A week rolled by, a week little Jim Lawrence and other small boys long
remembered for the good things they had to eat and drink; and now
Galahad was sitting up again at his quarters, doing very well, said both
doctors, so well that he could be out on the shaded piazza in a
reclining chair, said Brayton,--but wouldn't, said Blythe,--and for good
reasons, said the Fraziers feminine, "because then there'd be no dodging
Laura Winn, if, indeed, he has succeeded thus far." True, he had not
ventured outside his doors, and no one had seen her venture within them.
True, Mrs. Frazier, Mrs. Blythe, and other motherly women had been to
visit him,--Mrs. Frazier frequently,--and Mrs. Winn had been most
particular in her daily inquiries,--"most persistent," said the Frazier
girls. Those were days in which milk was a luxury in far-away Texas, but
the delicate custards, whips, creams, and what the colonel's Hibernian
orderly described as "floating Irelands," which that messenger bore with
Mrs. Frazier's love, or Miss Frazier's compliments, or Miss 'Manda
Frazier's regards and hopes that the captain was better this morning,
could be numbered only by the passing days. What Mrs. Frazier was
prepared to see or hear of was similar attention on the part of Mrs.
Winn; but Mrs. Winn's attentions took a form more difficult to see, and,
even in a frontier, old-time garrison, to hear of.
What Mrs. Frazier was not prepared to see was Mrs. Blythe in frequent
confidential chat with the officer whom the colonel's wife chose to
consider her own invalid. She had always fancied Mrs. Blythe before, but
now she met her with that indescribable tone suggestive of unmerited yet
meekly, womanfully borne injury, which is so superior to either
explanation or resentment. Mrs. Winn was frequently on her piazza
chatting with Mr. Brayton or Dr. "Funnybone," as the wits of the post
had designated Collabone's right bower, "who has more brains in one
head," said Collabone, "than the mess has in ten;" but she greeted Mrs.
Frazier with an austere and distant dignity even more pronounced than
Mrs. Frazier's manner to Mrs. Blythe, which plainly showed that Laura
had not "been raised in the army for nothing," and that she had a will
and temper and pluck that would brook no airs and tolerate no aspersions
on Mrs. Frazier's part. Aspersions there had been, for her friend Mrs.
Faulkner had not failed in that sisterly duty which so many women so
reluctantly yet faithfully perform, and everything Mrs. and the Misses
Frazier had even hinted, and some things they even hadn't, were duly
conveyed to Laura's ears. She was angered at the Fraziers for daring to
say such things, at Mrs. Faulkner for daring to repeat them, and at
Barclay for daring to keep her beyond the possibility of their being
true. Never before had she known what it was to strive for a look or
word of admiration and to meet utter indifference. Yet those blue eyes
of Barclay's had once fairly burned with passionate delight in her
girlish beauty, and his words had trembled with their weight of love for
her. No other woman, she believed, had yet come into his life and
banished all memory of her; and, now that her beauty was but the riper
for her years, she rebelled in her soul against the whisper that it
could no longer move him.
Wedded though she was to Harry Winn, loving him after the fashion of her
shallow nature so long as there was no man at the post from whom she
sought to exact homage, she had time and again within the year felt
towards her husband a sense of injury. What business had he had to woo
her if he was so poor? What right had he to subject her to the annoyance
of dunning letters, of suggestive inquiries on the part of her
neighbors? Why should she submit to parsimonious skimping and
cheese-paring, to living with only one servant when several other women
had two, to all the little shifts and meannesses poor Harry had declared
to be necessary? It was his business to provide for her needs. Her
father had always supported her in style; why couldn't Harry do the
same? True, she knew when she married him he had nothing but his pay. He
told her everything, but she had never taken thought for the morrow,
though she had taken perhaps too much thought of what she should wear or
eat or drink. Laura loved the good things of this life, and had been
freely indulged throughout her petted girlhood; and now, in the days
when every woman seemed turning against her, purse, cellar, and larder
were empty and her husband gone on a stupid foray to the mountains. None
could say when he would return, or what new sorrow would meet him then.
