From the night of her brilliant appearance at the garrison ball, not
once had Mrs. Winn an opportunity to exchange a dozen words with Captain
Barclay. Her husband, as has been said, had failed to call on his new
next-door neighbor, although Winn had been well enough to be about for
several days, and until he did call it was impossible for Barclay to
enter their doors, and expedient that he should avoid Mrs. Winn wherever
it was possible to do so. This might not have been difficult, even
though the same roof covered both households,--that of the Winns on the
south and that of the Barclay-Brayton combination on the north
side,--but for Laura Winn herself, who seemed to be out on the porch
every afternoon as the captain came walking back from stables; and the
women who were apt to gather at Mrs. Blythe's at that time declared that
there was something actually inviting, if not imploring, in the way Mrs.
Winn would watch for him, and bow, and seem to hover where he could
hardly avoid speaking to her. Three times at least since that memorable
party had she been there "on watch," as Mrs. Faulkner expressed it, and
though his bow was courtesy itself, and his "Good-evening, Mrs. Winn,"
most respectful, and even kindly, if one could judge by the tone of his
voice, not another word did he speak. He passed on to his own gateway,
Brayton generally at his side, and his stable dress was changed for
parade uniform or dinner before he again made his appearance.
After the manner of the day, most of the cavalry contingent stopped in
at the club-room on the way back from evening stables. Brayton used to
do so, but, though no one could say his captain had preached to him on
the subject, some influence either of word or of example had taken
effect, and the young bachelor seemed entirely content to cut the club
and the social tipple, and to trudge along by his new companion's side.
They had been getting "mighty thick" for captain and second lieutenant,
said some of the other officers; but, serenely indifferent to what
others thought or said, the two kept on their way.
"Thought you were goin' to wear mournin' for Lawrence the rest of your
natural life, Brayton; and here you are tyin' to Barclay as if Lawrence
had never lived," said Mr. Bralligan, only a day or two before
Lawrence's return, and Brayton started almost as though stung. What
Bralligan said was not half as ill grounded as most of his statements,
and Brayton was conscious of something akin to guilt and self-reproach.
In common with most of the regiment, he had felt very sore over
Lawrence's going. He had been much attached to that gallant and
soldierly captain, but now that another had taken his place, and he
could compare or contrast the two, the youngster began to realize with
something like a pang of distress--as though it were disloyal to think
so--that in many ways Barclay was "head and shoulders" the superior man.
Lawrence never rose till eight o'clock except when in the field.
Lawrence rarely read anything but the papers and interminable
controversies over the war. Lawrence, despite the claims of Ada and
little Jimmy, often spent an evening at the club, and always stopped
there on his way from stables. Lawrence never studied, and off the
drill-ground never taught. Indeed, almost all the drills the troop had
known for months and months Brayton himself had conducted. No wonder the
boy had wasted hours of valuable time. No wonder there was a little game
going on among the youngsters in Brayton's "back parlor" many a day. He
had simply been started all wrong.
But even before Barclay's books were unpacked the new captain had found
means to interest the young fellow in professional topics that Lawrence
had never seemed to mention. Barclay had evidently been taking counsel
with progressive soldiers before joining his new regiment, had been
reading books of their choosing, and among others was a valuable
treatise on the proper method of bitting horses, and he found that here
was a matter that Lawrence and Brayton had never thought of and that
Brayton said was never taught them at the Point,--which was strictly
true. To the amaze and unspeakable indignation of Denny Sullivan, who
was soon to be overhauled on graver points, the doughboy had taken his
lieutenant from horse to horse in the troop as they stood at rest during
drill, and shown him at least twenty bits out of the forty-five in line
that were no fit at all. He showed him some that were too broad from bar
to bar and that slid to and fro in the tortured creature's mouth; others
that hung too low, almost "fell through;" others whose curb-chain or
strap, instead of fitting in the groove, bore savagely on the delicate
bones above it and tormented the luckless charger every time his rider
drew rein. Barclay gave the boy his own carefully studied hand-book; not
another cavalry officer then at Worth had read it, though several had
heard of it. The youngster was set to work fitting new bits by
measurement to the mouth of every horse in the troop.
