CHAPTER XXIII
A SOLDIER ENTANGLED
December and bitter cold. The river frozen stiff. The prairie sheeted in unbroken snow. Great log fires roaring in every open fireplace. Great throngs of soldiery about the red hot barrack stoves, for all the columns were again in winter columns, and Flint"s two companies had "got the route" for home. They were to march on the morrow, escorting as far as Laramie the intractables of Stabber"s band, some few of the Indians to go in irons, among them Ralph Moreau, or Eagle Wing, now a notorious character.
The general was there at Frayne, with old "Black Bill," erstwhile chief inspector of the department, once a subaltern in days long gone by when Laramie was "Ultima Thule" of the plains forts. The general had heard Flint"s halting explanation of his laxity in Moreau"s case, saying almost as little in reply as his old friend Grant when "interviewed" by those of whom he disapproved. "Black Bill" it was who waxed explosive when once he opened on the major, and showed that amazed New Englander something of the contents of Moreau"s Indian kit, including the now famous hunting pouch, all found with Stabber"s village. A precious scoundrel, as it turned out, was this same Moreau, with more sins to answer for than many a convicted jail bird, and with not one follower left to do him reverence except, perhaps, that lonely girl, self secluded at the Hays. Hay himself, though weak, was beginning to sit up.
Dade, Blake and Ray were all once more housed in garrison. Truscott and Billings, with their hardy troopers, had taken temporary station at the post, until the general had decided upon the disposition of the array of surrendered Indians, nearly three hundred in number, now confined under strong guard in the quartermaster"s corral at the flats, with six "head devils," including Eagle Wing, in the garrison prison.
All the officers, with two exceptions, were again for duty at Frayne.
Webb, laid by the heels at Beecher, his feet severely frozen, and Beverly Field, who, recalled from a brief and solemn visit to a far southern home, had reached the post at nightfall of the 10th. There had hardly been allowed him time to uplift a single prayer, to receive a word of consolation from the lips of friends and kindred who loved the honored father, borne to his last resting place. "Come as soon as possible," read the message wired him by Ray, and, though the campaign was over, it was evident that something was amiss, and, with all his sorrow fresh upon him, the lad, sore in body and soul, had hastened to obey.
And it was Ray who received and welcomed him and took him straightway to his own cosy quarters, that Mrs. Ray, and then the Blakes, might add their sympathetic and cordial greeting,--ere it came to telling why it was that these, his friends despite that trouble that could not be talked of, were now so earnest in their sympathy,--before telling him that his good name had become involved, that there were allegations concerning him which the chief had ordered "pigeon-holed" until he should come to face them. A pity it is that Bill Hay could not have been there, too, but his fever had left him far too weak to leave his room.
Only Ray and Blake were present and it was an interview not soon, if ever, to be forgotten.
"I"m no hand at breaking things gently, Field," said Ray, when finally the three were closeted together in the captain"s den. "It used to worry Webb that you were seen so often riding with Miss--Miss Flower up to Stabber"s village, and, in the light of what has since happened, you will admit that he had reasons. Hear me through," he continued, as Field, sitting bolt upright in the easy chair, essayed to speak.
"Neither Captain Blake nor I believe one word to your dishonor in the matter, but it looks as though you had been made a tool of, and you are by no means the first man. It was to see this fellow, Moreau--Eagle Wing--whom you recognized at the Elk,--she was there so frequently--was it not?"
Into Field"s pale face there had come a look of infinite distress. For a moment he hesitated, and little beads began to start out on his forehead.
"Captain Ray," he finally said, "they tell me--I heard it from the driver on the way up from Rock Springs--that Miss Flower is virtually a prisoner, that she had been in league with the Sioux, and yet, until I can see her--can secure my release from a promise, I have to answer you as I answered you before--I cannot say."
Blake started impatiently and heaved up from his lounging chair, his long legs taking him in three strides to the frost-covered window at the front. Ray sadly shook his dark, curly head.
"You _are_ to see her, Field. The general--bless him for a trump!--wouldn"t listen to a word against you in your absence; but that girl has involved everybody--you, her aunt, who has been devotion itself to her, her uncle, who was almost her slave. She deliberately betrayed him into the hands of the Sioux. In fact this red robber and villain, Moreau, is the only creature she hasn"t tried to "work," and he abandoned her after she had lied, sneaked and stolen for him."
"Captain Ray!" The cry came from pallid lips, and the young soldier started to his feet, appalled at such accusation.
"Every word of it is true," said Ray. "She joined him after his wounds.
She shared his escape from the village at our approach. She was with him when Blake nabbed them at Bear Cliff. She was going with him from here.
What manner of girl was that, Field, for you to be mixed up with?"
"He is her half brother!" protested Field, with kindling eyes. "She told me--everything--told me of their childhood together, and--"
"Told you a pack of infernal lies!" burst in Blake, no longer able to contain himself. "Made you a cat"s paw; led you even to taking her by night to see him when she learned the band were to jump for the mountains--used you, by G.o.d, as he used _her_, and, like the Indian she is, she"d turn and stab you now, if you stood in her way or his. Why, Field, that brute"s her lover, and she"s his--"
"It"s a lie! You shall not say it, sir!" cried Field, beside himself with wrath and amaze, as he stood quivering from head to foot, still weak from wounds, fever and distress of mind. But Ray sprang to his side. "Hush, Blake! Hush, Field! Don"t speak. What is it, Hogan?" And sharply he turned him to the door, never dreaming what had caused the interruption.
