3. Pariah Plodder.
The army reader sees the scheme at a glance. With Riggs dismissed, Trainor came to the head of the list, and was ent.i.tled to immediate promotion to first lieutenant, "he being the adjutant." This, then, made old Plodder senior second, and now--_now_, if he could only get Calvin out, there were his bars. Under these circ.u.mstances, Plodder was not the man to hesitate. Knowing Calvin"s weakness, he had "kept an eye on him;"
had obtained, through some mysterious correspondent, details of his proceedings at his post of isolation, and it was not long before it began to be suspected that it was he who inspired the rumors that appeared in the local papers, and so drew the attention of the authorities to Calvin"s offence.
Well, Calvin came in, had an interview with his colonel, who was stern and non-committal. Calvin protested that his offence had been grievously exaggerated. Britton, who took his place up the country, swore that the best citizens up there came in to speak in high terms of Calvin. The men with whom he had had the disturbance were rough characters, who had purposely insulted him, and Britton said that he believed the whole statement could be traced to one of the enlisted men, a bad fellow, whom Calvin had disciplined. The man was known to be writing letters frequently, and no one knew to whom they were sent. Calvin behaved well around garrison, and the colonel was divided in his mind. He hated to prefer charges he could not fully substantiate, and it was by no means certain that the allegations against Calvin could be reliably supported, although there was strong probability of their truth. Then it began to be rumored about the post that the colonel was wavering, despite his firm front against all Calvin"s appeals, and that night Plodder was observed to be in a high state of nervous excitement. He had a confidential interview with one subaltern, and sought another with at least one more, but was sternly and angrily rebuffed. "I cannot say what the matter was," explained the offended youngster, "as he made me agree to regard his offer, as he called it, confidential. But it lets me out on Plodder, that"s all."
The next day Plodder had a long talk with Calvin. The latter looked infinitely depressed at its close, and went up to town by permission of the colonel to see some legal friends. When night came he did not return, as was understood to be the arrangement, and the adjutant, driving up in the ambulance immediately after retreat, reappeared at tattoo, escorting Calvin; and Calvin, perceptibly intoxicated, was conducted to his quarters, and bidden there to abide in close arrest.
Two days more, and his unconditional resignation was forwarded "approved" from regimental headquarters, and a few days later, sadly bidding his comrades adieu, Calvin started homewards. "It was no use trying to make a fight," he said. "Some fellow had been spying around up the country, and had prejudiced the colonel, and he told me he meant to bring up charges for the old matter. I could have stood up against them separately, but not collectively; and I had no war record, no friends, no influence. What was the use? Old Plodder gave me a check for four hundred dollars, payable at the First National in Chicago. I"ll go back to railroading. Wish to G.o.d I"d never left it for soldiering, anyhow!"
And with that he was gone, to await at his home the acceptance of his tendered resignation.
Now there was unexpected sympathy for Calvin in the regiment. He was a plain man, of limited education, who had run an engine on one of Tec.u.mseh Sherman"s vitally important railways in "64, and when his train was attacked by Hood"s hors.e.m.e.n he had fought like a hero, had been made an officer in a regiment doing railway-guard duty, and at the end of the war a lieutenant in the regular infantry. Being sociable, warm-hearted, and weak, he had fallen into drinking ways, had spent his money fast, and so had fallen from grace. He had long been unhappy and out of his element in the service. Perhaps it was best that he should go back to the old life, where drink was an impossibility.
But the wonder was, how could old Plodder bear to spend four hundred dollars of his h.o.a.rded gains even for the coveted file? _That_ was not answered until long afterwards, and really has no place in the immediate _denouement_ of this plot. It might come in handily elsewhere. He _had_ given Calvin four hundred dollars to resign at once, and perhaps the colonel breathed freer at having the case decided for him. Now we were all agog for the result. It depended, of course, upon Riggs"s sentence.