Then Barclay drew him into the discussion of the cavalry system of
saddling as then prescribed,--the heavy tree set away forward close to
the withers,--and Brayton could only say that "that was tactics and the
way they'd always done it." But Galahad pointed out that the tactics
then in use were written of a foreign dragoon saddle with a long flat
bearing surface. It was all very well for that to be set as far forward
as it would go, because even then the centre of gravity of the rider
would be well back on the horse. "But," said he, "you take this short
McClellan tree, place that away forward, and then set a man in it; his
centre of gravity will rest in front of the centre of motion of the
horse,--will throw the weight on the forehand and use up his knees and
shoulders in no time." This, too, set Brayton to studying and thinking,
while Mullane and Fellows declared Sir Galahad a crank, and even Brooks
and Blythe, wedded to tradition, thought him visionary. Then when the
books came, Galahad unpacked, and just where the poker-table used to
stand it stood now, but it was covered with beautiful maps of Alsace and
Lorraine, and Galahad's desk with pamphlets sent him from abroad, the
earliest histories of the memorable campaign about Metz and Sedan. The
next thing Brayton knew he was as deeply interested as his captain, and,
lo, other men came to look and wonder and go off shaking their
heads,--those of them who were of the Mullane persuasion sneering at
those "book-generals," while others, like Blythe, pulled up a chair as
invited and followed the junior captain through his modest explanation
with appreciative eyes. Those were days when there was all too little
time for study and improvement, thanks to the almost incessant Indian
scouting required; but here was Worth, a big post, and here was a
four-troop battalion with a gentleman and not a bad soldier at its head,
and it had not occurred to him to teach them anything or to require of
them anything beyond the usual attention to stables, troop-drill, and an
occasional parade. If his men were reasonably ready to take the field in
pursuit of Kiowa, Comanche, or horse-thief, and to furnish escort for
ambulance and train when the disbursing officers went to and fro, that
was all that could be expected of him or them in those halcyon days. And
now "this blasted doughboy substitute" had come down here and was
proposing to stir them all up, make them all out "so many ignoramuses,"
said Mullane. "Bedad, the thing is revolutionary!" And that was enough
to damn it, for revolution is a thing no Irishman will tolerate, when
he doesn't happen to be in it himself.
Still another thing had occurred to make Barclay something apart from
the bachelors. No sooner had his modest kit of household goods arrived
than the unused kitchen of Brayton's quarters was fitted up; Hannibal
was ensconced therein; a neat little dining-room was made of what had
been designed for a small bedchamber on the ground-floor, and Barclay
amazed the mess by setting forth champagne the last evening he dined
there as a member, and then retired to the privacy of his own
establishment, as he had at Sanders. The Winns' house-maid had of course
dropped in to see how Hannibal was getting along, and dropped out to
tell her discoveries, which were few. Then Brayton found the mess saying
things about Barclay he could not agree with, and he, too, resigned and
became a messmate of his captain,--a change for the better that speedily
manifested itself in the healthy white of his clear eyes and a
complexion that bore no trace of fiery stimulants such as were indulged
in elsewhere. Then there was talk of others leaving the "Follansbee
family" and asking to join at Brayton's, and this gave umbrage to Erin
as represented in the bachelors' mess. And so an anti-Barclay feeling
had sprung up at the post, among the unlettered at least, and these
were days in which the unlettered were numerous. "Sorry for you,
Brayton, me boy," grinned the senior sub of Fellows's troop. "It must be
tough to come down to this after Lawrence." And he was amazed at
Brayton's reply.
"Tough? Yes, for it shows me how much time I've wasted."
"Wait till we get Galahad out on the trail wid his new-fangled bits and
seats," sneered Mullane but a day or two before. "That'll take the
damned nonsense out of him. Faith, whin he goes I hope I may go along
too to see the fun."
And, sooner than he thought for, the Irish captain had his wish.
One o'clock had just been called off by the sentries, and the moon was
well over to the west, when the door of the major's quarters was opened
and he with his lingering guests came forth upon the broad piazza, the
red sparks of their cigars gleaming anew as they felt the fan of the
rising breeze. Clear and summer-like as was the sky, there was a
reminder of the snow-peaks in the wings of the wind, and Lawrence
huddled his old cavalry cape about his shoulders as he faced it. He was
talking eagerly, perhaps a little bombastically, of this great new
mining company in which Buffstick was prominent as a director. He was
full of hope and anticipation and disposed to patronize a trifle his
friends who, wedded to the humdrum of the army, were debarred from so
fine an opportunity of making money in abundance. So many of the number
were going to do so much in the same way when first they left us for the
broader paths of civil life.
"I tell you, Brooks," he said, enthusiastically, "I wouldn't take ten
thousand dollars cash this night for my chance of making twice that sum
within the year. Buffstick turns everything he touches into gold."
"Wonder if Barclay knows these mines," said De Lancy, reflectively,
flipping the ashes from the end of his cigar. "He has never opened his
head about his mines to a soul. We don't know where they are."
"I don't know," said Lawrence, briefly. Even yet the mention of Barclay
chafed him a bit. "I know this, though, that that company wouldn't offer
me any such salary as twenty-five hundred dollars a year just to boss
their men, unless there was big money in it somewhere. It's the first
time I ever knew what it was to be indifferent to the coming of the
paymaster. By the way, he ought to be here day after to-morrow, or
to-morrow night in fact; it's long after twelve now. The escorts were
warned as we came along."
"I think it a mistake," said Brooks, gravely, "to let any one know
beforehand when the paymaster is to start. That Friday gang probably
musters a hundred by this time. It's where all our thieves and deserters
go. I haven't a doubt your old sergeant has joined them by this time,
Lawrence. I believe that's where Marsden's gone, and that we'll hear
from them in force again before we're a month older. They've kept
reasonably quiet all winter, but June isn't far off. I'm blessed if I
would want to make that trip from San Antonio with forty thousand
dollars in greenbacks with less than a big troop of cavalry to guard
it."