Other men managed to earn money or make money somehow outside their pay.
Why should she, whose tastes, she said, were so much more refined, be
mated with one who could only spend?
There is a time when many a homely face becomes radiant with a beauty
too deep for sallow skin or heavy features to hide, and when a really
winsome face becomes well-nigh angelic; but, even as Laura Winn bent
over her sleeping child or nestled the unconscious little one in her
bosom, the sullen fire of discontent, thwarted ambition, and wounded
self-love smouldered in her deep, slumberous eyes. There were hours now
when Baby Winn was left to the scant care of the household nurse, while
the mother took the air upon the piazza during the day or flitted about
from parlor to parlor along the row at night. She was restless, nervous,
as all could see. She frequently assailed Brayton with queries for news,
always decorously asking first if couriers had come or were expected
from the command afield, yet speedily coming back to the real object of
her constant thoughts, the now much honored officer, her next-door
neighbor. For three days after he was pronounced able to sit up she did
not succeed in seeing him at all, though so many other and, it should be
explained, much older women did; but that did not abate one whit her
determination that he should speedily see her.
Just what her object was she herself could not have told. It was an
instinct, an impulse, a whim, perhaps; but he who had been her lover and
was rejected had dared to gaze into her face with eyes serene and
untroubled, had met her but half-veiled references to old days with
polite but positive indifference. She had nothing to ask of him, she
told herself; she meant no disloyalty to Harry, no wrong of any kind.
Not a bit of it! She had treated Barclay very badly. She had done him a
wrong that was much greater in her own estimation than it was in that of
any one of her neighbors, among whom the women, at least, considered the
loss of his inamorata a blessing in disguise; but Laura fully believed
that Barclay's heart must have been crushed in the depth of his woe, and
that it was now her duty to make friends again,--perhaps in some way to
console him; not, of course, in any way to which Harry could object,
not, of course, in any way to which the post ought to object, but--well,
even to herself, as has been said, she could not entirely and
satisfactorily explain her motives; it was impossible, therefore, that
she could hope to do so to anybody else; and yet she had dared to write
to him. It was only a little note, and yet, with all its
inconsistencies, it said so much:
"DEAR CAPTAIN BARCLAY,--I cannot tell you my distress at hearing of your
again being severely wounded, especially at a time when I had hoped to
have you meet and better know my husband, but now in his distressing
absence I, who more than any woman at this post am anxious to show my
sympathy and sorrow, am practically helpless. Do tell me if there is
anything I can do,--though I am sure I can't see what is left for me,
with no cook or kitchen, and Mrs. Frazier and the Misses Frazier sending
such loads of things. I really envy them and Mrs. Blythe the privilege
of their years in going to see you personally, for am I not at least
"Your oldest friend, "L. W."
This ingenuous note was sent by Hannibal at an hour when the captain was
alone, and when, had he been disposed, he might have hobbled to the door
and answered in person; but hobble he did not, nor did he answer until
after long thought. He received the little missive with surprise, read
it without a tremor of hand or lip, but with something of shame and pity
that overspread his face like a cloud. Was he only just beginning to
know her, after all?
"Pray do not give my scratch a thought," he answered, in writing, late
that afternoon, "and believe, my dear Mrs. Winn, that I have every
comfort that one can possibly desire. Every one is most kind. I expect
to be out with my men in a week, and shall be delighted to take the
field and send Mr. Winn back to you forthwith.
"Most sincerely."
And that was how, with polite but positive indifference, he had treated
her reference to old times and old friends. Shallow as she was, Laura
Winn was deep enough to see that he meant to hold himself far aloof from
her. He could hardly have told her more plainly he would have none of
her. He had even dared to say it would be a pleasure to go, that he
might send her husband back to her arms. And this was the man she once
thought she loved, the man who, she believed, adored her and would never
outlive the passion of his sorrow at losing her!
Even now the foolish heart of the woman might have accepted its lesson;
but it was time for friends again to come, and, as Laura expressed it,
"pry and prod and preach," and that brought on a climax.
Mrs. Faulkner had dropped in and dropped out again, and Laura, who
seemed forever going to the porch these days, followed and called her
back.