Now Riggs was an anomaly. He had few friends in the regiment. He was a shy, sensitive, retiring sort of fellow--a man who read a great deal, was known to be very well informed, a man who rarely appeared at the social gatherings at the store, never played cards or billiards, was civil and courteous to the younger officers, but a little surly to the seniors. He was disliked by most of the latter, and cordially hated by his own captain. When they sat on courts together, Mr. Riggs invariably carried the day in all discussions that came up. He knew more law than any of them. Indeed, there seemed to be no point on which he had not more information than all but two or three of his seniors, and he rather delighted in drawing them out and exposing their ignorance. On the other hand, in the thousand little ways in which superior officers can inflict humiliation upon their juniors, his own and other captains made him feel his dependent position, and poor Riggs, with all his knowledge, was a very unhappy man. He had not a real friend, certainly not an intimate, in the regiment; in fact, he incurred the hostility of many of the subs at the very start by being transferred from an old regiment to near the top of the list of this one when the consolidation took place in "71--a transfer that drove Mr. Plodder nearly frantic at the time, and laid the solid foundation of his undying hate. Riggs made no attempt to conciliate anybody. He never mentioned his past life or services. No one knew his war history, though it was known that he had served. No one ever heard him refer to what he had seen or experienced. Yet the few caustic comments with which he occasionally silenced Plodder"s reminiscences amid an explosion of laughter from the youngsters a.s.sured every one that he knew whereof he spoke. He was sad, dreamy in temperament; some said he took opium, all knew he took whiskey, and a great deal of it, though never was he known to do or say an unseemly thing under its influence. His face would flush and his speech sometimes thicken, but for a long time that had been all. He was what was called a steady drinker, and as an excuse, his wife (and she was a devoted little woman) was wont to tell the ladies of the regiment who ventured to allude to it that Mr. Riggs had a pulmonary difficulty, a bad cough, and that his physicians had prescribed whiskey.
Cough he certainly had, and at times a very consumptive look, and as time wore on he had grown moody and sullen. Then came an exciting period in the history of the regiment. Several days and nights of sharp and stirring service against rioters in the streets of the adjoining city.
Several days with irregular food and nights with irregular sleep, and after forty-eight hours of such experience Lieutenant Riggs, suddenly summoned at daybreak by his captain to command a guard to be sent to some public buildings, plunged, stupidly drunk, into plain sight of a.s.sembled officers and men, and was sent back to the garrison in disgrace and close arrest. This was the offence for which he had just been tried. There was no hope for him said the colonel and the officers of the regiment. Dismissal short and sharp was the only prospect before him. A presidential announcement had but recently been made that _that_ was the one thing not to be overlooked at an executive mansion where dismayed diplomats were compelled to struggle through state dinners unaided by the accustomed Chateau Yquem and Pommery Sec, and rushed away chilled and alarmed to seek vinous aid for their offended stomachs.
Riggs was ruined, and must expect to go.
But the case had been tried before a general court of considerable rank, and composed of officers from other posts and commands. Only one of the --th Foot was on the detail. Admitting the facts alleged in the specification, Mr. Riggs had called upon one or two officers, his colonel and the major, for evidence as to his general character and previous conduct, and they could say nothing of consequence against him, and _did_ say much that was favorable. When they had retired Mr. Riggs surprised the court by calling upon one of its own members, an old surgeon, and subsequently upon another, a veteran lieutenant-colonel of artillery.
"What in thunder could he have wanted of them?" was the amazed inquiry down at the barracks that evening when it was there announced, and all that was said in reply was, that they had known him during the war. Next day some important doc.u.mentary evidence was introduced, and then, asking only twenty-four hours in which to write his defence, Mr. Riggs, in a voice that trembled with emotion and with eyes that filled with tears he strove in vain to dash away, proceeded to address the court. "My wife is very ill, gentlemen, and her anxiety on my account has increased the trouble. The order convening the court a.s.signed the barracks as the place of meeting, but it was changed, very properly, to suit the convenience of the members who were in the city. As it is, I have to leave there early in the morning, and be away from her all day. May I ask, as a great favor, that you arrange to meet to-morrow at the old place? I can then be near her in case--in case--" Here he stopped short, and, covering his face with his hands, turned his back upon the court.
The solemn silence was broken by the voice of the old surgeon.
