by the nose of the triumvirate, 
 and the recipient of much of their stolen plunder, was also arrested 
 when on the wing to the East, and she couldn t keep a secret; her 
 circumstantial confession of the whole business from beginning to end, 
 made when hoping to win exemption for herself, ended the battle. 
 Then Lacy s own hand penned his parting words and freed his shame- 
 stricken soul. 
 
 " It was a well-planned job," said Rand, " on Lacy s part at least, 
 but it had its leak so long as there was a woman in it." 
 
 And now, as his evidence was no longer needed, Sergeant Schramm 
 had no further business at either Butte or Ransom. " But you don t 
 want to go back that long distance alone," said Old Tintop. " We can 
 assign you to duty here until your troop comes home next month." 
 And, to the adjutant s infinite surprise, Schramm eagerly assented. 
 
 October went, and keener winds from the mountain-gorges and 
 fiercer twinges in Morgan s legs reminded them that winter was at 
 hand. Often now the post surgeon found means to ride over to Butte 
 and see the failing soldier, and many a day officers or their wives con 
 trived to visit town and dropped in to see Connie and offer aid and 
 comfort to her father, but Connie declared she needed no help. She 
 had an excellent servant now, a German woman whom Mrs. Hinkel 
 brought to her, who cooked and washed and did almost everything for 
 so small a sum that when the amount was mentioned I fear me 
 there were women who were sorely tempted to offer the paragon twice 
 as much to quit the Morgans and come to them, but they deserved 
 the more honor that they promptly dismissed the unworthy thought. 
 Connie said Mrs. Hinkel, too, was kind and useful in making things 
 for the children, and Miss Franzen of the public school, who lived in 
 the next block, took such interest in Lot and Billy and taught them 
 so much. Why, they would really be in clover, were poor father only 
 better. And then one evening when Schramm had ridden into town 
 and left his horse at the Empire and had come promptly around to see 
 the Herr Rittrneister, he was amazed to find a tall, gray-moustached, 
 soldierly man seated by the captain s side, while there right by Connie 
 in civilian dress stood a tall, slender young fellow at sight of whom 
 the sergeant s eyes clouded, and he would have retired, but was too late, 
 for with one leap Perry Thornton had him by the hand. 
 
 "Schramm, by all that s glorious! Father, look here!" And
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 233 
 
 before the Prussian ex-hussar could realize it, a veteran colonel of 
 dragoons was wringing one of his hands, while the lieutenant clasped 
 the other. Nor would they or the Morgans let him go. 
 
 "I have a letter from Berlin which I am charged to give you, 
 Herr von Rhetz," said Thornton ptre, and at the name Schramm s lips 
 quivered and twitched and he turned very white, but straight in the 
 colonel s kindly face looked the unflinching eyes of blue. 
 
 Yet even then he would have asked to be permitted to retire, 
 the soldier in him shrinking from what he deemed intrusion, and a 
 strange restless gnawing at his heart impelling him to go and leave 
 them to the joy of a reunion in which no doubt he had really no 
 place, but, one and all, they forbade. Constance held in her hands 
 two cabinet photographs, and Perry stepped forward, took one of these, 
 and, holding it forth, said to Schramm, 
 
 " If you need more reason, sergeant, here it is, for this is the picture 
 of a young lady who says she must have yours, and quickly too." 
 
 " The young lady is most gracious, Herr Lieutenant, and most 
 beautiful," said Schramm, studying it attentively ; then, glancing up, 
 "The lieutenant s sister?" 
 
 "Not quite," laughed Perry, blushing, "though that s what my 
 sisters are beginning to call her rather prematurely." 
 
 And then in his perplexity Schramm gazed past the handsome boy 
 and sought Connie s face. It was beaming. " Pardon," he said, " I 
 am so dull. Does the lieutenant mean it is his betrothed ?" 
 
 " Yes, and we are here to drink her health, we five." 
 
