No one knew just what object Ned Lawrence had in coming back to Dixie.
Every one knew he had indignantly refused the second lieutenancy, despite the fact that one or two men with war service and rank almost equal to his own had meekly accepted the grudgingly tendered commission, and others were said to be about to follow suit,--all, presumably, with the hope that their friends and representatives in Congress a.s.sembled would speedily legislate them back where they thought they belonged. No one knew where Ned Lawrence had made a raise of money, but raise he certainly had made, for, to Blythe"s indignation, there came a draft of one hundred dollars to cover the expenses, he said, of his children and old Mammy and to pay the latter some of her wages. The balance he would settle, he wrote, when he arrived. Blythe would far rather he had waited until his accounts were adjusted; then, if Lawrence were in funds, Blythe could have found no fault with this insistence on at least partially defraying the expenses incurred in providing for the little household. Lawrence hoped to have his accounts adjusted, his letter said, and he had reason to believe, from what friends in Washington told him, that he would find his successor willing to receipt to him for missing items, trusting to luck and the flotsam and jetsam of the frontier to replace them in course of time. Lawrence, indeed, was curious now to meet and know Captain Barclay, for he had been told many things that had gone far to remove the feeling of unreasoning antagonism he had felt at first.
Only one thing did he say to Blythe that threw light on his future plans. "I am dreadfully sorry," he wrote, "to hear such ill tidings about Harry Winn. I was always fearful there was something wrong about that fellow Marsden, and sometimes strove to caution him,--I, who could not see the beam in my own eye,--I, with two scoundrels in my orderly-room, trying to warn him against the one in his! Winn is a proud, sensitive, self-centred sort of fellow, whom wealth perhaps might have made popular. He is no better manager than I. He has a wife who could never help him to live within his means, as poor Kitty certainly tried to do with me." (Oh, the blessed touch of Time! Oh, the sweet absolution of Death! Kitty was an angel now, and her ways and means were buried with all that was mortal of her.) "And, worse than all, poor Hal has no one, I fear, to help him now, as--I write it with blinded eyes, dear Blythe--it has pleased G.o.d I should find in many friends in the days of my sore adversity,--you and your blessed wife, and the colonel, and Brooks,--even rough old Follansbee and our dilettante De Lancy, and that inimitable Collabone. My heart overflows, and my eyes, too, at thought of all you and they have done and said and written for me and mine. And here, too, where in my bitterness I thought I was deserted of all, here is gallant old Front de Boeuf (you remember how we swore by him in the Valley after Davy Russell was killed). He has housed and fed and nursed and cared for me like a brother, and Senator Howe and even old Catnip--G.o.d bless him!--have worked hard for me; and, though my soldier days seem over for the time at least, my stubborn spirit has had to surrender to such counsellors and friends as they have been to me.
They all say Congress will surely put me back next winter, and meantime "Buffstick" says I"m to have a salaried position in a big company with which he is a.s.sociated, and to begin work as soon as my health is re-established and my accounts straightened out."
"Who is Buffstick?" queried Mrs. Blythe, at this juncture.
"Buffstick? Oh, that was our pet name for Colonel Dalton, of the --th Ma.s.sachusetts, Lawrence"s friend and host in Washington; a magnificent fellow, dear, with a head and chest that made some lover of Scott liken him to Front de Boeuf,--out of "Ivanhoe," you know. But he was a stickler for neatness in dress and equipments, and his regiment called him Buffstick, and grew to love him all the same. He commanded a brigade after Cedar Creek, and now,--just think of it!--he"s a capitalist."
"Does he know Captain Barclay, do you think?" she asked, after a reflective pause.
"I"m sure I don"t know. Probably not," was the answer. "They never served in the same part of the army. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I was wishing--I couldn"t help thinking--how much Mr. Winn needed some good friend, too."
"Winn and Lawrence are very different men," said Blythe, gravely.
"Lawrence has made friends, while poor Winn has only enemies, I fear, and, really, none worse than himself."
Mrs. Blythe sighed as she turned away. It was much as her husband said.
The Winns had come to the regiment after a round of receptions, dinners, and dances in their honor all the way from Washington to Worth, and had "started with a splurge," as the chroniclers declared. Laura"s gowns and airs and graces won her no end of prominence, but very few friends.
Winn"s "high and mighty" ways, so they were termed by all the garrison, in which at that time only two or three West Pointers could be found, had alienated all the subs, most of the seniors, and many of the women.