"The general, sir, to see the captain!"
And there, in the hallway, throwing off his heavy overcoat and "arctics," there, with that ever faithful aide in close attendance, was the chief they loved; dropped in, all unsuspecting, just to say good-bye. "I knocked twice," began Hogan, but Ray brushed him aside, for, catching sight of the captain"s face, the general was already at the door. Another moment and he had discovered Field, and with both hands extended, all kindliness and sympathy, he stepped at once across the room to greet him.
"I was so very sorry to hear the news," said he. "I knew your father well in the old days. How"s your wound? What brought you back so soon?"
And then there was one instant of awkward silence and then--Ray spoke.
"That was my doing, general. I believed it best that he should be here to meet you and--every allegation at his expense. Mr. Field, I feel sure, does not begin to know them yet, especially as to the money."
"It was all recovered," said the general. "It was found almost intact--so was much of that that they took from Hay. Even if it hadn"t been, Hay a.s.sumed all responsibility for the loss."
With new bewilderment in his face, the young officer, still white and trembling, was gazing, half stupefied, from one to the other.
"What money?" he demanded. "I never heard--"
"Wait," said the general, with significant glance at Ray, who was about to speak. "I am to see them--Mrs. Hay and her niece--at nine o"clock. It is near that now. Webb cannot be with us, but I shall want you, Blake.
Say nothing until then. Sit down, Mr. Field, and tell me about that leg.
Can you walk from here to Hay"s, I wonder?"
Then the ladies, Mrs. Ray and her charming next door neighbor, appeared, and the general adjourned the conference forthwith, and went with them to the parlor.
"Say nothing more," Ray found time to whisper. "You"ll understand it all in twenty minutes."
And at nine o"clock the little party was on its way through the sharp and wintry night, the general and Captain Blake, side by side, ahead, the aide-de-camp and Mr. Field close following. Dr. Waller, who had been sent for, met them near the office. The sentries at the guard-house were being changed as the five tramped by along the snapping and protesting board walk, and a st.u.r.dy little chap, in fur cap and gauntlets, and huge buffalo overcoat, caught sight of them and, facing outward, slapped his carbine down to the carry--the night signal of soldier recognition of superior rank as practised at the time.
"Tables are turned with a vengeance," said the general, with his quiet smile. "That"s little Kennedy, isn"t it? I seem to see him everywhere when we"re campaigning. Moreau was going to eat his heart out next time they met, I believe."
"So he said," grinned Blake, "before Winsor"s bullet fetched him. Pity it hadn"t killed instead of crippling him."
"He"s a bad lot," sighed the general. "Wing won"t fly away from Kennedy, I fancy."
"Not if there"s a shot left in his belt," said Blake. "And Ray is officer-of-the-day. There"ll be no napping on guard this night."
At the barred aperture that served for window on the southward front, a dark face peered forth in malignant hate as the speakers strode by. But it shrank back, when the sentry once more tossed his carbine to the shoulder, and briskly trudged beneath the bars. Six Indians shared that prison room, four of their number destined to exile in the distant East,--to years, perhaps, within the casemates of a seaboard fort--the last place on earth for a son of the warlike Sioux.
"They know their fate, I understand," said Blake, as the general moved on again.
"Oh, yes. Their agent and others have been here with Indian Bureau orders, permitting them to see and talk with the prisoners. Their shackles are to be riveted on to-night. Nearly time now, isn"t it?"
"At tattoo, sir. The whole guard forms then, and the four are to be moved into the main room for the purpose. I am glad this is the last of it."
"Yes, we"ll start them with Flint at dawn in the morning. He"ll be more than glad to get away, too. He hasn"t been over lucky here, either."
A strange domestic--(the McGrath having been given warning and removed to Sudsville) showed them into the trader"s roomy parlor, the largest and most pretentious at the post. Hay had lavished money on his home and loved it and the woman who had so adorned it. She came in almost instantly to greet them, looking piteously into the kindly, bearded face of the general, and civilly, yet absently, welcoming the others. She did not seem to realize that Field, who stood in silence by the side of Captain Blake, had been away. She had no thought, apparently, for anyone but the chief himself,--he who held the destinies of her dear ones in the hollow of his hand. His first question was for Fawn Eyes, the little Ogalalla maiden whose history he seemed to know. "She is well and trying to be content with me," was the reply. "She has been helping poor Nanette. She does not seem to understand or realize what is coming to him. Have they--ironed him--yet?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "HUSH! SHE"S COMING"--SHE WAS THERE.]
"I believe not," said the general. "But it has to be done to-night. They start so early in the morning."
"And you won"t let her see him, general. No good can come from it. She declares she will go to him in the morning, if you prohibit it to-night," and the richly jewelled hands of the unhappy woman were clasped almost in supplication.
"By morning he will be beyond her reach. The escort starts at six."
"And--these gentlemen here--" She looked nervously, appealingly about her. "Must they--all know?"
"These and the inspector general. He will be here in a moment. But, indeed, Mrs. Hay, it _is_ all known, practically," said the general, with sympathy and sorrow in his tone.