"I know Mrs. Riggs, and have known her for years; she is indeed very much prostrated, and I have a note from Dr. Grant at the barracks substantiating what Mr. Riggs says." The judge-advocate stepped out and had a short consultation with the adjutant-general of the department in his adjoining office, and when the court adjourned it adjourned to meet at noon on the following day down at the barracks.
It was perhaps an hour after adjournment when the judge-advocate of the court, accompanied by one of its members, started out to take a drive.
Pa.s.sing the headquarters building where they had been in session during the morning, they were surprised to see Lieutenant Riggs standing alone at the doorway and gazing anxiously down the street.
"Why, I thought his wife was so sick, and supposed that he would be on his way to barracks by this time," said the member.
"And I, too; I don"t understand it," said the junior, who was driving.
"At least," he added, hesitatingly, "he may be waiting for the ambulance. It"s a six-mile drive, and no hackman will go there for less than a small fortune."
There was silence for a moment as they trotted briskly along. Both the judge-advocate and the member caught each other in the act of glancing back towards the dim and lonely figure of Mr. Riggs, and in another minute the younger officer pulled up his team.
"Major, you want to go back and see what"s the matter?"
"Yes, and so do you. Hold up a minute; there"s Coles now. He"ll know about the ambulance."
Reining in towards the sidewalk, the sauntering quartermaster was hailed, and that somewhat bulky official stepped up to the side of their stylish turn-out.
"Was the ambulance to take Riggs back to the post? He seems to be waiting for something very anxiously," said the judge-advocate.
The quartermaster started. "Why, yes; I thought it had gone long ago, and had stopped below here where I met it. Captain and Mrs. Breen and one or two others were doing a little shopping, I reckon."
"Meantime poor Riggs is waiting to get back to his sick wife, and has been waiting for an hour," said the legal adviser of the court, with an impatient crack of the whip that startled his spirited grays as they were whirled about and sent spinning up the street, leaving the dazed quartermaster staring after them. At headquarters the team again abruptly pulled up, and its driver called out, in cheery tones,
"Riggs, we are going out to barracks. Can we give you a lift? It may be some time before that ambulance comes along."
"It was to have been here over an hour ago," said the infantryman, slowly. "I don"t know what"s the matter, and I could not go in search of it; my arrest limits me to this building when in town. I hate to trouble you, yet I ought to have been home by this time."
"Jump in, jump in! We"ll get you there in less than no time," exclaimed both occupants. And, only too willing, Mr. Riggs "leaped aboard," and they sped away for the outskirts of the city.
Pa.s.sing a favorite restaurant, where officers and ladies were wont to rendezvous when in town, they caught sight of the missing ambulance.
"Weren"t you ordered to be at headquarters for Lieutenant Riggs at three o"clock?" demanded the judge-advocate of the driver.
"Yes, sir," replied that party, glancing in nervous embarra.s.sment over his shoulder at somebody in the depths of the vehicle, "but--"
A forage-capped head appeared from behind the curtain; the benign features of Captain Breen slowly hove in sight, and a smile of greeting spread thereover as his eyes met those of the staff-officers.
"Oh, ah! Good-afternoon, colonel. How de do, Captain Park. Why--yes, there was something said about going for Riggs when we got through--when the ladies finished shopping, you know. I was just reading the evening paper. If you are ready, Riggs, I--I"ll hurry them out now," said the captain, startled into civility to the subaltern on seeing the distinguished company in which he drove.
"Thanks; we won"t trouble you. Hup there!" said Captain Park, dryly and energetically, as once more the grays dashed off at rapid trot, and in half an hour Mr. Riggs was landed in front of his quarters in the garrison.
He said very little as he stepped from the light road-wagon, but he grasped the extended hands of the two officers, and looked up in their faces with mute eloquence. The post surgeon happened along at the moment, and Riggs turned eagerly towards him.
"A little easier, if anything," said the doctor, in answer to the look of anxious inquiry. "Better, I think, than she has been for the last two days. Your telegram cheered her a good deal."
"Excuse me now, will you, gentlemen?" said the lieutenant to his late conductors. "You understand my haste, and will forgive my inhospitality in not asking you in. You--you don"t know how I thank you." And with that he was gone.
"Doctor, what seems the matter with Mrs. Riggs?" asked the judge-advocate, impetuously.