"One thing you said I don't understand," she began, and Mrs. Faulkner's
pretty face showed plainly there had been something of a storm.
"I said this, Laura," her friend responded, permitting her to go no
further, but turning at the step and looking up into her indignant eyes.
"You do yourself injury by showing such concern about Captain Barclay.
Everybody says so, and it's all wasted as far as he's concerned. He
never notices your messages in any way."
It was galling to feel herself censured or criticised, but Mrs. Winn was
becoming used to that. It was worse than galling to be told that her
whilom lover now turned from her almost with contempt. She could bear it
that they should say that Galahad Barclay was again circling within
danger of her fascinations and would speedily find himself powerless to
resist. She could not bear it that they should declare him dead to her.
The anger ablaze in her eyes and flushing her cheeks was something even
Mrs. Faulkner had never seen before. It was as though she had roused
some almost tigerish trait. For a moment Laura stood glaring at her
visitor, one hand nervously clutching at the balcony rail, the other at
the snugly buttoned bodice of her dark gown. At that instant the door of
Barclay's quarters opened and the sound of glad voices preceded but a
second or two the appearance of feminine drapery at the threshold. Mrs.
Brooks came backing into view, chatting volubly with some one still
invisible. Mrs. Frazier came sidling after, and then as they reached the
open air the deep tones of their invalid host were heard mingling with
the lighter, shriller, if not exactly silvery accents of his visitors.
One glance they threw towards the young matron at the opposite end of
the piazza, and then it seemed as though Mrs. Frazier promptly
precipitated herself into the doorway again, as though to block it
against Barclay's possible egress. "Determined not to let him see me,
nor me him," were the unspoken words that flashed through Laura's
thoughts. Some devil of mischief seemed to whisper in her ear, for when
Mrs. Faulkner turned again, there stood her hostess holding forth for
her inspection a little note addressed to Mrs. H. H. Winn in a hand Mrs.
Faulkner recognized at once as that of Barclay. With an icy sneer the
irate lady spoke:
"You think he doesn't write. This came only an hour ago."
Not five minutes later Mrs. Frazier turned to Mrs. Faulkner and asked,
"What was Laura Winn showing you?--a letter?"
Mrs. Blythe was passing at the moment, Ada Lawrence, a tall, pallid slip
of a girl, in her first black dress, walking sadly at her side. Mrs.
Faulkner nodded assent to the question, but glanced significantly at the
passers-by, on their way seemingly to the house the elders had just
left. Mrs. Blythe bowed courteously and smiled, but the smile was one of
those half-hearted attempts that seemed to wither instantly at Mrs.
Frazier's solemn and distant salutation.
"Now what's that woman taking Ada Lawrence there for?" was Mrs.
Frazier's query the instant the two were out of earshot, and for the
moment she forgot the letter and the significant glance in Mrs.
Faulkner's eyes. But Mrs. Brooks had not, and no sooner had the door of
Barclay's quarters opened and swallowed up the new callers than the
major's wife turned back to it.
"You don't mean a letter from--_him_?" she asked, with a nod of the head
at Barclay's quarters.
"I didn't mean to say anything about it," said Mrs. Faulkner, with
proper hesitation, "but you seem to know as much as I do, and she made
no secret of it whatever. Indeed, I don't know that there's anything in
it that anybody mightn't see."
"I think she has no business whatever receiving letters now that her
husband's away--nor any other time, for that matter," said Mrs. Frazier,
hotly; "and I mean to tell her so; and I'm astonished at him."
"For heaven's sake don't tell her I let it out!" exclaimed Mrs.
Faulkner. "You've just got to say you saw it away from his door."
"Well, I think the sooner Mr. Harry Winn gets back the better it will be
for this garrison, and I'll say so to Colonel Frazier this very night,"
exclaimed the colonel's wife, bristling with proper indignation. "And
he'll come back, if we have to send couriers to order him."
But no courier was needed to summon Lieutenant Winn. Two days later,
fast as jaded horse could carry him, followed by a single orderly, he
was coming, full of hope and pluck and enthusiasm, the bearer of tidings
that meant so much to him, that might be of such weight in the removal
of some portion, at least, of the serious stoppages against his pay.
