Meantime "Old Peeksniff," as commentators of the day among the graceless
subs were won't to call Colonel Stevens, was having his bad quarter of
an hour. Leaving his team with the orderly, John Folsom had stamped into
his presence unannounced, and after his own vigorous fashion opened the
ball as follows:
"Stevens, what in the devil has that young fellow done to deserve
arrest?"
"Oh, ah, shut the door, Mr. Adjutant," said the commanding officer,
apprehensively, to his staff officer, "and--d I desire to confer with
Mr. Folsom a moment," whereat the adjutant took the hint and then hied
himself out of the room.
"Now, ah, in the first place, Mr. Folsom this is rather a long and--d
painful story. I'm--m--ah, ah--in a peculiar position."
"For God's sake talk like a man and not like Burleigh," broke in the old
trader impulsively. "I've known you off and on over twenty years, and
you never used to talk in this asinine way until you got to running with
him. Come right to the point--What crime is young Dean charged with?
Those girls of mine will have to know it. They will know he's in arrest.
What can I tell them?"
"Crime--ah--is hardly the word, Folsom. There has been a
misunderstanding of orders, in short, and he was placed under arrest
before--ah--before I had been furnished with a mass of information that
should have been sent to me before."
"Well, what fault is that of his? See here, man, you don't mean to say
it is because he didn't get here three days ago? That's no crime, and I
haven't knocked around with the army the last forty years not to know
the regulations in such matters. Do you mean without ever hearing what
kept him and what splendid, spirited service he rendered there along the
Laramie, that you've humiliated that fine young fellow and put him in
arrest?"
Pecksniff whirled around in his chair. "Really now, Mr. Folsom, I can't
permit you to instruct me in my military duties. You have no conception
of the way in which I've been ignored and misled in this matter. There
are collateral circumstances brought about, er--forced on me in fact, by
injudicious friends of this young man, and he--he must blame them--he
must blame them, not me. Now if you'll permit me to glance over this
mass of matter, I can the sooner do justice in the premises." And over
his goggles the colonel looked pleadingly up into his visitor's irate
features.
"Read all you like, but be quick about it," was the angry rejoinder. "I
want to take that boy back with me to town and confront him with one of
his accusers this very day--the man I believe, by the ghost of Jim
Bridger, is at the bottom of the whole business!" and Folsom flopped
heavily and disgustedly into a chair, at sound of a rap at the door,
which opened an inch and the adjutant's nose became visible at the
crack.
"Major Burleigh, sir, would like to see you."
"And I'd like to see Major Burleigh!" stormed Folsom, springing to his
feet. Commanding officers of the Stevens stamp had no terrors for him.
He had known his man too long.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen!" cried Pecksniff, "I can have no disturbance now
over this unfortunate matter. Really, Mr. Folsom, I cannot permit my
office to be the scene of any--of any----"
But his words wandered aimlessly away into space as he discovered he had
no listener. Folsom, finding that the major had apparently changed his
mind and was not coming in, had changed his plan and was going out. He
overtook Burleigh on the boardwalk in front and went straight to the
point.
"Major Burleigh, you told me a short time ago that you had nothing to do
with the allegations against this young gentleman who was placed in
arrest here this afternoon, yet I learn from my own daughter that you
spoke of him to a brother officer of his in terms of disparagement the
day you got aboard the car at Sidney. Mr. Loomis corroborates it and so
does Miss Dean. I've heard of two other instances of your speaking
sneeringly of him. Now I ask you as man to man what it is you have to
tell? He has saved the lives of my son, his wife and child, and the
people of the ranch, and by the Eternal I'm his friend and mean to see
justice done him!"
Burleigh listened with solemn face and with no attempt to interrupt. He
waited patiently until Folsom came to a full stop before he spoke at
all. Then his voice was eloquent of undeserved rebuke--of infinite
sympathy. "Mr. Folsom," he said, "it would be useless for me to deny
that before I knew your charming daughter or her--ah--very interesting
friend I did speak in their presence--ah--incautiously, perhaps, of Mr.
Dean, but it was in continuance of a conversation begun before we
boarded the car, and what I said was more in sorrow than in criticism.
The young gentleman had attracted my attention--my
favorable--ah--opinion on the up trip to the Big Horn, and I
was--ah--simply disappointed in his conduct on the way back. It was
perhaps due to--ah--inexperience only, and my whole object in coming
here in haste this afternoon was to bear testimony to his ability and
zeal as a troop commander, and to urge--ah--Colonel Stevens to
reconsider his action and restore him at once to duty. I had hoped, sir,
to be here--ah--ahead of you and to have driven him in my buggy--ah--to
meet you, but I am disappointed--I am disappointed in more ways than
one."
Folsom stood and wiped his streaming face, and looked the speaker square
in the eye, and Burleigh stood the scrutiny with unlooked-for nerve.
Long years at the poker-table had given him command of his features, and
the faculty of appearing the personification of serene confidence in his
"hand," when the twitching of a nerve might cost a thousand dollars.
Folsom was no match for him in such a game. Little by little the anger
and suspicion faded from his eyes, and a shame-faced look crept into
them. Had he really so misjudged, so wronged this gentleman? Certainly
there was every appearance of genuine sympathy and feeling in Burleigh's
benevolent features. Certainly he was here almost as soon as he himself
had come, and very possibly for the same purpose. It was all that old
fool Pecksniff's doing after all. Folsom had known him for years and
always as more or less of an ass--a man of so little judgment that,
though a major in the line at the outbreak of the war, he had never been
trusted with a command in the field, and here he was now a full colonel
with only three companies left him. Burleigh saw his bluff was telling,
and he took courage.
