Within the fortnight that followed came a climax in the life of Loring,
and astrologers who could have heard would have made much of such a
combination of strange influences. Having told the General that it was
his desire to find a quiet place in the northwestern section of the new
city, Loring had moved back to the hotel. Having told the rector he
desired to obtain table board at Mrs. Burton's, it of course resulted
that the worthy ecclesiastic should speak to her at first opportunity,
and that she should speedily come in search of Mr. Loring to inquire why
he had failed to carry out his plan, and further, to intimate that on
the strength of the rector's representations she had ordered a much
nicer set of china, and laid in a stock of provisions that just then
were to be had at lower rates, which, except that she expected him, she
could not have thought of doing. Indeed, Mrs. Burton not only called
once at his office, but followed it up by a visit to his lodging, where
she shed tears in the presence of the person from whom he rented his
rooms, and, this still proving ineffectual, she came again to department
headquarters with the manifest object of taking the General and his
staff into her confidence, to the equally manifest dismay of the chief
and the disgust of his adjutant-general, neither of whom could check the
volume of the good lady's words of woe. Loring found his soldierly
commander grinning whimsically when he dropped in to say good-morning.
The General was that rare combination--a devout churchman and a stalwart
fighter. Time and money had he devoted to the building up of this little
church in the wilderness, and the communion service was his gift. More
than once had he knelt to receive the sacred elements from the trembling
hands of the worthy rector and listen to Mrs. Burton's effusive "Amen!"
on his left ere she parted with the cup that was then passed to his
bearded lips. At the chancel rail all good Christians knelt in common
and meekly bowed their heads, but when Mrs. Burton came up to
headquarters with a rail of her own, the General couldn't stand it, and
said so to worthy Lambert, who remonstrated with the widow.
"Then the least he can do as a gentleman, after deceiving me so, is to
help pay for them things I bought on the strength of his promise to
board with me," was that pragmatical person's reply, and this view of
the case the energetic lady ventilated to her six boarders, and they to
the flock. There was one boarder, a temporary sojourner only, who
listened and said naught. But that was only another of her aristocratic,
stuck-up ways, said they. She was "a lovely young lady," as all admitted
on her first timid appearance, and the three women who sat at table with
her were eager to take her into close fellowship and confidence, and the
two young men, clerking in the new stores, no doubt, were as eager. But
it became apparent within twenty-four hours that she held herself above,
and desired to hold herself aloof from them, which led to a dissection
of her personal charms on part of the women, and of her mental gifts on
part of the men. Mr. Lambert had commended her to the care of Mrs.
Burton. Her board was paid in advance and no questions asked. She went
to church and sang softly, but in a voice so exquisitely sweet and
penetrating that it tempered the strident melodies of the devout
Omahannas, and caused many a head to turn. She spent the first few days
at the rector's, or in her room. Then came a roomer with the rumor that
she had a follower, and for two evenings she was seen with a strange
young man, pacing slowly up and down the walk, but never going into
town. Within ten days after Loring settled in Omaha Mrs. Burton's
boarders were engrossed in just two topics--the young lady in the
second-story front, and the story of the young officer who first would
and then wouldn't be one of their number. No exception to this statement
as to Mrs. Burton's boarders is made in the case of the damsel herself.
Loring frankly told his story as to Mrs. Burton to the General. He had
merely asked Mr. Lambert if he could tell him of a place to board.
Lambert had led him to Mrs. Burton's. He found it too far out and
otherwise unsuitable, and had abandoned the idea. He had never seen Mrs.
Burton or authorized any one to speak to her for him. The General
laughed and said he understood it all, was perfectly satisfied and never
thought of questioning him; and satisfied he was for several days. Then
suddenly it was announced that Loring had decided not only to return to
the hotel for table board, but was actually rooming there, and the
landlord of whom he had rented his rooms turned up with a grievance, at
least his wife did, and when a woman has a grievance, nine times out of
ten the world gets the benefit of it. Mrs. Landlord came round to the
chief quartermaster with her complaint.
It was a lovely summer morning. Lieutenant Loring had walked down to the
office and raised his hat to the General as that genial officer was
driven by behind his sturdy old team, and waving his hand cordially to
the grave young gentleman who walked so erect with such measured
stride, and with never a glance into the windows of the shops or bars.
Loungers had no use for Loring. He never stopped to pass the time of day
or suggest a toddy, and Loring had less use for them. Ten minutes later
the lieutenant found the office in commotion, clerks and orderlies
hastening about with grave faces, Stone and Stanton with the General in
his room; the general himself, pallid and mopping his wet forehead.
"This is horribly sudden," he said, as he thrust an open dispatch into
Loring's hand. It was the brief announcement that the General commanding
the department of California, the chief Loring had so recently left, had
dropped dead at his desk the night before. Little as he had liked him,
the Engineer was shocked and grieved.
"It may make grave changes," said the adjutant-general a little later.
"It may send our kind and thoughtful chief to the Pacific coast and give
us--whom?"
"It will make one, at least," said Stone impetuously. "It'll send that
galoot Petty back to his regiment right here in Nebraska and give him a
taste of service he will little like."
"Why do you say back, Stone? Where did Petty ever serve with it except
when it was in the garrison of Washington?" asked the adjutant-general.