 For one moment Schramm s eyes sought doubtfully the eyes of the 
 maiden who stood there so unflinchingly and smilingly before them, 
 and then his hand went out in earnest. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 A winter of unusual severity was that which followed upon the 
 heels of a summer campaign that had been full of lively excitement 
 for Tintop and the regiment. Once more, however, the spirit of 
 social gayety was abroad, and the Christmas holidays were merry with 
 many a charming function. Hops, germans, dinners and luncheon- 
 parties, theatricals, minstrels, and soldier balls, day after day and 
 night after night, were in full career at Ransom, while dense and 
 
 20*
 
 234 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 blinding snow-storms blocked the roads and soon succeeded in making 
 the trip from fort to town more of a venture than the winter passage 
 of the Atlantic. Starting from town with sunshine and sleigh-bells, 
 one might encounter storm and tempest before half the distance was 
 traversed. December, though sharply cold, had been bright and 
 beautiful until about the 15th; then came the succession of blizzards 
 that cut communication almost entirely and caused a wail of dismay 
 from the shopkeepers of Butte, most of whom had laid in goodly 
 store of toys and trinkets for the delectation of their best customers, 
 the people out at the fort. The stage had to be taken off, and for days 
 the mails were carried to and fro in saddle. The doctors, senior and 
 junior, found plenty to do at the fort and little to tempt them else 
 where, so their visits to Morgan became infrequent. There was just 
 one man at the post whom no gale could daunt, no storm could con 
 quer, and that was Schramm. 
 
 Every one knew that Morgan was slowly growing feebler. " He 
 ought to have gone to the Hot Springs long ago," said the doctor, 
 " but now it is too late." He could not stand the journey without 
 special attendants and accommodations, and those were things he could 
 not, and Uncle Sam would not, pay for. Knowing that he would have 
 nothing to leave, and deeming him near dissolution, his creditors were 
 hounding him again. If he lived, the fifty dollars per month would 
 gradually pay them off, but if he died there was nothing : hence the 
 renewed clamor for immediate settlement. The weather was bitter, 
 the little house cold and draughty, fuel was horribly expensive, and 
 there was the veteran dragoon, a helpless cripple, looking death in the 
 face and imploring him yet a little while to hold his hand, not that the 
 broken-spirited soldier might recover his strength, he was past all 
 that, but that he might linger on even in labor and sorrow, that with 
 his annuity he might save his children from utter destitution. Hours 
 he sat in loneliness, for it was impossible, save at rare intervals, for his 
 old comrades to reach him now. He wondered how Connie could sing 
 so happily about the house. Surely she and Bertha, the middle-aged 
 maid-of-all-work, had accomplished wonders with the little sum he 
 could devote to household expenses. Lot and Billy looked hearty 
 and rosy and well fed and clothed when they came tumbling noisily in 
 from school. Connie s sweet face and slender form were rounder. The 
 dark circles under the big brown eyes were gone. Here he was, hardly 
 daring to eat, thinking how soon they might be left without bite, sup,
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 235 
 
 or cent. Yet Connie smiled and sang, and was picking up little house 
 hold words and phrases in German, and blushingly accosted Schramm 
 in his native tongue when Schramm came, as he rarely failed to come, 
 twice, thrice, or ofteuer during the week, to pay his respects to the 
 gnadige Fraulein, and to see what he could do for the Herr Rittmeister, 
 who, ever since the day of the Thorntons coming, had vainly protested 
 against the further use of the name Schramm, had insisted that the time 
 had come for the German sergeant to drop his punctilious observance 
 of the deference due all superior officers, and had informed Connie that 
 he should be addressed as Herr von Rhetz ; but it was all to no purpose. 
 Schramm forbade. u I left my name with my past when I came to 
 enlist in this army," said he. " I had to win a future for myself, and 
 so took my mother s name meantime. Call me by that so long as I 
 wear the blue." Indeed, he couldn t bear to have the gnadige Fraulein 
 address him as " sergeant" at all. He said that from the first he loved 
 to watch her lips as she struggled with the combination that finally 
 gave utterance to a Sch-r-r-ramm. There could be no question that he 
 loved to watch her lips, no matter what she might be saying, and small 
 blame to him either. 
 