"He's got more money than that this time," said Lawrence. "Most of these
men have four months' pay due them; so have the cavalry along the route.
He has two other posts to pay. Hallo!" he cried, breaking suddenly off,
"what's all the light about down at the sutler's? Here comes the
sergeant of the guard."
Running diagonally across the parade, the moonlight glinting on his
buttons and accoutrements, an infantry non-commissioned officer was
speeding towards the quarters of Captain Blythe, near the upper end of
the row; but, catching sight of the group at the major's, he suddenly
swerved and came straight towards them, springing over the gurgling
_acequia_ and the dusty roadway and halting at the gate.
"What is it, sergeant?" asked two or three voices at once.
"I was looking for the officer of the day, sir. Is he here?"
"Over at his quarters, probably. What's amiss?"
"There's two of Fuller's men in, sir, from Crockett,--just about played
out. They swear that not an hour after sunset the whole Friday gang--it
couldn't have been anything else--came a-riding out from the foot-hills
over towards the Wild Rose and kept on to the southeast. They saw the
dust against the sky and hid in the rocks away off to the east of the
trail, and they swear there must have been fifty of 'em at least."
He had hardly time to finish the words when the sutler himself came
galloping over the parade, "hot foot," on his wiry mustang, and drew up
in front of the gate. "Has the sergeant told you?" he asked,
breathlessly. "It's Reed and his partner,--two of the best men on my
ranch,--and they can't be mistaken. You know what it must mean,
gentlemen. The gang is after the paymaster, and I think Colonel Frazier
should know at once." No wonder Fuller was breathless, bareheaded, and
only half dressed. Anywhere from thirty to forty thousand dollars might
be diverted from its proper and legitimate use if that Friday gang
should overpower the guard and get away with it. His coffers were filled
with sutler checks redeemable in currency at the pay-table, as was the
wonted way of the old army. It was a case of feast or famine with
Fuller, and he poured his tale into sympathetic ears. Brooks himself
went over to the colonel's, and found that weasel of a chief already
awake. Mrs. Frazier didn't allow galloping over her parade in the dead
of the night without an attempt to detect the perpetrator. That vigilant
dame had more than once brought graceless skylarkers to terms, and the
_quadrupedante putrem sonitu_ of Fuller's mustang represented to her
incensed and virtuous ears only the mad lark of some scapegrace
subaltern, who perchance had not been as attentive to 'Manda as he
should have been, and she was out of dreamland and over at the window
before Fuller fairly drew rein.
"What is it, Brooks, me boy?" asked Frazier from his casement, as did
gallant O'Dowd of his loyal Dobbin. "I'll be down in a minute." By the
time he reached the door Fuller had hurried up his stiff and wearied
scouts, and in the presence of a little party of officers the story was
told again, and told without break or variation. There was only one
opinion. The scattered outlaws had easily got wind of the coming of the
paymaster with his unusual amount of treasure, and, quickly assembling,
they were heading away to meet him far to the southeast of the big post,
very possibly planning to ambuscade the party in the winding defiles of
the San Saba Hills. Not a moment was to be lost. For the first time the
full weight of his divorce from all that was once his profession and his
pride fell on Ned Lawrence, as for an instant the colonel's eyes turned
to him as of old,--the dashing and successful leader of the best scouts
sent from Worth in the last two years. Then, as though suddenly
realizing that he had no longer that arm to lean on, old Frazier spoke:
"Why, Brooks, you'll have to go. I can't trust such a command to
Mullane, and it'll take two companies at least."
And twenty minutes later, answering the sharp summons of their veteran
sergeants, the men of Mullane's and Barclay's troops were tumbling out
of their bunks and into their boots, "hell-bent for a rousin' ride," and
the old captain of Troop "D" was saying to the new, "Captain Barclay,
may I ask you for a mount? I've been longing for two years past for a
whack at this very gang, and now that the chance has come I cannot stay
here and let my old troop go."
And all men present marked the moment of hesitation, the manner of
reluctance, before Barclay gravely answered, "There is nothing at my
disposal to which you are not most welcome, Colonel Lawrence; and
yet--do you think--you ought to go?"
"I could not stay here, sir, and see my old troop go without me," was
the answer.
Few were the families at Fort Worth that were not up and out on the
piazzas or at the windows to see Brooks's detachment as it marched away
in the light of the setting moon just as the stars were paling in the
eastern sky; but the merciful angel of sleep spread her hushing wings
over the white bed where two children lay dreaming, and never until the
troopers were miles beyond the vision of the keen-eyed sentries did Ada
know that the loved father, restored to her but a few hours before, was
once more riding the Texan trail, soldier sense of duty leading on, and
God alone knowing to what end.