Away out in the Apache mountains, where the remnants of the Friday gang
seemed to have scattered into little squads of two or three, one party
had been trailed and chased to its hole, a wild nook in the rocks, and
there in brief, bloody fight two more of the gang bit the dust in
reaching that height of outlaw ambition, "dying with their boots on."
Others were wounded and captured, and still another, neither wounded nor
combatant, but a trembling skulker, was dragged out from a cleft in
among the boulders and kicked into the presence of the commanding
officer by a burly Irishman who would have lost the bliss of a dozen
pay-day sprees rather than that one achievement, for the skulking
captive was Marsden, and Marsden was English.
A more abject, pitiable, helpless wretch even Texan troopers had never
seen. Imploring his captors to protect him against the illimitable
possibilities of lynch law,--for there were veteran soldiers present to
whose thinking drum-head court-martial and summary execution were all
too good for Marsden,--the ex-sergeant told the story of his stealings,
and the names of his accomplices, but declared that all his ill-gotten
gains were gone. Every cent he had at the time of his flight was taken
from him, he protested, by the gang of desperadoes among whom he had
found refuge.
"He's lyin', sorr," declared Sergeant Shaughnessy at this juncture.
"He's hidin' the hoith av it somewheres, an' there's nothin' like the
noose av a lariat to frishen his mimory." But old Mullane ordered
silence.
"Go you back to Worth fast as you can," said he to Winn. "Write the
report for me to sign before you start. Tell the colonel where what is
left of the stolen property can be found, and we'll bring Marsden along
with us. The quicker you get there the more you can save."
Worth was one hundred and fifty miles away on a bee-line, and Winn had
to twist and turn, but he rode with buoyant heart. By prompt measures
much of his misfortune might be wiped out. Then, with the proffered
loan with which to settle his accounts and pay off certain pressing
creditors, he could start afresh, his head at last above the waters that
had weighed him down. He would lead a simple, inexpensive life, and
Laura would have to help him. He could set aside one-fourth, or even,
perhaps, one-third, of his pay to send each month to the bank at San
Antonio. It would be hard, but at least he would be honest and manful,
and Laura would have to try to dress and live inexpensively. She used to
say she would rather share exile and poverty with him than a palace with
any other man, but that seemed a bit like hyperbole in the light of her
subsequent career. Long before this, he said, the bank would have sent
the money to Worth. It was doubtless now awaiting him in Fuller's safe,
or possibly Trott's. How blessed a thing it was that the cashier should
have been an old and warm friend of his father,--that he should have
written proffering aid for old times' sake to the son of the soldier he
had known and been aided by and had learned to love in bygone days! It
was odd that Mr. Cashier Bolton had not made himself known to him, Harry
Winn, when he and his lovely bride were in San Antonio, but all the more
was the offer appreciated. It was odd that he should couple with the
offer a condition that Winn should give his word not to tell the name
of his father's friend and his own benefactor, and further to agree
neither to drink any intoxicant nor bet a cent on any game of chance
until the money was repaid. He was not given to drinking, but he had
heard of a fondness on his father's part for cards, and had felt the
fascination himself. All right: he would promise gladly.
They got fresh horses at a midway camp where a small detachment guarded
the Cougar Springs, rested during the hot hours of the first day after a
long night ride, then set forth, chasing their long shadows in the late
afternoon, and, riding on through the night, hove in sight of the
twinkling lights in the company kitchens at Worth just as the dawn was
spreading over the eastward prairie. At the guard-house, aroused by the
sentry's warning, a sergeant tumbled off his bench and ran sleepily out
to meet them. It was a man whom Winn had frequently seen hovering about
his quarters in attendance upon their maid-of-all-work.
"All well at home, Quigley?" he queried, hopefully.
"All well, sir; leastwise Mrs. Winn and the baby is, so Miss Purdy said
yesterday evenin'. Mrs. Blythe with her children and Colonel Lawrence's
have gone to San Antonio. They're all goin' home together. Any luck,
sir?"