 But out at Ransom Schramm was becoming a notability in earnest. 
 Despite his plea to Colonel Thornton to keep secret as yet the story of 
 his difference with his stern old father, his retirement from the German 
 service, his practical banishment from home, and then the proffered 
 forgiveness and reconciliation, there were so many suspicions that the 
 Thorntons were plied with questions they could not altogether dodge. 
 Every one knew by this time Schramm had money in plenty, and that 
 it was deposited in a German bank in the East. " Yes," said Thorn 
 ton, " that was his mother s fortune, which had become his own ;" but 
 the colonel refused to tell more, saying the soldier had a perfect right 
 to serve out his time as Schramm and nothing else. Everybody saw, 
 however, the courtesy and distinction with which the Thorntons, father 
 and son, treated him, Perry, in fact, waxing hot and wanting to 
 fight an ill-conditioned, cross-grained subaltern who sneered at him. 
 Schramm s box was kept in the vault of the First National now, 
 where the cashier and other officials would fain have treated him with 
 greater deference than they showed his officers, had Schramm per 
 mitted it. He would never enter the bank when an officer was there, 
 and should one happen in, even the veriest cub in the whole garrison, 
 Schramm would spring back from the counter and stand attention and
 
 236 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 at salute, never presuming to come forward again until the shoulder- 
 straps had vanished. This naturally gave umbrage to the public, 
 which, very properly, preferred moneyed sergeants to mortgaged subs, 
 but no one at the post could truthfully say that Schramm ever in the 
 faintest way failed in the respect and deference due his superiors in grade. 
 On the other hand, there were those who saw that Schramm s new 
 captain was taking frequent opportunity to treat the young German 
 with scant courtesy ; it was apparent from the moment of the return 
 of the troop from the field. They had already begun the homeward 
 march when Schramm was ordered by Tintop to await their return to 
 head-quarters, but Captain Bragg declared that Schramm had shirked 
 his duty with the troop. The medal of honor awarded him was pre 
 sented by Tintop and pinned on Schramm s breast in presence of the 
 whole command, and Bragg sneered at the colonel s commendatory 
 remarks, and sneered again in Thornton s presence as the troop 
 marched in from parade. Perry was already disgusted with having to 
 serve longer in D Troop, but no transfer could be obtained. Schramm s 
 duties in barracks and stables were most scrupulously performed, but 
 never to the extent of winning expression of satisfaction from Bragg. 
 Schramm rarely asked to be excused from duty, but often put in for a 
 pass to go to town. There was no good reason for refusing so good a 
 man, so Bragg growled and grumbled, and finally said he couldn t 
 have his horses ridden all over creation, and Schramm must walk 
 thereafter or hire a coach-and-four. Schramm never by word or sign 
 showed irritation. He received the blunt, ill-natured reply with silent 
 salute. He hired Curran s buggy, and then, an evening or two there 
 after, just before stables, came loping back from Butte on a splendid 
 bay, Lieutenant Edwards s favorite horse, which that officer had vainly 
 asked three hundred for when he needed money to go East on sick- 
 leave, and failing to obtain his price had sent him to the Empire stables 
 in town. Schramm, it transpired, had bought the entire " outfit," 
 equipments and all, but had the bridle and housings stored and re 
 placed by modest black leather and dark blue blanket. Bragg forbade 
 his keeping the horse in the troop stables, and Schramm, flushing 
 slightly, replied, with the utmost self-command and respect, that he 
 could not presume to think of such a thing. Mr. Curran had kindly 
 consented to take charge of his horse in his private stable, where 
 Schramm, you may depend upon it, paid roundly for forage and groom 
 ing. Then it next transpired that Schramm had named his new ac-
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 237 
 