Their extravagance during the first year of service, the explanations and excuses tendered by Laura in the next, and Harry"s increasing moodiness and distraction, served only to widen the breach. Men and women both, who began by envying, turned to openly decrying. Cutting things were said to Laura, whose mendacities provoked them. Sneering or at least suggestive things were often said in presence of Winn, if not exactly to him; for there was one quality about the swell the garrison had to respect,--his cheerful and entire readiness to fight on very small provocation, and those were the days when the tenets of the "code"
were not totally forgotten, and there still remained in the army a sentiment in favor of the doctrine of personal responsibility for disparaging words. There would be fewer courts-martial to-day were there more of it left. But when women heard the stories about the big bill at the sutler"s and others that came by mail, and made little icy comments about some people being able to afford much more than _they_ could, Laura laughed off the allusions to their superior style of living by stories of an indulgent papa, until papa"s death left her without further resource from that quarter. Then she set afloat a fabrication about a doting aunt of Harry"s who had no children of her own,--an amiable old widow who was to leave him all her money. He did have an aunt of that description, but she didn"t have the money, and there were men who were malicious enough to refer in Winn"s presence to their wish that they had wealthy fathers-in-law or doting dowager aunts, thereby giving some other fellow a chance to say, "And so does Fuller, no doubt."
Indeed, so practically friendless were the Winns that among nine out of ten families along officers" row there was a feeling of lively curiosity to note the effect of this supposably crushing blow on the unhappy pair, and a consequent sentiment, only partially veiled in many cases, of keen disappointment when the news flew around the garrison that Mr. Winn had announced his readiness to meet the demand in full.
"Why, it can"t be true," said many a woman. "I"ll believe it when I see the money," said many a man. "Do you suppose--he could have accepted it from--Captain Barclay?" asked, in strictest confidence, Mrs. De Lancy of Laura"s erstwhile intimate, Mrs. Faulkner.
"Not _Harry_ Winn, probably," answered Mrs. Faulkner, in confidence equally inviolable, "but----" and the pause that followed was suggestive. Follansbee and Bellows bolted down to the sutler"s with the surprising news, wondering if Fuller could have been a.s.s enough to advance the money. There was a time when he would have done so, perhaps, for he was one of the first to be enthralled by young Mrs. Winn"s grace and beauty, and lavished presents upon her--and upon Winn, of course--for a month, until Winn put a stop to the presents and Mrs.
Fuller came post-haste back from San Antonio and put a stop to other manifestations. But Fuller had long since become estranged from the Winns,--the presentation of his bill at inopportune times having later widened the apparent breach. His jaw fell and his mouth opened wide when he heard the news, for Fuller had begun to believe that he would never get his money, and resented it that Uncle Sam should be luckier.
"Send up another "bill rendered" by Ikey to Mr. Winn this afternoon," he bade his clerk, as the investigators departed to follow other clues.
Fuller had gone down into his pockets, unbeknown to the post, and had actually pressed on Lawrence a loan of three hundred dollars, and bade him come for more when that was gone, but not a cent would he put up for Harry Winn,--not he; "the d.a.m.ned supercilious sn.o.b," was what Fuller now called him, not so much because he thought him a sn.o.b or supercilious or even deserving of d.a.m.nation, as because he had allowed himself to be robbed of three thousand dollars" worth of goods that might otherwise have been purchased of him, Fuller, for double or treble the money. No, plainly, Fuller was not the angel that had come to the rescue of Winn, nor could Follansbee or Bellows or the rest of the fellows find out who had. The mystery of Gilgal was outdone. Even Frazier and Brooks did not know, and when some one, possibly Mrs. Frazier, suggested to the colonel that as the commanding officer he really ought to know, the colonel did send for his new quartermaster and say to him, "Mr. Trott, as you are to receipt to Mr. Winn for the money value of his shortage, it would be well to be very circ.u.mspect. He probably cannot have that much in currency here. How does he propose to pay it?"
"I don"t know, sir," said the man of business, promptly. "He says he will be ready to cover the entire amount on or before the 20th of May. I didn"t like to ask him where it was to come from."
Neither did Frazier, despite no little prodding at home. Only one man ventured to speak of it to Winn, and, the resultant conversation having been variously and exaggeratively reported, the truth should here be told. It was at the club-room, which, for the first time in weeks, Mr.
