Part 9 (1/2)
”Right after retreat roll-call, just after sunset, I should say He would like tiet supper”
”Then say nine o'clock I must not leave my host alone at the dinner-table, and I fear Miss Bayard will not be down”
”Is Miss Bayard ill?” asked Mr Hatton
”Hardly that! She was greatly overco this news as it was told her So in, and said a courier was back from Captain Terry's command and that Mr
McLean was killed”
”And she swooned or fainted?” asked Hatton, with evident interest
”Very nearly,” answered Mr Holrave face and eyes that never flinched ”I think she would have fallen down the stairs, had she not been caught in the nick of ti poor Mac will hear with comfort”
”Yes,” was the decided answer, after an instant of silence ”Yes It would comfort me if I were in his place Nine o'clock then, Mr Hatton, and at your quarters”
Before dark the a with thear, Mr Hollance at his watch showed hi Quickly he strode over toward ”Bedlaht of steps to the veranda To his surprise, the hall-door was closed; he turned the knob, but there was no yielding Looking in through the side-lights, he could see that a la on the second floor, but that the hall-lantern below had either been forgotten or its light extinguished
Retracing his steps, he decided to go to the quartermaster and ask if he could have the key, but before he had taken thirty strides up the parade he remembered that Hatton had told him that the hall-door was never locked and rarely closed This struck him as odd, and he stopped to think it over in connection hat he had just observed Standing there just beyond the southern end of the big, faded white rookery, invisible hihts in the rooms occupied by the Forrest fa lady, now occasionally alluded to as the ”Queen of Bedlaarrison was unusually still; not a sound of hter came from the barracks of the men; not a whisper from the quarters of the officers around the parade So Lara, but all within the old fort was still as death Suddenly, from the northern end of the veranda, there caht footfall on the creaking wooden floor, the swish and swirl of silken skirts, coazed with all his eyes, but could not discern the advancing figure; so, struck by a sudden i to the veranda, up the southern steps, and al past hian to say; but without a word, with sudden leap the slender shape whisked out of reach of voice or hand and vanished into the southern hall-way
X
Before the sounding of tattoo that night, the stage ca ranchle's Nest, and had turned back to the strong defences at ”Phillips's,” on the Chug, re there in security until the driver had satisfied hiers caht the mail; and, as none had been received for two days, and the wires were still down, the e-station and post-office the moment he was notified of the arrival Here, while the letters and papers were being distributed, he was accommodated with a chair in Mrs
Griffin's little parlor, and his own personal ers of the poste-driver was surrounded by a little crowd of soldiers, scouts, and teamsters, and held forth with frontier descriptive power on the adventures of the night previous He could ”swar” the Sioux had burned a ”Black Hills outfit” not far below Eagle's Nest, for he had colare in the skies, and had passed the charred re He had heard along the road that there were anywhere from two to five hundred Indians on the raid; and Miller, listening to the eager talk and co the estimate of the ranch-people with the experiences of his own ca, readily made up hiswarriors in the party,--too azine rifles, revolvers, and abundant ammunition, for Terry to successfully ”tackle”
with his little detachh to discontinue the pursuit at the Niobrara crossing
Beyond that there were nu ravines, even a shallow canon or two,--the very places for ambuscade; and it would be an easy ive the pursuers a bloody welco as there was a chance of square fighting, and his subsequentparty” while the main body slipped across the ford, had been dictated by sound judgment He deplored the crippled and depleted condition of his little command, however Here was Blunt, one of his best cavalry officers, seriously wounded and in high fever; here was McLean, another ad soldier, he knew not how seriously wounded; and, with old Bruce laid up with rheumatism, he had not a company officer for duty at the post The adjutant and quarteretic self were the only ones he could count on for the next twenty-four hours, as belonging to the garrison proper The infantry battalion that had camped down on the flats so short a time before was already beyond his jurisdiction, in reat relief, therefore, he read that six troops of the --th Cavalry had reached Cheyenne, and were under orders to march to Laramie as soon as supplied with ammunition and equipments for sharp field-service