 quisition "Rand," and, as Rand in his capacity as inspector-general 
 had frequently rapped Bragg over the knuckles, this gave greater 
 offence to Bragg. Then a famous opera-company, crossing the con 
 tinent, struck a blizzard and were snow-bound in a special car at Butte. 
 There was a big hall with a fair-sized stage in town. The owner urged 
 a performance, and the manager agreed to give " Faust" on a guarantee 
 that took the owner s breath away. He braved the drifts, however, 
 and galloped out to the fort and told his story. " Go ahead," said 
 Tintop. " You shall have the band, and we ll all take seats." But 
 when he heard the price, Tintop retracted. " We can t stand the 
 figure that is, I can t, and few of my officers can." Nevertheless the 
 owner found means to give the front row of the gallery, all around, at 
 a reduced rate, and there the fort contingent looked down on the two- 
 dollar seats in the so-called parquet, and just before the overture began 
 in marched forty sergeants, cavalry, infantry, and staff, from Ransom, 
 each man in his nattiest dress uniform, and took possession of the rows 
 of chairs reserved for them, and after the opera was over did these 
 non-commissioned officers adjourn to Conway s, where another bountiful 
 supper was spread in his big room, and then back to the fort in the 
 dawn of the frosty morning to the tune of soldier songs and merry 
 sleigh-bells. " Schramm s stag-party" was the talk of the post for a 
 week thereafter. Bragg thought it an outrage that enlisted men should 
 be allowed to sit in public entertainment in presence of their betters. 
 Tintop, on the contrary, said he was proud to see so many of his men 
 intelligent, soldierly, and so thoroughly capable of appreciating such 
 music and such a company. As for the opera people and the local 
 manager, they were enraptured. Connie, you may be sure, was there 
 to see. She and her friend Miss Franzen had been brought thither 
 and taken home in a carriage from the Empire, and invited and 
 escorted by the principal of the public school, to whom, it transpired 
 later, tickets as well as instructions had been sent beforehand, and it 
 was just about this time, just before Christmas, that somebody started 
 the new name for the blue-eyed Prussian, and Schramm, to his manifest 
 concern, was hailed as " Sergeant Croesus." 
 
 The snow blockade was such that many children at the fort lost 
 their faith in Santa Glaus. He who rode the snow-drifts and the 
 storm was barred at Ransom, yet seemed to swoop in force on Mor 
 gan s fireside. Brand-new sleds were there for Lot and Billy, and 
 another doll, and such stacks of furniture and boxes of leaden soldiers,
 
 238 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 
 
 besides valuables of more practical sort. All these, together with 
 fruits and candies to be stuffed in their worn stockings, had been 
 smuggled in through the kitchen and the connivance of Bertha, and 
 with them were some costly books, Schramm s gifts to his honored 
 captain and brown-eyed Connie. He dared not offer half what his 
 heart longed to lay before them. They had a Christmas dinner, too, 
 that Bertha swore was her own production and inspiration. They had 
 remembrances from the fort that Schramm " packed" in on horseback. 
 Perry Thornton and others had by no means forgotten them, and 
 Schramm had blushingly called upon such kind friends to say he should 
 be only too glad to carry in anything they might wish to send. There 
 was no lack of Christmas cheer, even where one heart was so heavy as 
 poor Morgan s, and no one was allowed to dream how very much of 
 all this holiday feasting was due to Schramm. And so all through 
 the long hard winter, patient and reserved, assiduous in every duty at 
 the fort, yet finding frequent opportunity of visiting his friends in Butte, 
 Schramm held his way. Old Hinkel was made an ordnance sergeant 
 along in March, and with his wife and olive-branches took departure 
 for a far southern post, Schramm seeing them to the train and re 
 ceiving tearful warmth of blessing from the honest frau by way of 
 good-by, and in April the doctors made more frequent trips to town, 
 for Morgan rallied but little with the lengthening days. It was evi 
 dent that no bill of relief could bring lasting benefit here. 
 