Winn entered. He asked for Major Brooks, and, finding him absent, turned to go out with no more than a nod to the party at the poker-table. That party was made up mainly of the cla.s.s that was numerous in the army in those days and is as rare as an Indian fight now. The least responsible among them at the moment was Lieutenant Bralligan, ex-corporal of dragoons, who could no more have pa.s.sed the examination exacted of candidates to-day than a cat could squeeze through a carbine. "Hwat d"ye warrnt of the meejor, Winn?" he shouted. "Sure ye"ve got permission to ride out wid us to meet Lawrence."
Winn vouchsafed no answer. Bralligan and he were things apart, a reproach to each other"s eyes, and the evil blood in the Irishman, inflamed already by whiskey, boiled over at the slight. "It"s Barclay ye"re looking for, not Brooks!" he shouted, in tempestuous wrath.
"Faith, if ye want anything out o" the Quaker, let yer wife do the----"
Instantly a brawny hand, that of Captain Follansbee, was sprawled over the broad, leering mouth. Instantly there was a crash of chair-legs hastily moved, of grinding boot-heels as men sprang to their feet, of poker-chips flying to the floor,--a sound of oaths and furious struggles, for two of the party, with the attendant, had hurled themselves on the half-drunken lieutenant and were throttling him to silence, while Captains Bronson and Fellows sprang to head off Winn, who with blazing eyes and clinched fists came bounding back into the room.
"What did that blackguard say?" he demanded. "I did not catch the words."
"Nothing, nothing, Winn, that you should notice," implored Bronson.
"He"s drunk. He doesn"t know what he is saying. He"s crazed. No, sir,"
insisted Bronson, sternly, as Winn strove to pa.s.s him. "If you do not instantly withdraw I shall place you under arrest. Be sure that this poor devil shall make all reparation when he"s sober enough to realize what has happened. Go at once.--You go with him, Fellows."
And so between them they got Winn away, and others soused Bralligan with _acequia_ water and locked him up in his room and had him solemnly sober by afternoon stables, while, vastly to their relief, Winn with two or three cavaliers rode away at three o"clock to meet Ned Lawrence somewhere afar out on the Crockett trail. Greatly did Follansbee and Fellows congratulate Bronson, and Bronson them, on the fact that they had happened to be looking on at the game when Winn happened in and Bralligan broke out; for thereby they had stopped what might have been a most tremendous row. "All of which mustn"t be known to a soul," said they.
But Bralligan"s voice was big and deep. It was one of the causes of his unhallowed preferment in the days when second lieutenancies were showered on the rank and file the first year of the war. Bralligan"s taunting words, only partially audible to Winn as he issued from the front of the building, were distinctly heard by domestics lying in wait for a chance to borrow of the steward and pick up gossip at the back. By stables that evening the story was being told high and low all over the post; even the children heard with eager yet uncomprehending ears; and so it happened that just as the drums of the infantry were sounding first call for retreat parade, and the women-folk were beginning to muster on the porches, and the warriors of the Foot along the opposite side at the barracks, and as Captain Barclay, a light rattan stick in his hand, came strolling back from stables, Lieutenant Brayton at his side, little Jim Lawrence made a dash from a group of children, and, in the full hearing of several officers and half a dozen women, a shrill, eager, childish voice piped out the fatal words,--
"Uncle Gal--Uncle Gal--what did Mr. Bwalligan mean by telling Mr. Winn to send his wife to you for money?"
Laura Winn herself was on the nearest piazza at the moment, stunningly handsome, and posing for a bow from her next-door neighbors as they came by. She and every other woman there distinctly heard the words and marked the effect.
Sir Galahad"s face flushed crimson. He caught his little friend up in his arms and held him close to his burning cheek. "Hush, Jimmy boy. He meant nothing, and soldiers never repeat such nonsense. Run to sister Ada and help her get everything ready for papa"s coming. Think, Jimmy, he"ll be here by tattoo." And with a parting hug he set the youngster down at his doorstep and started him on his way. Then, courteously raising his cap to the gathering on the nearest porch, and noting, as did they, that Mrs. Winn had disappeared within her hall, Barclay quickly entered his own portal, and nabbed Brayton as he was making a palpable "sneak" for the rear door. The youngster found escape impossible. Will he, nill he, the boy told the story as it had been told to him, Barclay standing looking straight into his eyes, as though reading his very soul, yet never saying a word beyond the original, "You heard what Jimmy said. It is another instance of "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings," Brayton. Now, tell me exactly what you know."
