Old Frazier's face was sad to see when, two days later, all the
harrowing details of that night's work were received at Worth. Hours
before, in answer to courier from Crockett's, Dr. Collabone, with
steward, attendants, and such ambulances as there were, had been put _en
route_ for the Springs. Two other troops had been hurried to the field,
and Mrs. Blythe, with streaming eyes, was straining to her heart two
motherless children, now orphaned by that "one more square fight in
Texas." Gallant Ned Lawrence! Far on the way to Cramer's bewildered
force they found his body, shot from ambush through and through in two
places. Yet, said his weeping orderly, he had clung to the saddle nearly
a mile. Oh, the wrath at Department Head-Quarters and along the line of
posts and camps against that gang, made up, as so many knew it must be
made, mainly of the thugs and deserters offscoured from the army in days
when moral character as vouched for was no requisite before enlistment!
Among the dead upon the field was found the body of a once trusted
sergeant of Lawrence's troop; but the other outlaws were Mexicans or
jailbirds, strange to the soldiers who turned them curiously over.
Pennywise, scared half to death and dreadfully shaken by the capsizing
of his wagon, was otherwise unscathed; his clerk was shot, his driver
sorely wounded; two of the San Saba escort were killed, and others hit.
Brooks, with Captain Haines from the San Saba, pushed on until at noon
he reached Cramer's people, now reinforced by Fuller and his men and by
the shame-stricken Mullane. By nightfall his exhausted horses were
drinking their fill from the stream. The two wounded officers, Barclay
and Cramer, with half a dozen troopers, were being made as comfortable
as possible.
By dawn of the next day Mullane's pleading had overpowered Brooks, whose
heart was wrung at the contemplation of such unrequited losses, and,
taking Lieutenant Winn and forty troopers with him, the Irish captain,
given a chance as he prayed to redeem himself, marched away westward
from the cantonment at Crockett's, bent on overtaking the outlaws in the
Apache mountains, whither they had gone, burdened by half a dozen
wounded, so said the one prisoner, who, unable to bear the torment of
jolting along on horseback with an arm bullet-smashed at the elbow, had
begged to be left behind. He was a mere boy, whose elder brother had
been for years a fugitive from justice and of late a prominent member of
the gang, and it was by the side of that mortally wounded ruffian they
found the youngster weeping, more from grief than from pain, only a mile
away from the scene of the second ambuscade.
Verily the men who planned those death-traps were masters of their
villanous trade! "Concentrate all your first shots on the officers,"
were the instructions; "get them down, and the men will be helpless as
sheep." Cramer, his doctor, and his first sergeant had fallen at the
first fire, and that little command was paralyzed. Vigilant bushwackers,
schooled for years in Indian fighting, watching the Crockett trail
against the coming of other leaders, had easily recognized Lawrence as
he rode galloping on at the head of his half-dozen, and the "one more
square fight" proved but a one-sided affair after all. Poor Ned knew he
had his death-wounds at the instant, yet whipped out his revolver and
ordered, "Charge!" and charge they did upon the scattering, cowardly
crew that fled before them on their fresh horses until the trooper
leader tumbled from his saddle, dead without a groan; and then, at safe
distance, his assassins turned and jeered their helpless pursuers. How
the veterans of "D" Troop clustered about their old-time captain's
lifeless form that night, and, weary though they were after forty hours
of sleepless chase and scout and battle, implored the major to let them
start at once upon the outlaws' trail! The same tactics that had halted
Cramer's men and murdered Lawrence had been played on the escort from
San Saba. Riddling the ambulance at the first volley, yet in the dim
moonlight missing the lieutenant commanding, who happened to be riding
at the moment on the flank of his column instead of at the head, the
sudden volley felled a sergeant, but left the subaltern full of fight,
and he rallied his temporarily stampeded troopers not four hundred yards
away, and charged back on the Fridays with a splendid dash that drove
them helter-skelter to the rocks. Then, dismounting, he had stood them
off superbly until rescue came.