 But, despite pain and hopelessness, Morgan clung to life with great 
 determination. Live he must for the babies sakes, he said, and once 
 more now his days were brightened by visits from old friends, once 
 more in the sunny afternoons Perry Thornton dropped in for checkers 
 and campaigns or to show a new picture of his lady-love, Connie 
 sometimes sitting contentedly by, but generally busying herself with 
 Bertha about the house. And then, just as was sure to happen, came 
 the order for summer s work. " Away to the Big Horn !" said the 
 colonel, as he reined up one day at Morgan s open door, catching 
 Schramm in the act of blocking out a flower-garden for Lot and Billy. 
 And that evening before parade the regimental adjutant, seated at his 
 desk, was surprised by a visit from Sergeant Schramm, who begged of 
 that influential officer a few moments interview. 
 
 " Young man," said Tintop to his staff officer, as he espied the 
 latter tripping around from the club-room just before first call, "that s
 
 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 239 
 
 the third time I ve seen you coming out of Curran s since four o clock." 
 To which Gray promptly replied, 
 
 " Yes, sir. You see, last week you remarked upon my going in 
 there so often that I thought it time to reverse the process." And this 
 afforded the colonel the opportunity of giving Gray the good raking 
 down he deserved, and, just as Gray had hoped and planned, brought 
 on the reaction that always followed an outburst. That evening Tintop 
 came over to the office to " make it up," and then, when the skies were 
 cleared, Gray broached the subject of Schramrn s interview. It seems 
 he wanted a fortnight s furlough to go to New York and other points 
 on urgent personal business, and had reason to know that Bragg would 
 forward the application disapproved ; and Bragg did. Bragg s endorse 
 ment read, " This young soldier has been the recipient of so many 
 indulgences already as to seriously impair his usefulness as a sergeant. 
 He succeeded in evading field duty with the troop last fall, and seeks 
 to shirk it again. For a man not yet two years in service, he has been 
 promoted over older and more deserving men so rapidly as to turn his 
 head." And Tintop considered the whole thing a reflection on him as 
 regimental commander, and so sent for Bragg and so told him, and 
 said, furthermore, that if Bragg didn t like Schramm and could find 
 one man in the whole regiment who was willing to transfer to D, now 
 that Bragg was its captain, he would be glad to order an exchange ; 
 and this gave Bragg the opening he hoped for and a chance to reply 
 that, so far from wanting to get Schramm out, his remarks were con 
 clusive proof that he was only striving to keep him in. It was hot 
 shot, give and take, for ten minutes, a warfare in which it must be 
 owned that Tintop rejoiced even though he did not excel, and it ended 
 in his ordering Bragg to leave the office and coming in, all in a tower 
 ing rage, to ask Gray if he ever in all his life knew such a cantankerous 
 ass as Bragg, " unless it s me for letting him rub my fur the wrong 
 way." Gray said that he really didn t like to draw invidious com 
 parisons ; but Schramm got the furlough, was back at Ransom in ten 
 days, and caught the regiment before it camped in sight of Cloud 
 Peak. He had a long conference with Bertha before he left, and his 
 good-by to his captain and Connie was very brief. The day after he 
 left there drove up to the door a low-wheeled phaeton that Connie 
 instantly recognized as Mrs. Amory s. Mrs. Amory was the wife of 
 one of the officers of the Eleventh, who, with her children, had gone 
 back to visit their Kentucky home as soon as the regiment was ordered
 
 240 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 away, leaving the phaeton for sale. Bertha came in with a note 
 addressed in Schramm s peculiar cramped and precise hand : 
 
 " Will not the gracious Miss Morgan do me the very great honor 
 of the occasional exercising of the horse and carriage which must be 
 left at the Empire stable during the summer without other use? The 
 groom will call each morning for the orders of the gnadige Fraulein, 
 whose acceptance will much honor and deeply oblige both Rand/ at 
 her service, and the gracious lady s 
 
 " Most humble and grateful 
 
 " SCHRAMM." 
 