It was a warm May evening. A hot south-wester had been blowing from the broad valley of the Rio Bravo, and the few men in the club-room at nine o"clock were demanding cooling drinks. Bralligan was there, looking somewhat solemn and sheepish. He knew that nothing but the presence of senior officers had prevented a serious fracas as the result of his asinine bray that morning, but, now that Winn was out of the way and the matter in the hands of his captain, he had no dread of the thrashing he deserved, and was disposed to an exhibition of bravado. A drink or two added to his truculence, as well as to his desire to resume the game interrupted that morning. There were always in those days a few reliable gamblers at the big frontier posts, and presently Bralligan, in his shirt-sleeves, was contemplating a sizable pile of chips and bantering a burly captain to "see his raise," when suddenly he became aware of a distracted look in the eyes of the group about the table, and, glancing towards the door, his own blood-shot orbs lighted upon the trim figure of Captain Barclay, standing calmly surveying the party,--Barclay, who never smoked, drank, or played cards, and who was reported to have started a movement for prayer-meetings among the enlisted men. His very presence in that atmosphere was ominous, especially as the gaze of his usually soft brown eyes was fixed on Bralligan. One or two men said, "Good-evening, captain," in an embarra.s.sed way, but the Irish subaltern only stared, the half-grin on his freckled face giving place to an uneasy leer. On a bench to the left of the entrance stood a huge water-cooler, with gourds and gla.s.ses by its side. Underneath the spigot was a big wooden pail, two-thirds full of drippings and rinsings.
Without a word, the new-comer stepped quietly within the room, picked up the bucket, and, striding straight to the table before Bralligan could spring to his feet, deftly inverted the vessel over the Irishman"s astonished head, deluging him with discarded water and smashing the rim well down on his unprotected shoulders. An instant more, and Bralligan sent the bucket whirling at his a.s.sailant"s head, which it missed by a yard, then, all dripping as he was, followed it in a furious charge. Sir Galahad "side-clipped" with the ease and nonchalance of long but unsuspected practice, and let fly a white fist which found lodgement with stunning crash straight under the Irishman"s ear, felling him like an ox.
CHAPTER VIII.
And so Ned Lawrence got back to Worth to find it far livelier than when he left it. The stage with its joyous escort had come trundling in just before tattoo, and first and foremost the returning wanderer was driven to his own doorway and left for half an hour with Ada and Jimmy--the one sobbing with joy, the other laughing with delight--on the father"s knees. Then Mrs. Blythe stole in to bid them to the waiting supper, and, pending Lawrence"s reappearance somewhere along the line, the officers gathered in low-voiced groups discussing the startling event of the evening. Bralligan, raging for the blood of the double-dashed, triple-adjectived hound who had a.s.saulted him, had been lugged home by two or three of his kind, consoled by Captain Mullane with the a.s.surance that he"d see that the preacher gave him full satisfaction in the morning, for, with native love of a ruction, Mullane stood ready to bear the subaltern"s challenge, even though his better nature told him the ducking was richly deserved: with Irish honor in question, Mullane was for fight. Frazier and Brooks, of course, said the seniors present, must not be allowed official knowledge of what had taken place, though in those benighted days of magnificent distances from the centre of civilization and the exploring grounds of reporters of the press, many a stirring row was settled without its ever being heard of beyond the limits of the garrison in which it occurred. Captain Barclay, contenting himself with the one blow, despite an unchristian impulse to follow it up with a kick at the sprawling figure, had stood calmly by when Bralligan"s a.s.sociates lifted him, half stunned, to his feet, then, addressing himself to Mullane, with just the least tremor in his voice and twitching to his muscles, remarked, "Of course you know what led to this, sir. If your lieutenant desires to follow it up, you can find me at my quarters." Then, looking very deliberately around upon the little circle of flushed or pallid faces,--there were only five officers present,--he slowly turned, walked away, and shut himself in his room.
A light was still burning there when Brayton tiptoed in at half-past ten. He, with several other cavalrymen, had been sitting in the major"s parlor, listening to Lawrence"s tale of His experiences in Washington.
