And De Lancy started on the run and collided with Brayton at the door.
"For G.o.d"s sake, go and hurry up "Funnybone,"" moaned the youngster.
"Here"s Barclay bleeding to death."
De Lancy ran his best: guardsmen across the parade stopped and stared, men in shirt-sleeves rushed out on the barrack stoops and stood and gazed, and a corporal, with rifle trailed, came running over to see what was amiss, just as the junior doctor, in cap and overcoat, trousers and slippers, came bolting out of his hallway and flying up the path. In front of De Lancy"s one slipper went hurtling back through midair, but the doctor rushed on in stocking-foot. The corporal picked up the shoe and followed. No one seemed to look for the moment at Winn, who turned slowly back to the pathway and like a blind man seemed groping his way towards Frazier"s. The officer of the day pa.s.sed him by on the run, following at the doctor"s heels, with never another look at him. Men seemed to think only of Barclay. Was it credible that an officer and a gentleman, as Winn had been regarded, could purposely have dealt that honored soldier a mortal blow, unless--unless--but who could find words to frame the thought? Once within Brayton"s hallway, De Lancy turned and slammed shut the door, for others were coming on the run from far across the parade. Over at the guard-house the men had started for their breakfast, but hung there, cl.u.s.tered about the sentry-post, gazing over the criss-cross plat of the parade, and muttering their conjectures as to the cause of the trouble. The sight of Lieutenant Winn wandering on down the row, turning from time to time, halting as though uncertain what he ought to do, while every other officer was running to the other end of the row, was something they could not understand.
Then Mrs. Winn, in riding-habit, came suddenly forth upon her piazza, and, gazing wildly up and down, caught sight of her husband, now some fifty paces away along the gravel walk. Stretching forth her arms to him, she began to call aloud, "Harry! Harry! please come back!" He never turned. She ran down the steps and out to the gate and called him, louder, louder, so that they could hear the voice all over the garrison in the sweet, still morning air; but on he went, doggedly now, faster and faster. She gathered up her clinging skirts in one hand, and, pleading still, followed after. Not until he had mounted the steps at the colonel"s did the young officer turn again; then with uplifted hand and arm he stood warning her back. Something in the att.i.tude, something in the stern, quivering white face, seemed at last to bring to her the realization of the force of his unspoken denunciation.
"Harry! Harry!" she cried. "Oh, come and let me tell you. You don"t understand! I meant no wrong! I was only going for a ride,--not with him,--not with him, Harry!" And so, pleading, weeping, she followed almost to the colonel"s gate before the door was opened from within and Winn was swallowed up in the darkness of the hall.
By this time some inkling of the trouble had been borne to Collabone, ever an early riser. As he came hastily forth from his quarters, the first thing he saw was the drooping form of Mrs. Winn, weeping at the colonel"s gate. Seizing her arm with scant ceremony, he whirled her about and bore her homeward, she sobbing out her story as they sped along, he listening with clouded, anxious face.
"Go back to your room, Mrs. Winn," he said, so solemnly and warningly she could not but heed. "Go to your baby. I"ll go first next door, then I"ll find your husband." She shrank within the hallway, and threw herself, weeping miserably, upon the sofa in the pretty parlor,--the parlor where she had so fascinated Hodge. There the sound of her baby"s wailing reached her in an interval of her own, and she called to the nurse to do something to comfort that child. There was no answer. "Miss Purdy," with clattering tongue and eager eyes and ears and half a dozen sympathizing neighbors, was out in rear of the house, deaf to demands of either mother or child; there Collabone found her, and sent her scurrying within before the fury of his wrath.
"Now, this will not do, Mrs. Winn," he said, as, following, he lifted the moaning woman from the sofa. "You must go to your room,--to your child, as I told you. Captain Barclay will soon be all right. He has lost much blood, but the hemorrhage is checked. Now I will go for Mr.
Winn. It"s a bad business, but don"t make it worse by any more--nonsense." With that he not too gently pushed her up the first few stairs, then turned abruptly and hastened away to Frazier"s.
In the hall he found that gray-haired, gray-faced veteran listening stupidly to Winn.
"I don"t understand, sir," he was saying. "You struck him--with what?"
