CHAPTER XII.
Meantime "Old Peeksniff," as commentators of the day among the gracelesssubs were won't to call Colonel Stevens, was having his bad quarter ofan hour. Leaving his team with the orderly, John Folsom had stamped intohis presence unannounced, and after his own vigorous fashion opened theball as follows:
"Stevens, what in the devil has that young fellow done to deservearrest?"
"Oh, ah, shut the door, Mr. Adjutant," said the commanding officer,apprehensively, to his staff officer, "and--d I desire to confer withMr. Folsom a moment," whereat the adjutant took the hint and then hiedhimself out of the room.
"Now, ah, in the first place, Mr. Folsom this is rather a long and--dpainful story. I'm--m--ah, ah--in a peculiar position."
"For God's sake talk like a man and not like Burleigh," broke in the oldtrader impulsively. "I've known you off and on over twenty years, andyou never used to talk in this asinine way until you got to running withhim. Come right to the point--What crime is young Dean charged with?Those girls of mine will have to know it. They will know he's in arrest.What can I tell them?"
"Crime--ah--is hardly the word, Folsom. There has been amisunderstanding of orders, in short, and he was placed under arrestbefore--ah--before I had been furnished with a mass of information thatshould have been sent to me before."
"Well, what fault is that of his? See here, man, you don't mean to sayit is because he didn't get here three days ago? That's no crime, and Ihaven't knocked around with the army the last forty years not to knowthe regulations in such matters. Do you mean without ever hearing whatkept him and what splendid, spirited service he rendered there along theLaramie, that you've humiliated that fine young fellow and put him inarrest?"
Pecksniff whirled around in his chair. "Really now, Mr. Folsom, I can'tpermit you to instruct me in my military duties. You have no conceptionof the way in which I've been ignored and misled in this matter. Thereare collateral circumstances brought about, er--forced on me in fact, byinjudicious friends of this young man, and he--he must blame them--hemust blame them, not me. Now if you'll permit me to glance over thismass of matter, I can the sooner do justice in the premises." And overhis goggles the colonel looked pleadingly up into his visitor's iratefeatures.
"Read all you like, but be quick about it," was the angry rejoinder. "Iwant to take that boy back with me to town and confront him with one ofhis accusers this very day--the man I believe, by the ghost of JimBridger, is at the bottom of the whole business!" and Folsom floppedheavily and disgustedly into a chair, at sound of a rap at the door,which opened an inch and the adjutant's nose became visible at thecrack.
"Major Burleigh, sir, would like to see you."
"And I'd like to see Major Burleigh!" stormed Folsom, springing to hisfeet. Commanding officers of the Stevens stamp had no terrors for him.He had known his man too long.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen!" cried Pecksniff, "I can have no disturbance nowover this unfortunate matter. Really, Mr. Folsom, I cannot permit myoffice to be the scene of any--of any----"
But his words wandered aimlessly away into space as he discovered he hadno listener. Folsom, finding that the major had apparently changed hismind and was not coming in, had changed his plan and was going out. Heovertook Burleigh on the boardwalk in front and went straight to thepoint.
"Major Burleigh, you told me a short time ago that you had nothing to dowith the allegations against this young gentleman who was placed inarrest here this afternoon, yet I learn from my own daughter that youspoke of him to a brother officer of his in terms of disparagement theday you got aboard the car at Sidney. Mr. Loomis corroborates it and sodoes Miss Dean. I've heard of two other instances of your speakingsneeringly of him. Now I ask you as man to man what it is you have totell? He has saved the lives of my son, his wife and child, and thepeople of the ranch, and by the Eternal I'm his friend and mean to seejustice done him!"
Burleigh listened with solemn face and with no attempt to interrupt. Hewaited patiently until Folsom came to a full stop before he spoke atall. Then his voice was eloquent of undeserved rebuke--of infinitesympathy. "Mr. Folsom," he said, "it would be useless for me to denythat before I knew your charming daughter or her--ah--very interestingfriend I did speak in their presence--ah--incautiously, perhaps, of Mr.Dean, but it was in continuance of a conversation begun before weboarded the car, and what I said was more in sorrow than in criticism.The young gentleman had attracted my attention--myfavorable--ah--opinion on the up trip to the Big Horn, and Iwas--ah--simply disappointed in his conduct on the way back. It wasperhaps due to--ah--inexperience only, and my whole object in cominghere in haste this afternoon was to bear testimony to his ability andzeal as a troop commander, and to urge--ah--Colonel Stevens toreconsider his action and restore him at once to duty. I had hoped, sir,to be here--ah--ahead of you and to have driven him in my buggy--ah--tomeet you, but I am disappointed--I am disappointed in more ways thanone."
Folsom stood and wiped his streaming face, and looked the speaker squarein the eye, and Burleigh stood the scrutiny with unlooked-for nerve.Long years at the poker-table had given him command of his features, andthe faculty of appearing the personification of serene confidence in his"hand," when the twitching of a nerve might cost a thousand dollars.Folsom was no match for him in such a game. Little by little the angerand suspicion faded from his eyes, and a shame-faced look crept intothem. Had he really so misjudged, so wronged this gentleman? Certainlythere was every appearance of genuine sympathy and feeling in Burleigh'sbenevolent features. Certainly he was here almost as soon as he himselfhad come, and very possibly for the same purpose. It was all that oldfool Pecksniff's doing after all. Folsom had known him for years andalways as more or less of an ass--a man of so little judgment that,though a major in the line at the outbreak of the war, he had never beentrusted with a command in the field, and here he was now a full colonelwith only three companies left him. Burleigh saw his bluff was telling,and he took courage.
