Harper"s Round Table, September 10, 1895.
by Various.
HOW REDDY GAINED HIS COMMISSION.
BY CAPTAIN CHARLES A. CURTIS, U.S.A.
Part I.
Guard-mounting was over. The commanding officer in the Adjutant"s office was occupied with the daily routine business of a frontier post. At tables near him sat the Post-Adjutant, the acting Sergeant-Major, and a soldier clerk, writing and making up the semi-weekly mail for the post-office beyond the neighboring river.
Upon a bench outside the door, serving his tour as office orderly, lounged a boy musician. He leaned listlessly against the wall of the building, apparently oblivious to the grandeur of the views around him.
To the south, across an undulating plain, seventy miles away, were the twin Spanish Peaks. To the west, the Cuerno Verde range let itself down to the plain by a succession of lesser elevations, terminating in rounded foot-hills, forty miles distant. Eighty miles to the northwest the forest and granite clad form of Pikes Peak towered in majesty.
The fort was occupied by a troop of cavalry and a company of infantry, the Captain of the infantry being in command. This officer was now attaching his signature to various military doc.u.ments. When the last paper was signed the young orderly entered, and, standing at "attention"
before the Captain, said,
"Sir, my mother would like to speak to the commander."
"Very well, Maloney; take these papers to the quartermaster and the surgeon, and tell your mother to come in."
The orderly departed, and soon after a ruddy-faced and substantial-featured daughter of Erin entered, her sleeves rolled above her elbows, and her vigorous hands showing the soft, moist, and wrinkled appearance that indicates recent and long-continued contact with the contents of the wash-tub. Dropping a courtesy, she said,
"Can the commanding officer spare me a few minutes of his toime?"
"With pleasure. Sergeant Major, place a chair for Mrs. Maloney," said Captain Bartlett.
"Oi want to spake a worrud about me b"y Teddy, sor."
"What is it about your son? Does he need disciplining?"
Seating herself upon the edge of the proffered chair, the Irish woman clasped her moist hands in her hip, and said, "Small doubt but he nades dis_cip_lining, Captain: but it is of the great danger to his loife in carryin" th" mail oi want t" spake."
"A mother"s nervous fear, perhaps. He"s an excellent horseman. You are not afraid he will be thrown?
"Oh, not at ahl, at ahl, sor. He sthicks to the muel loike a bur-r-r. I belave no buckin" baste can throw "im. It"s that roarin" river oi"m afeared of. The min at the hay-camp, whose business it is to row the mail acra.s.s the strame, let Teddy and Reddy do it, do ye know, sor, and oi fear in the prisint stage of the wather, and the dispisition of the b"ys to be larkin" in the boat, they"ll overset it, and be dhrowned."
"Are you quite sure the boys use the boat?" asked the Captain.
"Iv"ry mail-day for the last two wakes, sor."
"And you really think them in danger, Mrs. Maloney? I am sure they both swim."
"That"s jist it, sor! They"re not contint to row quiately over loike min, but they must thry all sorts of antics with th" boat. "Rowin" aich other round" is one of "em. Whin oi spake about it they says they can swim. Small chance aven a good swimmer would have in that roarin" river, with its quicksands, its snags, and its bars."
"Well, I will order the hay-camp detail to do the boating hereafter, Mis. Maloney; so you need have no further anxiety."
"Thank you, sor. It"s no liss than oi expicted from a koindly and considerate gintleman loike th" Captain. Oi hope you"ll overlook a mother"s anxiety and worrimint over her only b"y. It"s not mesilf would be interfarin" with the commanding officer"s duties, but oi knowed that you niver mint for Reddy and Teddy to be rowin" that bit of a skift, whin it belonged to the min at the hay-camp to do the same. Good-day, sor, and many thanks for your kindness, Captain." And with much ceremonious leave-taking the laundress backed out of the office and hurried back to her tubs.
"Mr. Dayton," said the commanding officer, "write Corporal Duffey to hereafter allow no person not a member of his party to row the mail-boat across the river, unless he brings authority from this office."
"Yes, sir."
The letter had been written and sealed when Teddy returned, having changed the full-dress coat and helmet of guard-mounting for a blouse, forage-cap, and leather leggings. Nearly an hour before his drum had rattled an exhilarating accompaniment to the fife, as the guard of twelve privates and three non-commissioned officers marched in review and turned off to the guard-house. Now he stood at the door with spurred heels and gauntleted hands, ready to receive the mail-pouch and ride his little zebra-marked mule to the crossing, two miles from the fort.
The Sergeant-Major handed him the pouch and the letter addressed to the corporal, with this injunction:
"You are to deliver this letter to Corporal Duffey at the hay-camp, and he will give you some instructions which you are to carefully obey."