"I don"t know," said Winn. "They say I"ve killed him. I have come to surrender myself." His eyes were as dull and leaden as his heart.
"It"s not so bad," burst in the doctor. "Barclay fell or was knocked over a chair, and the jar reopened his wound. He fainted from loss of blood, but it"s checked now."
"But--how?--why?" the colonel was stammering. Over the bal.u.s.trade aloft popped one head night-capped, and two with touseled hair, and blanched faces were framed in all three, and gasping words were heard, and whisperings as of awe-stricken, news-craving souls. "Where did this occur, and when did you return, sir?"
"On the back porch of my--of our quarters, colonel,--when I got back, just before gun-fire."
"And what possible excuse or explanation have you, sir? What could warrant such--such conduct?" demanded Frazier, as though at a loss for suitable words. Yet, even as he asked, his wife"s predictions rea.s.serted themselves, and he glanced uneasily aloft.
"Come into the parlor, colonel," implored Collabone. "Say no more here.
Let me explain. It"s all a wretched mistake." And, half pushing, half pulling, but all impelling, the doctor succeeded in hustling the post commander and the inert, unresisting subaltern within the parlor. Then, to the infinite disgust of the colonel"s wife, he shut--yes, slammed--the door.
A quarter of an hour later, in close arrest, Lieutenant Winn returned to his own roof and locked himself in his den. Mrs. Winn, kneeling at the keyhole, pleaded ten minutes for admission, all in vain; then she sent her maid for Dr. Collabone and Mrs. Faulkner, and went straightway to bed.
CHAPTER XVI.
Three days more, and back came Mullane with the wretched prisoner Marsden. The Irish captain"s eyes grew saucer-big when he heard the harrowing details of recent events at the post. Never in its liveliest days, before or since, had Worth known an excitement to match this; for, with the best intentions in the world, there wasn"t a woman in officers"
row who could get at the bottom facts of the episode. Rumors of the wildest kind that were early in circulation were best left to the imagination of the reader. The only thing actually known was that Mrs.
Winn and Captain Barclay were going out riding at reveille, that Winn surprised them and knocked the captain down, that Winn was now in close arrest, Barclay on the mend and again sitting up, Mrs. Winn confined by illness to her bed, Mrs. Faulkner (a most important person she) in devoted attendance, all their differences forgiven if not forgotten,--and there were few Mrs. Faulkner would not have forgiven for the bliss of being for the time the most sought-after woman at Worth, for every one wanted to know how Mrs. Winn was every hour of the day, and hoped to hear what dreadful imprudence of hers it was that caused the equally dreadful fracas.
Gravely and quietly the doctors told their story to the colonel; that there was no arrangement or engagement to ride together; that Captain Barclay had no idea Mrs. Winn ever rose--much less rode--that early; and most men accepted the statement as true. But there was the fatal exhibition of Barclay"s letter by Mrs. Winn to confront the women, who would have held him guiltless and saddled all the blame upon her lovely, sloping shoulders. What had he to write to her about, unless it was to ask her to ride or something of the kind? And the idea of their daring to select such an hour, instead of going out when--when people could see! And then there was the fact that Mr. Winn still refused to be reconciled to his wife. What did that mean, if not that he deemed her guilty? Blythe, who had a kindlier feeling for Winn than had most men at Worth (for Brayton now was utterly set against him and refused to go near him), sent in his card and begged to be allowed to see him; and Blythe"s face was sad and gray when, half an hour later, he came forth again.
"Colonel," said he to Frazier, "something has got to be done for that poor fellow, or he"ll go mad. Collabone has told him Barclay was totally ignorant of Mrs. Winn"s plan to ride that morning,--that his a.s.sault was utterly unjustifiable; and between that and the contemplation of his wife"s brainless freak, and all his old trouble, I"m sorely afraid he"ll break down,--go all to pieces. Can"t something be done?"