"Come with me," he said, "and let me reassure you," and the doors of thecommanding officer's sanctum opened at once to the omnipotent disburserof government good things, Folsom following at his heels. "ColonelStevens," he began, the moment he was inside, and before the colonelcould speak at all, "in a moment of exasperation and extremenervous--ah--depression the night I--er--started East so hurriedlyafter a most exhausting journey from the Big Horn, I spoke disparaginglyof the action of Lieutenant Dean in face of the Indians the day we metRed Cloud's band, but on mature reflection I am convinced I misjudgedhim. I have been thinking it all over. I recall how vigilant and dutifulhe was at all times, and my object in hurrying out here to-day,at--ah--almost the instant I heard of his arrest, was to put in the bestwords I could think of in his behalf--to--ah--urge you to reconsideryour action, especially in view of all the--e--ah--encomiums passed uponhis conduct in this recent raid on the Laramie."
The colonel whirled around upon him as he had on Folsom. "MajorBurleigh," he began, "I call you to witness that I am the most abusedman in the army. Here am I, sir, thirty-five years in service, a fullcolonel, with a war record with the regulars that should commandrespect, absolutely ignored by these mushroom generals at Omaha andelsewhere--stripped of my command and kept in ignorance of the movementsof my subordinates. Why, sir," he continued, lashing himself on, as herose from his chair, "here's my junior at Frayne giving orders to mytroop, sir; presumes to send them scouting the Laramie bottoms, whenevery man is needed here, and then, when, as it happens, my officer andhis men get into a fight and drive the Indians, to whom does he report,sir? Not to me, sir--not to his legitimate commander, but he sendscouriers to Laramie and to Frayne, and ignores me entirely."
A light dawned on Burleigh in an instant. Well he knew that Dean'sreasons for sending couriers to those guard posts of the Platte were towarn them that a war party had crossed into their territory, and was nowin flight. There was nothing to be gained by sending a man gallopingback to the line of the railway seventy-five miles to the rear--noearthly
reason for his doing so. But the fact that he had sent runnersto officers junior in rank to Stevens, and had not sent one to him,fairly "stuck in the crop" of the captious old commander, and he haddetermined to give the youngster a lesson. But now the mail was in, anddispatches from various quarters, and a telegram from Omaha directinghim to convey to Lieutenant Dean the thanks and congratulations of thegeneral commanding the department, who had just received fullparticulars by wire from Cheyenne, and Stevens was glad enough to dropthe game, and Burleigh equally glad of this chance to impress Folsomwith the sense of his influence, as well as of his justice.
"I admit all you say, colonel. I have long--ah--considered you mostunfairly treated, but really--ah--in this case of Lieutenant Dean's, itis, as I said before, inexperience and--ah--the result of-ah--er--notunnatural loss of--er--balance at a most exciting time. A wordof--ah--admonition, if you will pardon my suggestion, all he probablyneeds, for he has really behaved very well--ah--surprisingly well inconducting this--ah--pursuit."
And so was it settled that later the colonel was to see Mr. Dean, andadmonish accordingly, but that meantime the adjutant should go andwhisper in his ear that his arrest was ended, and all would be explainedlater, thereby releasing him before the girls discovered the fact thathe was confined to his tent.
But the adjutant came too late. The tearful eyes of one, the flushed andanxious faces of both damsels, and the set look in the eyes of both theyoung officers at Dean's tent, as the adjutant approached, told him thecat was out of the bag. "The explanation cannot be made too promptly forme, sir," said Dean, as he received the colonel's message and permittedthe adjutant to depart without presenting him to the two prettiest girlshe had seen in a year. "Now, Loomis, just as quick as possible I wantyou to go with me to that man Burleigh. I'll cram his words down histhroat."
"Hush, Dean, of course, I'll stand by you! But--both girls are looking.Wait until to-morrow."
How many a project for the morrow is dwarfed or drowned by eventsunlooked for--unsuspected at the time! Not ten minutes later Folsom andBurleigh came strolling together to the little tent. Ashamed of hisapparently unjust accusation, Folsom had begged the quartermaster'spardon and insisted on his coming with him and seeing the young peoplebefore driving back to town. The horses were being groomed at the picketline. The western sun was low. Long shadows were thrown out over thesward and the air was full of life and exhilaration. The somber fearsthat had oppressed the quartermaster an hour earlier were retiringbefore a hope that then he dare not entertain.
"You--you stood by me like a trump, Burleigh," old Folsom was saying,"even after I'd abused you like a thief. If I can ever do you a goodturn don't you fail to let me know."
And Burleigh was thinking then and there how desperately in need of agood turn he stood that minute. What if Folsom would back him? Whatif----
But as they came in full view of the picket line beyond the row oftents, the major's eagerly searching gaze was rewarded by a sight thatgave him sudden pause. Halted and examining with almost professionalinterest the good points of a handsome little bay, Lieutenant Loomis andJessie Dean were in animated chat. Halted and facing each other, he withglowing admiration in his frank blue eyes, she with shy pleasure in herjoyous face, Dean and Elinor Folsom stood absorbed in some reminiscenceof which he was talking eagerly. Neither saw the coming pair. Neitherheard the rapid beat of bounding hoofs nearing them in eager haste.Neither noted that a horseman reined in, threw himself from saddle andhanded Burleigh a telegraphic message which, with trembling hands, heopened and then read with starting eyes.
"My heaven, Folsom!" he cried. "I ought to have known something wascoming when I got orders to have every mule and wheel ready.Everything's to be rushed to the Big Horn at once. Just as youpredicted, Red Cloud's band has broken loose. There's been a devil of afight not eighty miles from Frayne!"