"You know him, I believe, Loring?"
"I know him--yes."
"Think he'd pan out well in an Indian fight?"
"He might."
"You're an optimist, Loring," said Stone, who was ever seeking yet never
succeeding in the effort to penetrate the armor of Loring's reserve. "I
believe you think even Burleigh would fight at a pinch."
"I'm sure he would!" said Loring, as he walked thoughtfully away.
"That's the dash, dashest man I ever met," said Stone, in terms he never
knowingly used in the hearing of his commander. "What he'd say _to_ a
man I can only guess from a letter Skinny wrote from Alcantraz after
that row they had at 'Frisco. _Of_ a man you can't get him to speak."
"We may have to," said the adjutant-general to himself, as he turned
back to his desk and to a packet of papers and dispatches from Gate
City.
It was a day of perturbation. Not ten minutes later the Engineer was
called to conference with the department commander and found him
closeted with his chief of staff.
"You were not favorably impressed with Major Burleigh," said he, after a
moment of silent study of the young officer's face. "Will you tell me
why?"
Loring stood and colored. He had spoken no word of Burleigh, except in
answer to direct question. Stone must have seen his aversion, and had
possibly told of it.
"You dislike to, I see," said the General kindly. "Let me remove your
scruples. Major Burleigh has been absent from his post without leave at
a time when his services were urgently needed. His affairs are in a good
deal of a tangle. It is believed that he has been making use of
government funds. I tell you this in strict confidence. Do you know what
caused his panic there at Reno and made him insist on being taken right
on to Fort Frayne?"
Loring thought a moment, then "No, sir."
"Mr. Loring," said the General, "Major Burleigh has been an object of
distrust for over a month. While he was away on this trip to Warrior Gap
matters were brought to my attention that were of a grave nature.
Investigations have been made. Major Bruce at Reno says you seemed
struck by the superscription on the envelope of the letter he received
there that threw him into such a panic. Would you know the handwriting,
do you think?"
"Yes, General."
Silently the chief-of-staff held forth a note which Loring took and
closely examined. It read "Captain Newhall begs to assure the
adjutant-general, Department of the Platte, that he meant no discourtesy
in failing to register. He was unaware of the rule existing at
department headquarters, had come here on personal business connected
with certain real estate in which he has an interest, is on two months'
leave from his station New Orleans, Louisiana, and will register the
moment the office opens in the morning unless he should be compelled to
leave for St. Joe to-night."
Loring looked up, puzzled. The handwriting was familiar; so was a form
that he had recently seen vanishing in the distance one evening a week
before, and something in the voice had a familiar ring, but this name
was new.
"To explain all this," said the adjutant-general, "there was a
dashing-looking fellow here for two or three days drinking a good deal
down about the depot on the flats and around the quartermasters'
corrals. He said he was Captain Newhall, of the Thirty-ninth Infantry,
and the general finally told me to send an aide to look him up and
remind him it was his duty to call at headquarters and account for his
presence. Between that night and the next morning he disappeared, and
at last accounts was hobnobbing with Burleigh at Gate City. You know of
him, I see."
"Possibly."
"Then, General," said the chief-of-staff, with prompt decision, "the
quickest way to got at the root of the matter would be to send Loring at
once to Gate City."
The General thought for a moment.
"How soon could you go?"
"First train, sir."
It was then too late for the single passenger express that daily went
clanking over the prairies toward Cheyenne. But that afternoon was held
a long conference at department headquarters, which caused some
wonderment among the officers not included, Stone especially, and there
were many eyes on Loring's grave face as he finally came forth from the
General's room, and without a word of explanation went straight to his
own.
"Wonder what _he's_ been doing," said a man from the garrison, who had
happened in in search of news.
Stone shrugged his shoulders, offered no explanation, but looked
volumes. An aide-de-camp should never reveal what he knows of other
officers' affairs--much less that he knows nothing.
The night came on, warm and stifling almost as the day. The window of
Loring's room opened on the crude wooden gallery that ran the length of
the hotel, and he kept it open from the bottom for such air as could be
obtained. A note lay on the mantel shelf when he returned from the
office late in the afternoon. This he had taken downstairs, inclosed it,
unopened, in one of the coarse hotel envelopes, addressed and sent it by
a messenger to Mrs. Burton's. At ten o'clock at night, in his shirt
sleeves, he was packing a valise, when at the open window, on the
gallery without, there appeared suddenly a slender, graceful, girlish
form; a fair face gazed appealingly, imploringly in, and a soft voice
pronounced his name.
Starting up, he stepped quickly toward the apparition. One instant the
lovely face lighted with hope, joy, triumph, then changed to sudden
wrath before the shade, pulled vehemently down, shut it from sight.
Even as she stood there, baffled, "a woman scorned" in the presence and
hearing of another, who nevertheless stepped quickly forward to express
her opinion of such heartless, soulless conduct despite the interposing
shade, there came a sharp, imperative rap on Loring's door, and the
summons "Wanted at headquarters at once, sir!"
And, weeping as though bereaved and forsaken, the younger woman threw
herself upon the broad and sympathizing bosom of the elder.
"There, there, poor darling! Don't cry. Wait till Mr. Lambert and the
General hear how he has treated you," said Mrs. Burton, "and we'll see
what'll happen."