Slinging the pouch over his shoulder, and tucking the letter under his waist-belt, the boy went to his mule behind the office, mounted, and rode away. Pa.s.sing the quarter-master"s corral, another boy, similarly attired, and mounted on a piebald mustang, dashed out with a whoop, and the two went cantering down the slope to the meadow below.
Arriving side by side at a soapweed which marked the southern limit of the river-bottom, the boys put their beasts to the height of their speed, and rode for a dead cottonwood which raised its bleached and barkless branches beside the road three hundred yards beyond.
This stretch was raced over every mail-day, with varying victory for horse and mule. To-day the mule reached the tree half a length ahead, and Teddy was consequently in high glee.
"Ah, Reddy, my boy!" he shouted. "Eight times to your six! Better swap that pony for a mule, if you want to stand any chance with Puss!"
"Pshaw! You were nearly a length ahead when we reached the soapweed, and I almost made it up. Bronc can beat Puss any time when they start even."
"I should say so!" with great disdain. "How about that day when you got off a length and a half ahead, and I led you half a neck at the Cottonwood?"
"You mean the day Bronc got a stone in his shoe? Of course he couldn"t run then."
The two young soldiers rode on at an easy canter, warmly disputing, for the hundredth time, over the merits of their well-matched animals.
Redmond Carter was the fifer, as Edward Maloney was the drummer, of the infantry company. The latter, the son of a laundress, was a graceful and soldierly boy, dark-complexioned, with black eyes and hair, who bestrode his mule with easy confidence, riding like a Cossack. The other boy, a blond-haired, blue-eyed lad of the same age, quite as tall, but more delicately built, showed less reckless activity in the saddle, but he was a fine and graceful equestrian nevertheless. He had enlisted a year before, in Philadelphia, naming that city as his residence; but certain peculiarities of speech led Captain Bartlett to believe him a New-Englander. He used better language than his fellows, and it seemed he had received good school advantages before entering the army.
For instance, one day when it was Carter"s turn to be office orderly, while sitting at the door he overheard Captain Bartlett, who was writing a private letter, ask the Adjutant, "How does that Latin quotation run, Dayton--"_Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes_," or "_Danaos timeo et dona ferentes_"?""
"Blest if I know. We don"t waste time on dead languages at the Point, as you college men do. I can give you the equation of a parabola if you want it."
Captain Bartlett did not ask for the equation, or explain his reason for wanting the proper order of the Latin sentence, but, the morning"s office work concluded, and the orderly having departed, as he and the Adjutant were pa.s.sing out of the doorway the latter noticed a leaf of a memorandum-pad lodged against the leg of the bench just vacated. A drawing on its surface attracting his attention, he picked it up. It was a very creditable sketch of a huge wooden horse standing within the wall of an ancient city, and a party of Grecian soldiers in the act of descending by a ladder from an opening in its side. Beneath the drawing was written "_Quicquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes._--aeneid, II., 49."
"Here, Captain," said Mr. Dayton, handing the paper to the post commander; "here"s the answer to your question."
"What--that boy Carter? How does a boy like that come to be a musician in the army?"
"Can"t tell. Probably for the same reason that an occasional graduate of a foreign university turns up in the ranks--hard times and want in civil life, and plenty of clothing and food in military life."
"He is indeed a bright boy, and I have noticed a certain refinement of manner and precision of speech not common to men in the ranks. I must inquire about him."
The two "music boys," Teddy and Reddy, were fast friends and constant companions. They made common cause in all quarrels and disputes, and to ill-treat one was to ill-treat both. Teddy was frequently in trouble, and his friend often pleaded for him at headquarters. Indeed, the Adjutant frequently declared that "but for that rampageous young Celt, Carter would never be in trouble." He was quiet by nature, and punctilious in the observance of the most exacting requirements of discipline; while Teddy, through carelessness, was now and then subjected to punishment. Mrs. Maloney, while bestowing a tender mother"s love upon her darling son, entertained a kindly regard mingled with great respect for his friend, and looked after Reddy"s clothing and belongings quite as carefully as after Teddy"s.
Reddy divided the duty of mail-carrier and office orderly with his fellow-musician, yet it rarely happened that one rode without the other"s company. An indulgent corral-master had obtained the consent of the quartermaster to allow two "surplus animals" to be used exclusively by the boys, provided they would take care of them.
On reaching the river the boys drew up before two tents pitched in a small grove of cottonwoods upon the gra.s.sy bank, and occupied by a corporal and three privates, whose duty it was to keep the cattle of the neighboring ranchmen from trespa.s.sing upon the meadows of the military reservation.