 And when the doctor happened in and found Connie with tear- 
 brimming eyes and saw through the situation at a glance, he said it 
 was an inspiration. On those smooth hard roads, in that low, couch- 
 like, soft-rolling carriage they could give her father air, sunshine, a 
 sight of the distant mountains, a look at the old fort, an occasional 
 visit to the now neglected grave. Constance took " Rand" on a pre 
 liminary spin, and found him, as was to be expected, perfectly bridle- 
 wise and reliable, and between Dr. French and Bertha the dear old 
 daddy was presently bundled in by her side, and the only mar to the 
 exquisite joy and harmony of that sunshiny morning was the indignant 
 howl of Billy-boy on their simultaneous return, he from school, the 
 elders from their blissful drive. 
 
 And now frequently in the fair June weather they came bowling 
 out to the garrison, Morgan contentedly reclining in the phaeton and 
 chatting with old friends among the infantry officers, while Constance 
 ran in to see Mrs. Woods and other lady friends who had been so kind 
 to her in their dark days, and often they drove to the neglected ceme 
 tery, and the mother s grave, adorned now with simple head-stone, was 
 put in order, turfed and trimmed, and often decked with wild flowers. 
 But there was greater surprise in order. A letter from Aunt Lottie 
 said their uncle had business requiring a visit to the far West, and 
 that she would come with him. And they came, and spent two days 
 in Butte, and Aunt Lottie urged her brother-in-law to make an effort 
 and move to the East, for Connie s face was a fortune. "She will 
 fall in love with and marry some penniless officer if she stays here," 
 said the experienced woman of the world, and was aghast when Mor 
 gan calmly answered that he hoped she would, if the man was of the 
 right sort, as only in the army had they found friends in the days of
 
 SERGEANT CECESUS. 241 
 
 their sorest need. As for himself, he looked forward to the time when 
 he could be laid away by Carrie s side. All he prayed for was that 
 his children might not be left destitute. Already, indeed, two young 
 gentlemen at the post, subalterns of Rhett s battalion, were noticed 
 casting sheep s-eyes at Connie s lovely face, and were beginning to be 
 assiduous callers at the little house in town, but Constance seemed to 
 have no thought for any man but father. Aunt Lot went East again 
 with distinct sense of defeat, but her husband took matters less to 
 heart. The doctor had assured them that the long journey was hardly 
 possible, and that Morgan would do fairly well until winter again set 
 in, and then, " Should anything happen, Connie," he said, " you must 
 come to us." 
 
 But Connie s reply was politely indefinite. Something did happen 
 late that autumn, and Connie did not go. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Letters came only at rare intervals and by roundabout and devious 
 ways from the command in the Big Horn, but early in September 
 there was news of interest. Sergeant-Major Hunter, covered with 
 service chevrons and scars, took his honorable discharge and final 
 papers and went into department head-quarters as clerk. Tintop and 
 Gray had talked the probabilities over and were fully prepared. To 
 the wrath of Bragg, the grumbling of a few who disapproved of giving 
 first prize to a two-year-old trooper, and yet who would equally have 
 criticised any appointment Gray could have made, but to the out 
 spoken satisfaction of nine-tenths of the regiment, Sergeant Schramm 
 was named sergeant-major, the senior non-commissioned officer of the 
 Eleventh. Modestly he accepted, for already his colonel and other 
 officers had bidden him look even higher. " You are on the road to 
 a commission," said Perry Thornton, when the young German came 
 to tell him of the offered sergeant-majorship and to beg the Herr 
 Lieutenant s kind advice. " I only wish the commission might come 
 in time for you to stand up with me. Congratulate me, Rhetz : the 
 wedding is to be in December." 
 
 One chilly October afternoon Connie had driven Mrs. Woods into 
 town after a brief visit to the fort. Daddy was ailing again since the 
 frost set in, and beginning to house himself still more. She had left 
 L 21
 
 242 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 her friend at Mrs. Whaling s, and, turning " Rand" about, was spin 
 ning up the main street towards their home at the westward skirt of 
 town, when, striding along in front of her, slender, erect, in the most 
 immaculate of yellow stripes and chevrons and a natty blue uniform, 
 she caught sight of a well-known form, in an instant had reined up 
 at the curb, and her glad voice, eager and joyous, rang with the old 
 name. 
 