Not for another forty-eight hours could old Pennywise be induced to go
on to Worth. Though there was reassurance in the fact that the Fridays
were scattered over far Western Texas by that time (some never stopping,
as it turned out, until safe from pursuit beyond the Bravo), the veteran
money-changer's nerve was sorely shaken. He had not half the pluck of
his punctured clerk, who, though shot by a Henry rifle bullet through
the left arm and across the breast outside the ribs, declared himself
fit to take even a hot and feverish drive and go with the payment.
Fuller and his ranchmen stuck manfully to that much desired safe, and
announced their intention of protecting the paymaster at all hazards.
The wounds of Cramer and Barclay had been most skilfully treated by the
young doctor before Collabone reached them; thanks to the perfect habits
and vigorous constitution of the latter, there was nothing to prevent
his transportation by easy stages back to Worth at the end of the week,
and thither he seemed strangely eager to go. Thither they had borne the
remains of poor Lawrence, and there with all military honors had they
buried all that was mortal of the loved yet luckless comrade. There, her
own heart sorely wrung, Mrs. Blythe was doing her utmost to comfort
weeping Ada, whose burly little brother was fortunately too young to
feel the desolation of their position. But, flat on his back, Barclay
had pencilled to the loving-hearted woman a little note that bore her a
world of comfort, despite the suffering imposed by a mandate to reveal
its contents to no one but her husband; for when a woman has news--good
news, great news--to tell, a husband falls far short of the demands of
the situation.
Barclay's wound had been dangerous at the time, mainly because the
bullet had grazed an artery below the knee and brought on profuse
bleeding that, unnoticed in the excitement of the running fight, sapped
him of his strength and left him swooning; but Collabone and his
assistant declared it healing perfectly and that not even a limp would
remain to betray it. One week from the day of the spirited skirmish in
which he had played so prominent and gallant a part, Sir Galahad was
lifted into the ambulance and started for Worth at the very moment the
general commanding the department was forwarding to Washington his
report of the affair, urgently recommending the bestowal of a brevet
upon the new captain of "D" Troop and a pension upon the children of his
whole-souled, hapless predecessor; but, coupling his recommendations
with ill-considered yet natural reference to the injustice with which
Captain and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence had been treated, he
succeeded only in entombing the paper in some private pigeon-hole,
whence it was resurrected long months after, too late to be of use.
After the manner of the army, the garrison at Worth had ceased all
outward sign of mourning by the time Barclay reached the post, and
almost everybody was ready to devote himself or herself to the
amelioration of his condition. Mrs. Frazier, with a motherly eye to
business, had lost no time in urging upon her liege the
propriety--indeed, the imperative necessity--of his riding out to meet
the wounded officer and moving him at once under the shelter of their
roof. Amanda could and should give up her room (she was only too glad
to), and the girls could sleep together; then the mother and daughters
would have sole charge of the nursing of this most eligible young man.
What might not be accomplished by such a matron and such dear girls
under such exceptional circumstances? Indeed, Frazier was given to
understand that he must do it, for if Barclay was allowed to return to
his own quarters right next door to the Winns'--and Mr. Winn away--who
could say what couldn't be said?--what wouldn't be said? "Everybody knew
that Laura Winn had been doing her best," said Mrs. Frazier, "to reset
her nets and lure her whilom lover within the meshes," and this would
give her opportunities immeasurable. Frazier had a sleepless night of
it. He could not combat his wife's theories, though he would not admit
the truth of all she asserted. "But," said he, "everybody will see
through the scheme at a glance."
"I don't care if they do. I don't care what they say," said his
energetic and strategic spouse. "The end justifies the means. Something
must be done for the girls you've buried out here in this wilderness.
As for Laura Winn, better a sneer at my precautions than a scandal for
lack of them."
But Frazier remonstrated: "Barclay isn't the man to get mixed up in a
scandal," said he.
"But Laura Winn wouldn't flinch at it," said she, "and it's the way the
woman acts--not the man--that sets people talking;" wherein was Mrs.
Frazier schooled beyond the sphere in which she moved. At her bidding,
Frazier sent for young Brayton, who had marched back with the detachment
not sent in chase, told him of Mrs. Frazier's benevolent plans for his
captain's comfort, and suggested that such of Barclay's things as he
might need be sent over beforehand,--"so as to have everything ready,
you know."