Both Frazier and Brooks thought something ought to be done; and so said Blythe and De Lancy, and Follansbee and Fellows, when they came trooping home, empty-handed, from their scout. Only Mullane"s detachment had accomplished anything, and such success as he had was due almost entirely to Winn"s persistent effort and energetic trailing. Something was being done to hunt up stolen stores as revealed by Marsden, but poor Winn, who had ridden home so full of hope and pluck and energy, now paced his narrow room for hours, or lay upon his lounge, face buried in his arms, either dull and apathetic or smarting with agony. On Mrs. Winn old Collabone had little sympathy to waste. Bluntly he told her that she was responsible for the whole business and deserved to be down sick. So, too, he told the colonel, who was having a blissful time answering the questions and squirming under the nagging of his household at home. At first Laura had shown tremendous spirit. Mr. Winn"s conduct was an insult. The doctor"s comments were an insult. The instant she was well enough to move she would take her precious child and return to her mother"s roof.
"Your mother hasn"t any roof," said Collabone. "She"s boarding in Washington, playing for another husband, and you"d spoil the whole game, turning up with a grandchild. What you"ve got to do is beg your husband"s pardon for all the sc.r.a.pes you"ve led him into,--this last one especially." Laura wailed and wept and cried out against the heartless cruelty of her husband, who left her sick and dying, for all he knew (Collabone had a.s.sured him there was nothing on earth the matter but nerves), and she thought Mrs. Faulkner ought to _make_ him hear how ill she was. At last she managed to have herself appropriately arrayed, and with face of meekest suffering waylaid him on the lower floor before he could close the door against her, after a brief official visit from the adjutant.
But the first glance into his haggard, hopeless face, the sight of despair such as she had never dreamed of, struck to her soul something like terror. One moment she gazed, all thought of her puny troubles vanished and forgotten, and then with one great cry--the first genuine feeling she had shown--the unhappy woman threw herself at his feet and clasped her arms about his trembling knees.
That night when the doctor called he found her humbled, contrite, concerned in earnest, and all for her husband. "It"s the first time,"
said he, "I"ve ever felt any respect for you whatever, Mrs. Winn. I believe there"s something in you, after all,"--"though probably not much," he later added when he told his wife. That night, too, he and Brooks and Blythe sat half an hour with Winn. The colonel asked them to do it, for it was time to help him if help was to come at all. The same day brought inquiry from Department Head-Quarters as to whether Lieutenant Winn had made good the amount of that great shortage; and the promised money package had not come.
Gently they asked him if he had reasonable right to look for it, and all the answer he could make was that it had been promised on certain conditions. He had recently accepted them, had expected to find the money on his arrival at Worth, but instead had found---- and the hands thrown hopelessly forward, palms upraised, were as expressive as any words could have been. There was silence a moment. Then he spoke again.
"And, after all, what matters it now? With this court-martial hanging over me, I"ve nothing but dismissal from the army to look forward to in any event."
"And what if there should be no trial, Winn?" said the major, after a reflective pause. "It is true that you have made an awful--break; but as yet you are your only accuser, and Mrs. Winn is the only witness, for Barclay is dumb."
But Winn shook his head. "I know enough of army matters to know that this thing is all over the post and will soon be all over Texas. If Captain Barclay was of--the old army,--if he had been brought up as I was, we might settle it out of court. My father used to say that there could be no other reparation for a blow. What would my apologies be worth? They would not re-establish him."
"Sometimes I think," said Brooks, after another reflective pause, "that men of Barclay"s stamp need no appeal to the code to set them right.
That is only a device by which physical courage is made a subst.i.tute for other virtues that may be lacking. Barclay occupies a plane above it. In view of his record in the Platte country and in this recent chase after the outlaws, it would take a bold man to sneer at him, in this garrison at least; and if he prefer no charge against you, who is to do it? This trouble can be straightened out, Winn," said the major, soothingly, "if only you could fix--that other."
But how, said they to each other, as they went gloomily away, was that other to be "fixed"? How was a poor fellow with nothing but his pay, burdened by an extravagant and helpless wife, a little child, and a number of debts, to hope to raise three thousand dollars to prevent the almost total stoppage of his stipend? That evening when Mrs. Faulkner left her invalid friend the latter asked her to say to Harry that she begged him to come and speak with her. Harry went, but there was no spring, no gladness, in the slow and halting feet that climbed the narrow stair; there was no hope in the care-worn face that came forth again in half an hour. Laura wished him to take her watch, her diamond ear-rings, a locket he had given her in bygone days, and other pretty trinkets, sell them, and pay their debts: she was amazed to hear, not that they owed so much, but that her treasures would bring so little.