 " Schramm ! Why, when how did you get here ?" she cried, 
 throwing down the reins and holding forth her slender hand. The 
 street was full of people, and who that saw could fail to note the 
 sudden flash of delight in the face of the soldier addressed ? Instantly 
 he whirled about, sprang to the curb, and was on the point of clasping 
 the proffered hand, when as suddenly he seemed to remember, straight 
 ened up instantly, raised the forage-cap from his curly blond head, and 
 answered, respect, homage, admiration in his fine blue eyes, 
 
 "Only this morning, gnadige Fraulein. The adjutant and I were 
 sent in by way of Green River. The regiment is marching home." 
 
 " Oh, father will be so glad ! Have you time can you run up to 
 see him now ?" 
 
 "Assuredly, Miss Morgan. I was on my way there." 
 
 " That s simply lovely. Come, let me drive you now. You can t 
 imagine what pleasure Rand has given us all." And, edging back 
 to the right side of the phaeton, she eagerly made room for him beside 
 her. Schramm flushed to his very eyes. 
 
 "Oh, gnadige Fraulein, I thank you, but I could not. I will 
 
 come Pardon ! I must stop on the way. Please drive on, Miss 
 
 Morgan. It cannot be that I should drive with an officer s daughter." 
 And, seeing rebellion in her eyes, he abruptly turned and strode away. 
 He reached the little home only five minutes behind her, but the next 
 day and the next " Rand" stood unused in the stable. " It s your own 
 doing, Schramm," she said, with flashing eyes, when at last he meekly 
 came to ask why she would no longer honor him by driving his horse 
 and phaeton. " If there is any military impropriety in my driving 
 you, there s every impropriety in my driving your horse and phaeton." 
 And argument was useless. She refused to enter it again. This was 
 the first break. Then came a second. On three occasions within the 
 ten days after his return, the sergeant-major, calling to see how fared 
 his captain and the family, found Lieutenant Renshaw, a very present 
 able young infantryman, seated in the little parlor. Once it was Ren-
 
 SERGEANT CR(ESUS. 243 
 
 shaw who opened the door. At sight of him the soldier had become 
 rigid, like a pointer. His inquiries were made on this occasion with 
 hand at salute, and he faced about and left at once, but Constance 
 pursued and caught him at the gate, and Renshaw, watching from 
 the window, saw him at attention, punctilious as ever, and saw that 
 Constance was pleading. She was flushed and ready to cry when 
 she came back. Schramm came seldom now, and Renshaw more fre 
 quently, and the third winter opened in chill and gloom. 
 
 Thornton came to say good-by just before Thanksgiving, and went 
 blissfully away to his wedding, leaving Renshaw haunting the invalid s 
 room and swearing to himself at Connie s ceaseless household duties. 
 He began to realize that she was actually striving to avoid him, and so 
 did Morgan. One night Morgan called her to him and gently, fondly 
 began to plead with her. " He has asked my consent, Constance. He 
 
 is a gentleman. He loves " But she would hear no more, and 
 
 with a burst of tears fled to her room. Poor Renshaw was told that 
 Constance could not listen to any proposal : she would not leave daddy. 
 
 " But daddy must soon leave her," the father urged again, " and 
 then what is to become of you and Lot and Billy ? Renshaw said he 
 
 would only be too glad " But here the slender white hand was 
 
 placed on his mouth, and further words were impossible. 
 
 He took it sorely to heart, did Renshaw, and he said some ill- 
 advised and peppery things the day of Mrs. Fenton s tin-wedding 
 reception when waltzing with Connie down the long hall. " If nothing 
 but a German baron will suit, why, I suppose you can have him ; but 
 the least the fellow can do is to wait till he gets his commission, and 
 not be " 
 
 But he never finished. With one low cry of " Oh, shame, Mr. 
 Renshaw !" she tore away from him and into the dressing-room. 
 