The youngster looked embarrassed, said he would attend to it, but
immediately sought Major Brooks, who was doing a good deal of resting at
the time. "What am I to say to Colonel Frazier, sir?" he asked. "The
colonel tells me Mrs. Frazier has a room all ready for Captain Barclay
and wishes me to send over a lot of things, and I have a message from
the captain saying he will probably arrive day after to-morrow and to
have his room ready; and, he adds, in case any one plans to put him
elsewhere, to decline in his name."
"Oh, wise young judge!" growled Brooks to himself. Every day was adding
to his respect for Galahad.
"I can't decline the commanding officer's invitation, can I, sir?" asked
Brayton, in conclusion.
"No, you can't with safety," said the major, "but I'll speak to
Collabone---- No," he added, abruptly, as he reflected that Mrs. Frazier
might eventually hear of it, Collabone being a man who knew no guile and
told everybody anything he knew. "No. You tell Collabone what the
captain wishes, and let him fix it." And so between the three it was
arranged, through the couriers at that time going back and forth every
day, that Barclay should be notified of the honor in store for him. And
notified he was, and gravely passed the letter over to AEsculapius
Junior.
"Help me out of this, doctor, in some way," he said. "I wish to be
nobody's guest." And so, when old Frazier did actually mount a horse
and, with Amanda in a stylish habit beaming at his side, did actually
ride forth--the first time he'd been in saddle in a year--and meet
Barclay's ambulance full a thousand yards out from the post, and bade
him thrice welcome to the room they had prepared for him, Barclay beamed
back his thanks and appreciations, and bade the colonel believe he would
never forget his kindness and Mrs. Frazier's, but that he had every
possible comfort awaiting him at his own quarters, and could never
consent to incommoding Mrs. Frazier or the young ladies. Indeed, the
doctor had made other and very different plans for him,--as indeed the
doctor had. And Frazier rode back vaguely relieved, yet crestfallen. He
knew Barclay and the doctor were right. He knew he himself shrank from
such throwing of his daughters at a fellow's head; and then he quailed
at the thought of Mrs. Frazier's upbraidings, for she, honest woman,
felt it a mother's duty to provide for her precious lambs, the more so
because their father was so culpably indifferent, if not shamefully
negligent.
A balked and angered woman was Mrs. Frazier at the captain's politely
veiled refusal to come and be nursed and captured under her roof.
Tartaric acid tinged the smiles of her innocent children the next few
days, and if ever there was a time when it behooved Laura Winn to be on
her guard and behave with the utmost reserve as regarded her next-door
neighbor, it was here and now. She could have read the danger signal in
the Fraziers' greeting at parade that very evening, as, most becomingly
attired, she strolled languidly down the line at the side of AEsculapius
Junior, who, after seeing his patient comfortably stowed in bed, came
forth to find her on the piazza, full of sympathetic interest and eager
to know what she could do or make or have made in the way of appetizing
dainties for the sufferer. Nor did she let him free until he found
refuge in the midst of the deeply interested group in front of the
colonel's quarters.
This was Tuesday evening, and only Brooks, Blythe, and Brayton were
permitted to intrude upon the invalid after the long hours' trundle over
the prairie roads. On the morrow the paymaster was to take his
ambulance, escort, and emptied safe on the back track to Crockett's, and
Barclay was to be allowed to see Mrs. Blythe; but, for the night, rest
and quiet were enjoined. In answer to his queries, he was told that the
latest news reported Mullane, Winn, and Bralligan scouring the Apache
range, while Captain Haight, with forty men, was patrolling towards the
Bravo. The post was flush with money. Fuller's bar was doing a rousing
business, and Lieutenant Trott, guarding the stores turned over by Winn,
was wondering when and in what shape the money value of the stores not
turned over was to be paid to him, for the time was past, Winn was far,
far away, no package of money had come for him, and Mrs. Winn calmly
said it was no affair of hers and she had no knowledge when or by what
hand it would be forthcoming. It was conceded at Worth that, in view of
the danger in which her husband stood, both afield and at home, more
anxiety and less adornment would better have become the lady, as she
outshone all other women present when the line of infantry officers
broke ranks at dismissal of parade.