"Come with me," he said, "and let me reassure you," and the doors of the
commanding officer's sanctum opened at once to the omnipotent disburser
of government good things, Folsom following at his heels. "Colonel
Stevens," he began, the moment he was inside, and before the colonel
could speak at all, "in a moment of exasperation and extreme
nervous--ah--depression the night I--er--started East so hurriedly
after a most exhausting journey from the Big Horn, I spoke disparagingly
of the action of Lieutenant Dean in face of the Indians the day we met
Red Cloud's band, but on mature reflection I am convinced I misjudged
him. I have been thinking it all over. I recall how vigilant and dutiful
he was at all times, and my object in hurrying out here to-day,
at--ah--almost the instant I heard of his arrest, was to put in the best
words I could think of in his behalf--to--ah--urge you to reconsider
your action, especially in view of all the--e--ah--encomiums passed upon
his conduct in this recent raid on the Laramie."
The colonel whirled around upon him as he had on Folsom. "Major
Burleigh," he began, "I call you to witness that I am the most abused
man in the army. Here am I, sir, thirty-five years in service, a full
colonel, with a war record with the regulars that should command
respect, absolutely ignored by these mushroom generals at Omaha and
elsewhere--stripped of my command and kept in ignorance of the movements
of my subordinates. Why, sir," he continued, lashing himself on, as he
rose from his chair, "here's my junior at Frayne giving orders to my
troop, sir; presumes to send them scouting the Laramie bottoms, when
every man is needed here, and then, when, as it happens, my officer and
his men get into a fight and drive the Indians, to whom does he report,
sir? Not to me, sir--not to his legitimate commander, but he sends
couriers to Laramie and to Frayne, and ignores me entirely."
A light dawned on Burleigh in an instant. Well he knew that Dean's
reasons for sending couriers to those guard posts of the Platte were to
warn them that a war party had crossed into their territory, and was now
in flight. There was nothing to be gained by sending a man galloping
back to the line of the railway seventy-five miles to the rear--no
earthly reason for his doing so. But the fact that he had sent runners
to officers junior in rank to Stevens, and had not sent one to him,
fairly "stuck in the crop" of the captious old commander, and he had
determined to give the youngster a lesson. But now the mail was in, and
dispatches from various quarters, and a telegram from Omaha directing
him to convey to Lieutenant Dean the thanks and congratulations of the
general commanding the department, who had just received full
particulars by wire from Cheyenne, and Stevens was glad enough to drop
the game, and Burleigh equally glad of this chance to impress Folsom
with the sense of his influence, as well as of his justice.
"I admit all you say, colonel. I have long--ah--considered you most
unfairly treated, but really--ah--in this case of Lieutenant Dean's, it
is, as I said before, inexperience and--ah--the result of-ah--er--not
unnatural loss of--er--balance at a most exciting time. A word
of--ah--admonition, if you will pardon my suggestion, all he probably
needs, for he has really behaved very well--ah--surprisingly well in
conducting this--ah--pursuit."
And so was it settled that later the colonel was to see Mr. Dean, and
admonish accordingly, but that meantime the adjutant should go and
whisper in his ear that his arrest was ended, and all would be explained
later, thereby releasing him before the girls discovered the fact that
he was confined to his tent.
But the adjutant came too late. The tearful eyes of one, the flushed and
anxious faces of both damsels, and the set look in the eyes of both the
young officers at Dean's tent, as the adjutant approached, told him the
cat was out of the bag. "The explanation cannot be made too promptly for
me, sir," said Dean, as he received the colonel's message and permitted
the adjutant to depart without presenting him to the two prettiest girls
he had seen in a year. "Now, Loomis, just as quick as possible I want
you to go with me to that man Burleigh. I'll cram his words down his
throat."
"Hush, Dean, of course, I'll stand by you! But--both girls are looking.
Wait until to-morrow."
How many a project for the morrow is dwarfed or drowned by events
unlooked for--unsuspected at the time! Not ten minutes later Folsom and
Burleigh came strolling together to the little tent. Ashamed of his
apparently unjust accusation, Folsom had begged the quartermaster's
pardon and insisted on his coming with him and seeing the young people
before driving back to town. The horses were being groomed at the picket
line. The western sun was low. Long shadows were thrown out over the
sward and the air was full of life and exhilaration. The somber fears
that had oppressed the quartermaster an hour earlier were retiring
before a hope that then he dare not entertain.
"You--you stood by me like a trump, Burleigh," old Folsom was saying,
"even after I'd abused you like a thief. If I can ever do you a good
turn don't you fail to let me know."
And Burleigh was thinking then and there how desperately in need of a
good turn he stood that minute. What if Folsom would back him? What
if----
But as they came in full view of the picket line beyond the row of
tents, the major's eagerly searching gaze was rewarded by a sight that
gave him sudden pause. Halted and examining with almost professional
interest the good points of a handsome little bay, Lieutenant Loomis and
Jessie Dean were in animated chat. Halted and facing each other, he with
glowing admiration in his frank blue eyes, she with shy pleasure in her
joyous face, Dean and Elinor Folsom stood absorbed in some reminiscence
of which he was talking eagerly. Neither saw the coming pair. Neither
heard the rapid beat of bounding hoofs nearing them in eager haste.
Neither noted that a horseman reined in, threw himself from saddle and
handed Burleigh a telegraphic message which, with trembling hands, he
opened and then read with starting eyes.
"My heaven, Folsom!" he cried. "I ought to have known something was
coming when I got orders to have every mule and wheel ready.
Everything's to be rushed to the Big Horn at once. Just as you
predicted, Red Cloud's band has broken loose. There's been a devil of a
fight not eighty miles from Frayne!"