Winn had rejoined the party late, and one glance at his face was enough to tell Brayton that somewhere he had heard of the fracas at the club-room. Brayton"s boyish heart was bubbling over with pride and delight in this new and unlooked-for side to his captain. Every day of his service with that officer only served to strengthen the regard and admiration Brayton felt for him. Barclay had made no pretence of being a cavalryman on the strength of his a.s.signment to that arm. He started with the a.s.sertion that he had everything to learn, and then surprised his subaltern by an extensive knowledge of what we then called "the tactics." He was certainly not as much at home in saddle as on foot, and did not pretend to be, but he was by no means a poor or ungraceful rider. He had a light, gentle hand, at least,--a thing much harder for most men to acquire than a good seat. He was very cool, just, and level-headed with the members of the troop, not a few of whom thought to "run it" on the "doughboy" captain; but all such projects had flattened out within the fortnight after his coming. Barclay might not know horses, but he did know men, and the first sergeant was the first to find it out,--the new captain calmly and almost confidentially pointing out to him, after ten days of apparently casual glancings over the mess-room and kitchen, that the men were not getting their proper allowance of coffee, and that the savings made on the rations did not all go where they belonged.
"Boy an" man, sorr," began Sergeant Sullivan, oratorically and with fine indignation, "I"ve sarved in the dragoons or cavalry the best fifteen years of me life, and this is the furrst time me honor"s been called into account. I shall tindher me resignation at wanst."
"I have had its acceptance in contemplation for some days, sergeant,"
was the calm response. "But first we"ll overhaul the accounts."
"Currnel Larns"s, sorr, would niver have treated an ould soldier in this way."
"That, I fear, is true," was the imperturbable response, "and as a consequence the colonel appears to have been robbed right and left,--your own name being brought into question. That will answer for the present, sergeant."
And when the troop heard that Denny Sullivan had been "broke" and was to be tried by court-martial for thieving, great was the comment excited, and the men began to wonder what manner of doughboy was this, after all, that had come to them,--the doughboy that ould Denny had so confidently counted on running to suit himself. But this didn"t begin to be all. A very acute trailer was Galahad. Those were days in which only a subaltern, and not always even a subaltern, was expected to appear at morning stables; but the new captain liked to rise early, he said. He was up with the sun or earlier, and hoof- or wheel-tracks about the stables before the herd was led forth to water never escaped his attention, yet apparently never excited remark. Within the third week, however, another non-commissioned officer was suddenly nabbed, and so was a wagon-load of forage, going off to a neighboring ranch at four o"clock in the morning. Meantime the men noted that their coffee and rations were better and more bountiful, and soldiers are quick to receive impressions that come by way of the stomach. "The new captain is knocking out the old abuses," said they, and it was wonderful how soon the ex-doughboy made his way into their good graces. There had been some disposition on the part of the wits in other companies to refer to Barclay"s men as "The Parson"s Own" when it was announced that the captain had attended the chaplain"s evening service, but even that was beginning to die out, when all of a sudden it was noised abroad this evening that the redoubtable Bralligan had been felled by a single blow of that Quaker fist.
Brayton was fairly quivering with excitement this night of nights, and could not sleep. He longed to see his captain and hear his version of the affair, but the door was tightly closed instead of being invitingly open, and he dared not intrude. Not one word had been said about the matter at the major"s, but Brayton knew it would soon be known even to the officer in command. So long, however, as it was not reported to him officially, Frazier would probably let the affair take its course.
Bralligan deserved the knock-down, and doubtless would be glad enough to let the matter end there. But, thought Brayton, if he should demand satisfaction, and Barclay"s religious or conscientious scruples were to prevent his acceptance, "_then_ comes my chance," for the youngster himself proposed to take it up. He had no scruples. He had been longing for a chance to kick that cad Bralligan for over a year, and after all it was Barclay that got it.
Eleven o"clock, and Barclay"s light still burned. Eleven-thirty, and still, reading or writing, the captain seemed occupied in the old poker room, and the door remained closed. Once or twice Brayton heard him moving about, and in his own excitement and interest the boy found it impossible to think of anything else. Twelve o"clock came. He was beginning to undress and prepare for bed, still uneasily watching the light shining through the crack of the door, when his straining ears caught the sound of a footfall underneath his window. It opened on the yard, and the sill was only five feet or so above the ground. A hand was uplifted without and tapped gently on the sash, and as Brayton drew aside the curtain Harry Winn"s face was revealed in the moonlight.
"Come to the porch in front," he muttered low. "I must speak with you."
Brayton was out on the dark piazza in half a minute. He found Winn nervously pacing the boards.
"I told my wife I had to come out and think quietly awhile," he said, as he extended a hand to his silent cla.s.smate. "She heard of this--this d.a.m.nable business almost as quick as it happened. That girl of ours hears everything and tells anything. There"s no doubt about it, I suppose. You were there? You heard it at once, didn"t you? What does--_he_ say?" And Winn"s nod indicated that he meant Barclay.
"Nothing," said Brayton, briefly. "I haven"t seen him----"