Presently he heard the suave tones of Dr Bayard accosting Mrs Griffin with anxious inquiries for his letters, and courteous apologies for intruding upon her during ”business hours,” but he had been without letters or papers so long now, had just heard of the arrival of the stage, Mr Hol hiht be for Mr Holmes in his box? Mrs Griffin was quite as susceptible to courteous and high-bred and flatteringno ance of deportly have left the distribution of the lass partition to indulge in a chat with hiladly have invited him to step into the little parlor, but theover his letters, and she could not neglect her official duties in the august presence of the post commander But Mrs Griffin was all smiles as she handed out the doctor's partially-completed packet, and then, in a low tone, informed him that Major Miller was in the little parlor behind the office, if he saw fit to wait there, and Dr Bayard, who could not abide being jostled by his fellow- what he considered the coerly availed hireeted him with a pleasant nod, and i of the cavalry battalion from Cheyenne, then bade hiht ”astral” burning on the centre-table Outside in the hall and corridor in front of the dusty glass partition the crowd had rapidly increased Not one in a dozen in the gathering had the faintest expectation of getting a letter, but there was no har the appearance of a man of the world or a wo and responding to a dozen And so teamsters, laundresses, scouts, ”Indian-bound” Black Hillers, and one or two sauntering soldiers were swar in a compact mass in front of the little hereat the postmistress behind her vitreous barrier was still at work It was a good-natured, chaffing, laughing crowd, but still one very independent and self-satisfied, after theis as good as his neighbor, and every woood as she chooses to hold herself It hadofficer and afterward for the post surgeon, but that was before it had attained its present proportions Nohen Mr Roswell Holmes paused at the outskirts with Corporal Zook by his side, soers looked around with their hands in their pockets; some of the cowboys who had earned their dollars on his ranch nodded cheerily at sight of their employer; but this was the United States post-office, these were sovereign citizens, and every man or woman of them, except the half-dozen enlisted men whose ht there as the capitalist froreetings as cheerily as they were given; h, and probably would have remained contentedly until the crowd dispersed and let hi first call for tattoo summoned Zook and the other soldiers to ed to you, Corporal Zook, for all you've told me, and I assure you I'm as proud of the lieutenant as you are
Now, I ets back to-o back to see if all is well at the ranch; but after their ride they'll all be thirsty, and when I'lass of cool lager There is plenty of it on ice at the trader's, and,--you do the entertaining for me, will you?” And the corporal found his palreenbacks
”If it's for the troop, sir, I can't say no,” answered Zook, with dancing eyes Pay-day was some weeks off after all, and he kne ”the fellers” would relish the trader's beer ”Now, if you would like to sit dohy not go around to the other side and away froe-office I ht, and many thanks”
The office- had just been thrown open and the distribution was just begun It would be some time before his turn would come Hol, some of those teamsters and scouts would forravity,for Red-Handed Bill, or Rip-Roaring Mike, or the Hon G Bullwhacker, of Laramie Plains He wanted time to think a bit before he returned to the doctor's house, anyhow He had drawn from Corporal Zook a detailed account of McLean's spirited and soldierly conduct in the fight; learned that it was he who killed the second warrior in as practically a hand-to-hand struggle, and that his wounds were painful and severe, despite his effort to overcoan Hatton's reh his memory It would indeed be comfort to McLean to hear how shocked and painfully stricken was Nellie Bayard at the news of the fight and his probable death If it proved half the coht Holh ti slowly up the road, he turned an angle of the old wooden building, and found himself alone in a broad, square enclosure The stars were shi+ning brightly overhead, but there was nothe storehouses and offices was sih the slats of the shutter at a side- back of the post-office Merely glancing at it as he passed, Holmes walked on with bowed head and hands clasped behind hi deeply over the situation Had he couileless heart, or had he coiven to another? Had he, in the light of what he had seen and heard, any right to speak of ravely distressed him?
Was it his bounden duty to disclose certain suspicions, display certain proofs? Or was it more than all his, the man's, part to stay and help to sweep aside the web that was unquestionably weaving about that brave-faced, clear-eyed, soldierly young subaltern? Despite Bayard's detractions; despite Mrs Miller's whispered confession that there was a thief in their midst; despite the fact that his wallet was stolen froe, but McLean himself had been there; despite the discovery on the floor--in front of his bureau--of a handkerchief embroidered with McLean's initials; despite the fact that it was known that he had been placed heavily in debt by the stoppage of his pay,--Mr Roswell Hol soldier could be guilty of theft He would not believe it of hi Who was the silken-skirted woman he met in the darkness but an hour or so before,--the woman whom he had attempted to accost, but who slipped past him like a will-o'-the-wisp--in silence? Hoas it that the door to Hatton's hall was closed and locked, when Hatton told hiht in that lower hall was extinguished, and by as it done?
Had he not gone thither al from the surprise of his encounter on the veranda, and found the hospital attendant gru it? Thesound, he explained, as he sat by Mr Blunt's bedside, and ”so opened in the room below”
He stepped out in the hall, he said, just in time to hear the lock of the front door hastily turned, and soo stealthily and quickly out on the veranda, ”swishi+ng” all the way The ladies had been over along the upper gallery two or three ti cool drinks to Mr Blunt's door and inquire hoas getting on,--Mrs Post and the young lady, Miss Forrest, hein Mr McLean's rooms down-stairs The man looked curiously up at Mr