 It was just dark that evening when the ambulance from the post 
 landed her at their door, and Mrs. Whaling, who had matronized the 
 little party of town girls, drove on with her brood. Connie stole, as 
 usual, to her father s side to bend and kiss him and murmur some fond 
 inquiry. But pent-up indignation, the strain and misery of the long 
 ride during which she had been compelled to listen to brainless sallies 
 and congratulations on Renshaw s devotion, all proved too much for 
 her. No sooner did she feel the father s arms around her than her 
 girlish strength gave way, and she lay sobbing on his breast. There 
 was the sound of a rasping chair, of some one striving to hurry from
 
 244 SERGEANT CRCESUS. 
 
 the room, but she did not hear. " He he dared to speak of Schramm !" 
 she cried, "of Schramm, who who is truer gentleman truer hero 
 than any any any officer they ve got." 
 
 And the shadowy form striving to find means of exit from the tiny 
 den in which reclined the invalid and his clasping, sobbing child was 
 that of Sergeant-Major Schramm, who, all unnoticed and unseen by 
 her, was thus become the hearer of his own perfections. Renshaw s 
 hapless outburst had proved his own undoing and swept away the last 
 barrier to his rival s approach. " The least he can do is to wait till he 
 gets his commission," indeed ! After Connie s outburst it was more 
 than mortal man could do to wait at all. 
 
 L ENVOL 
 
 It seems very long ago, that bitter winter in the heart of the 
 Rockies, yet one of the old regiment, enjoying with his wife and 
 children the first blissful taste of foreign travel, stood one exquisite 
 summer morning on the forward deck of the oddly-modelled " dampfer" 
 that was churning the blue-brown flood of the Rhine, and thus replied 
 to the query of his better half: 
 
 " Know her ? Why, you ll know her instantly. Connie can never 
 grow old." Yes, rounded indeed is the sweet face of the woman 
 standing with her soldierly husband close to the railing of the landing 
 under the beautiful, vine-clad heights ahead, her soft brown eyes fixed 
 in eagerness upon the approaching steamer. The slender form we 
 knew in the shabby old black serge is almost majestic in its proportions 
 now, yet how fair and sweet and smiling is the dear, bonny face once 
 so piteously sad amid the snows of far-away Ransom ! Happy wife 
 and mother, the idol of her soldier-husband s heart, the " gnadige 
 Fraulein" whom he won in distant America long years ago had speedily 
 found her way into the love of the old retainers of the ancestral home 
 to which, summoned to succeed the stern old father whose last words 
 and thoughts were for his banished son, he bore her so soon after the 
 last volley was fired over Morgan s head as they laid him away, as he 
 had prayed, by Carrie s side. He died without a lingering fear for 
 the children s future, one hand clasped in faithful Schramrn s. The 
 commission had indeed been tendered, but gracefully, courteously 
 declined because of family duties at his old home in the fabled Rhine- 
 land. Again he wears the uniform of his famous corps, all the better 
 officer for his experience in the American cavalry. Already Lottie
 
 SERGEANT CRUHSUS. 245 
 
 had cut a wide swath among the bachelor subalterns of the hussars 
 before finally bestowing heart and hand and a Schramm-provided dot 
 upon a totally different party, though an eminently sound one. Already 
 Billy has won distinction (as a skylarker and schldger and all-round 
 scapegrace) at Heidelberg, where he sports a yellow cap and a monocle, 
 a straggly moustache, and some ridiculous slashing scars, of all of 
 which he is inordinately vain, and with genuine American enthusiasm, 
 he prattles of " my brother-in-law the baron," who laughs at his 
 stories, chaffs him about his duels, quizzes him as to his scientific 
 attainments (for Billy, be it known, is going back to America this fall 
 to offer his services to capitalists as an expert mining engineer, and 
 says for the first year a salary of five thousand dollars will do) ; but 
 the Herr Graf pays his debts and provides his pocket-money, and the 
 only secrets Connie does not share are those concerning her hopeful 
 brother and his affairs. As for Connie herself, she is happy as the 
 years are long, happy as even an army girl deserves to be. 
 
 THE END.
 
 Date Due 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S. 
 
 CAT. NO. 24 161
 
 546 063