The fourth day of his arrest was well-nigh gone. Collabone had reported Barclay quite himself again, and sitting up, though none too strong, and then he saw that Winn at last had been writing. "Read that," said Harry, briefly, and handed him the sheet. It was addressed to Captain Barclay.
"In the last four days I have done nothing but think of the great wrong I did you. I have tried to find words in which to tell you my distress and self-reproach, but they fail me. There was no shadow of justification for my suspicion, and therefore no excuse for my blow. Had you desired reparation you would have demanded it, and the rule used to be for a man in my plight to wait until it was asked before he tendered an apology that might be considered a stopper to a challenge. But I will not wait. At the risk of anything any man may say or think, I write this to tell you that I deplore my conduct and with all my heart to beg your pardon."
Collabone went through it twice with blinking eyes. "That"s the bravest thing you ever did, Winn," said he, as he laid it carefully down. "That ought to stop court-martial proceedings."
"That," answered Winn, "is a different matter. I don"t ask any mercy. I would have been better off this minute if he or Brayton had shot me on the spot."
There was silence a moment as he turned away and presently seated himself at the little table, his head dropping forward on his arms. Then Collabone stepped up and placed a hand upon his shoulder.
"Winn, my boy, I should lie if I said you ought not to feel this, but there"s such a thing as brooding too much. You"ll harm yourself if you go on like this. You---- Here! let me take that in to Barclay. Let him speak for me; I"m d.a.m.ned if it isn"t too much for me!"
But Winn"s head was never lifted as the doctor went his way.
Later that night the post adjutant dropped in. He and Winn had never been on cordial terms, but the staff officer was shocked and troubled at the increasing ravages in the once proud and handsome face of the cavalryman. "Winn," he said, in courteous tone, "the colonel directs extension of your limits to include the parade, and--and to visit Captain Barclay, who wants to see you this evening, if you feel able.
It"s only next door, you know," he added, vaguely. Then, "Isn"t there anything I can do?"
That night just after taps old Hannibal admitted the tall young officer, and ushered him into a brightly lighted room, where, rather pale and wan, but with a kindly smile on his face, Galahad Barclay lay back in his reclining chair, and held out a thin, white hand.
"Welcome, Winn," was all he said, and then the old negro slid out and closed the door.
"There are Oirish and Oirish," as, quoting Mulvaney, has been said before. Once a.s.sured that no further proceedings were to be taken against him for his iniquitous lapse the day of the rush to Crockett Springs, Captain Mullane concluded that he must stand high in favor at court and that further self-denial and abstinence were uncalled for, especially in view of the successes achieved for him by the small detachment of his party led by Lieutenant Winn. Mullane was a gallant soldier in the field, from sheer love of fighting, and the same trait when warmed by whiskey made him a nuisance in garrison. Not a week was he home from his successful scout when he broke out in a new place, and this time he found instant accommodation.
Little of the stolen property was recovered by the searching squad sent out as the result of Marsden"s revelations. That voluble scoundrel was in the guard-house, awaiting trial by general court-martial. Cavalry drills were resumed again, and after each morning"s work the officers gathered in considerable force at the club-room. There had been, both in the infantry and in the cavalry, vast speculation as to the outcome of Winn"s arrest and Barclay"s mishap. But men, as a rule, spoke of the matter with bated breath. Mullane, Bralligan, and the one or two Irish ex-sergeants in the command, known locally as the Faugh-a-Ballaghs, however, waxed hilariously insolent in their comments. Nothing short of dismissal should be Winn"s sentence, and nothing short of a challenge be Barclay"s course. It was with something akin to amaze that Mullane received on the sixth day after Winn"s arrest official notification of his release and restoration to duty. It was with something akin to incredulous wrath that an hour later he caught sight of the liberated lieutenant issuing from Barclay"s quarters, not his own, and with Barclay leaning trustfully on his arm.
Apology accepted! Explanations tendered! All settled, and without a meeting on the field of honor! "Whurroo! but hwat"s the cavalry comin"