"I should say so! Hit 'em hard twice, and caught Marsden alive."
"Great---- Beg pardon, lieutenant, but that's the best news yet!" The
soldier's eyes danced and pleaded for more, but Winn was eager to reach
home, to tiptoe up to Laura's room, to kneel by the bedside and fold
her, waking, in his strong, yearning arms, to bend and kiss his baby's
sleeping face. He spurred on across the parade. The long, low line of
officers' quarters lay black and unrelieved against the reddening sky.
Only in one or two were faint night-lights burning, one down near the
southern end, the room of the officer of the day, another in his own.
The slats of the blinds, half turned, revealed the glimmer of a lamp
within. Probably baby was awake and demanding entertainment, and there
could be no surprising Laura as he had planned. Still, he guided his
horse so as to avoid pebbles or anything that would click against the
shod hoofs. The home-coming would be the sweeter for its being
unheralded.
"Never mind the saddle-bags now," he murmured to his orderly. "Take the
horses to stables, and bring the traps over by and by." Then he tiptoed
around to the back of the house. The front door, he knew, would be
locked; so would that opening on the little gallery in rear; but there
was the window of his den; he could easily raise it from outside and let
himself in without any one's being the wiser. A glance at his watch
showed him that in ten minutes the morning gun would fire and the post
wake up to the shrill reveille of the infantry fifes and drums. Even
though Laura should be awake and up with her baby, the surprise might be
attempted. The back porch was lighted up with the glow from the east.
The back door of the Barclay-Brayton establishment was ajar, and some
one was moving about in the kitchen,--Hannibal, probably, getting coffee
for his master in time for morning stables. Just to try it, Winn tiptoed
up the low steps to the rear door, and there it stood, not wide open,
but just ajar. "Miss Purdy" had mended her ways, then, and was rising
betimes, he said. Softly entering, he passed through the little kitchen
into the dark dining-room beyond, felt his way through into his deserted
den to the left,--the blinds were tightly closed,--thence to the narrow
hall, and up the carpeted, creaking stairs. The door of the back room at
the east, the nursery, as right at the landing. The light of the dawn
was strong enough to reveal dimly objects within. That door, too, was
wide open, and there by the bedside was the cradle of his baby, and the
little one placidly asleep. There in her bed, innocent of the
possibility of masculine observation, her ears closed, her mouth wide
open in the stupor of sleep, lay the domestic combination of nurse and
maid-of-all-work. He tiptoed past the door and softly approached that of
the front, the westward room,--his and Laura's. It, too, was partly
open. A lamp burned dimly on the bureau. The broad, white bed, with its
tumbled pillows and tossed-back coverlet, was empty, as he found the
room to be. Laura, then, and not the maid, was the early riser. Softly
he searched about the upper floor. She had heard him, after all, and was
hiding somewhere to tease him. No; there on the back of her
rocking-chair hung the pink, beribboned wrapper that was so becoming to
her, and on another the dainty, lace-trimmed night-robe. She must be up
and dressed,--his languid, lazy Laura, who rarely rose before nine
o'clock, as a rule, and now it was only five. A strange throbbing began
at his heart. Quickly he turned and scurried down the stairs, struck a
match in the parlor, another in the dining-room. Both were empty. The
den and its closets were explored. No one there.
Out he went through the kitchen to the eastward porch again. The light
was stronger. Over the level _mesa_ to the edge of the bluff, not fifty
yards away, his eager eyes swept in search of the truant form. There
stood at the very brow of the projecting point at the northeast side a
little, latticed summer-house where sentimental couples sometimes sat
and looked over the shallow valley of moonlight nights; and there, close
beside it, switching the skirt of her stylish riding-habit with her
whip, stood Laura Winn. Just as she turned and glanced impatiently over
her shoulder, out from the adjoining door came a soldierly form in
riding-dress. For an instant three forms seemed to stand stock-still;
then came the shock and roar of the reveille gun, and before the echoes
rolled away Lieutenant Winn, striding up to Barclay with fury in his
eyes, struck the captain full in the face and sent him crashing over a
kitchen chair.