"Heart-trouble mainly. Any great anxiety tells right there. She was a very sick woman yesterday. Won"t you stop at my quarters?"
"Thanks, no. We were just out for a drive, and must get back."
Whether from motives of delicacy, or possibly from lack of curiosity, very few of the older officers of the --th Foot were present in the court-room when Mr. Riggs read his brief statement or defence on the following day; but nothing could keep Plodder away. Among the group of four or five junior officers his keen little eyes and eager face peered out, ferret-like, glancing from member to member of the court as though he sought to probe their inmost souls. Brief as it was, Riggs had written an admirable little argument. He made no accusations, no recriminations; indeed, he rather slightingly alluded to a portion of the evidence which went to show that during the forty-eight hours preceding his offence he had been kept almost continuously on duty night and day, while the other company officer, his captain, slept almost as continuously. He manfully admitted his guilt, he showed that never before had he been accused of such an offence, and then, with brief reference to the testimony of the surgeon and his old division commander of war days, and the doc.u.mentary evidence in their possession, he threw himself upon the mercy of the court.
The youngsters could not repress a murmur of admiration as he closed.
Plodder with open mouth and staring eyes looked around the long, littered table like a military Shylock imploring the fulfilment of his bond. His eyes brightened as the judge-advocate slowly rose; he knew how trenchant he could be, at least, and he had confidence that his response would shatter the favorable impression left by Mr. Riggs"s defence. It was with an almost audible gasp of dismay that he heard the next words that broke the silence of the court-room. The judge-advocate calmly said, "The case is submitted without remark."
Not until Mr. Waterman had plucked him by the coat-sleeve and hoa.r.s.ely whispered, "Don"t stand there like a stuck pig, you old idiot. Court"s cleared," could Mr. Plodder be made to understand that all outsiders were required to withdraw that the court might proceed to its deliberation. Even at the outer door he again stopped and looked back, a half-formed project taking root in his bewildered brain, and again Mr.
Waterman unfeelingly interrupted him. "Come on, Plodder. D--n it all!
are you thinking of going in and haranguing the court yourself?" It was in more than perturbation that Plodder finally sought his quarters and, secure in his solitude, unlocked and uncorked his demijohn.
In another hour the court had adjourned and gone its way. Issuing from the stuffy room over the colonel"s office, the members had been met by hospitable invitations to take luncheon here, there, and elsewhere about the garrison, and the story of the doc.u.mentary and war evidence having got around by this time, there was much questioning as to its exact nature, and much wonderment that it had not been heard of before. The surgeon had testified to Mr. Riggs"s having been twice severely wounded, once at Shiloh, again at Chickamauga. The artillery colonel to his having twice noticed admirable and gallant conduct in action, which he had praised in orders. The doc.u.mentary evidence went even further.
Evidently Riggs"s stock was looking up. Of course no member of the court could give the faintest hint of the action taken, and as they finally drove away, and the officers after evening parade were discussing the probable fate of the accused, the colonel quietly put a stop to speculation by the remark made to the second in command, "He pleaded guilty. They had to sentence him to dismissal. Now only the President can save him. He has no influence, and the President has just said he would not overlook such offences in future. That settles it in my mind."
That night, therefore, Mr. Plodder went to bed half full of comfort and whiskey.
But it was noticed that the judge-advocate, Captain Park, had gone off with the surgeon after the adjournment of court, and while the rest of the garrison were at lunch he, with Dr. Grant, had appeared at Riggs"s door.
"She has begged to be allowed to see you," the doctor had explained, "and what she needs is some little word of hope. _His_ hopefulness she fears is only simulated for her sake." And nodding appreciatively in response to the doctor"s significant glance, Captain Park was shown into the plainly furnished little parlor, where, reclining in a broad sofa-chair, propped upon white pillows, white as her own wan face, was the fragile form of the invalid. He had known her only slightly, but her gentle, una.s.suming, sweet-tempered ways had often attracted his attention, and her devotion to her husband was a matter that had excited the somewhat envious remarks of Benedicts less favored. She held out her thin white hand, and looked with glistening eyes up into the grave bearded face that bent over her in courteous greeting and kindly interest.