"Number Five, sir, hasn"t called off half past "leven. I"ve sent the corporal to see what"s the matter."
"Number Five!" cried two or three men at the instant, and without a word Captain Sumter hurried away, on a bee line across the snow-covered parade, following the tracks of the adjutant.
"Number Five!" repeated the colonel. "That"s just back of Sumter"s quarters;" and he stepped out into the moonlight for clearer view.
Afar over across the glistening level a few lights glimmered faintly in the row of officers" quarters, bounding the northward side of the garrison, but neither along their front nor that of the westward row was there sign of moving humanity. The moon at its full, in that rare, clear atmosphere, illuminated the post, the frozen slopes beyond, and the dazzling range of the Rockies, with a radiance that rendered objects visible almost as at midday. Only the hurrying form of Captain Sumter could be seen half way across the parade. The Fosters" sleigh, that by this time should have been back at the a.s.sembly room, was nowhere in sight. Sumter"s quarters were about the middle of the row. Lanier"s were at the eastward end. For the moment the complaint of the aggrieved sergeant was ignored. All men stood waiting, watching. Then, on a sudden, two or three black forms darted from the shadow of the middle quarters. One came running out across the parade, hardly slackened speed at the hail of Captain Sumter, pointed back with one hand, shouted something that doubled Sumter"s pace, but hurried onward toward the group.
It was Conroy, corporal-of-the-guard. "The adjutant orders me to report Number Five sick, sir," he panted to the colonel. "I found him all doubled up in the coal-shed back of the major"s. "T wasn"t him hollered.
"T was somebody at Captain Sumter"s. They got the steward over from the hospital, but they want the sergeant and some of the guard to search the back buildings."
"_Who_ wants them?" demanded the colonel.
"The adjutant, sir. Lieutenant Blake"s with him. There has been some prowlers--and the young ladies were frightened."
"They are safely home?" asked the colonel. "Then where"s the sleigh?"
"They"re home all right, sir, and the sleigh went on out of the east gate--to the store, I suppose. Number Six didn"t stop it----"
"One moment," interposed the colonel. "Sergeant-of-the-guard, take four of your men and report to Captain Sumter; or to the adjutant. Now, corporal, when was this cry heard?"
"Just after the young ladies got home, sir--leastwise that"s what I was told. We didn"t hear it at the guard-house."
"Was the officer-of-the-guard over there?"
"Not the--new one, sir, but----" And then the corporal suddenly stopped, contrite and troubled.
"But what?" demanded the colonel, instant suspicion in his eyes and tone. "Do you mean that Lieutenant Lanier was there--out of his quarters?"
"Out of his head, if he was," growled the paymaster, who loved him well and was deeply concerned over his trouble.
"I--I didn"t see him, sir," answered the young soldier, but in manner so confused that it simply added to the commander"s suspicion.
"Come with me, Horton," said the colonel to his quartermaster, and turning back for his cap and overcoat. Then once again the voice of the aggrieved and importunate sergeant was heard, this time with convincing appeal.
"I beg the colonel"s pardon, but if he wants to get the truth as to this night"s business, it would be well to arrest Trooper Rawdon, or he"ll be off for good and all."
"Find him, then, sergeant-of-the-guard, and have it done," said b.u.t.ton.
"Report it to the officer-of-the-day as my order."
III
That ended the dance, but not the excitement. Women and girls were seeking their wraps even before the corporal came, and now went twittering homeward, each on the arm of her escort, except in the case of those allied forces, the wives of certain seniors, who long had lived, moved, and ruled in the regiment, and now in eager yet guarded tones were discussing the events of the hour gone by. With these went Mrs. Foster, her husband having joined the searching party, and her sleigh, instead of returning, being still missing and unaccounted for.
Not yet midnight, and in the s.p.a.ce of less than one hour all Fort Cushing had been stirred by the news. A most popular and prominent young officer had been placed in close arrest. A prominent, if not most popular, sergeant, had been pummelled. An alarming scene of some kind had occurred at the quarters of Captain Sumter. No one outside of the immediate family knew just what had happened, and those inside cared not to tell. Mrs. Sumter had hurried away the minute she learned that her husband had gone. The colonel, sternly silent, led his wife to their door, and there left her, saying he had summoned certain officers to join him at once, and she, who ruled him in all matters domestic almost as she managed the children, knew well that when roused he would brook no interference in matters professional, and Bob Lanier, a prime favorite of hers, had in some way managed to fall under the ban of his extreme displeasure.
At the office were presently a.s.sembled the colonel, the adjutant, the quartermaster, the post surgeon, and to them came Paymaster Scott. At the "store," the only club-room they had in those days, were gathered half the commissioned officers of the post. At Sumter"s there kept coming and going by twos and threes, from all along the officers" line, a succession of sympathetic callers, who left even more mystified than when they arrived. Mrs. Sumter was aloft with Kate and their guest, and, as the captain civilly but positively told all visitors, "had to be excused." One of the girls was "somewhat hysterical." Miriam had had a fright in the dark on their return home and screamed. Something foolish, probably, but none the less effective. No! Sumter thought Mrs. Sumter would need no help, yet he was _so_ much obliged to the several who suggested going up just to see if they couldn"t "do something." Captain Sumter was a devoted husband and father, a capital officer, and a gentleman to the core, but the captain could be just a trifle distant at times, and this was one of them.
Another house was virtually closed to question. To the disappointment of many and the disapprobation of a few, Bob Lanier had closeted himself with his cla.s.smate and most intimate friend "Dad" Ennis; then, after a brief colloquy with Barker, the adjutant, had caused a big card to be tacked on his door whereon was crayoned in bold black letters "BUSY."
But at quarter past twelve the a.s.sistant surgeon, Doctor Schuchardt, called, as was known, for the second time, and entered without ceremony.
When the officer-of-the-day came tramping along the boardwalk at 12.30, and turned in at the gate, he struck the panel with the hilt of his sabre, by way of hint that his call was official and not to be denied.
Ennis, therefore, came to the door, but came with gloomy brow.
"I am ordered by Colonel b.u.t.ton to ask certain questions of Lieutenant Lanier," said the official from the depths of his fur cap.
"How"s that, Doc?" called Ennis, over his ma.s.sive shoulder. "Can your patient see the officer-of-the-day?"
"Not yet, with my consent," came the stout answer.
"Shout your questions, captain," sang out the patient, with much too little humility of manner, yet Lanier knew Curbit well and knew his mission to be unwelcome.
Therefore, in Captain Curbit"s most official tones, _ab imo pectore_, came question the first:
"Is Trooper Rawdon in hiding anywhere about your quarters?"
To which, truculently, came response in Lanier"s unmistakable voice:
"He is not, if _I_ know it."
"Do you know or suspect where he is?"
"Neither. And there is no reason why I should."
"Have you seen him--to-night?"
An instant"s pause; then, "I don"t know whether I have or not."
"You don"t _know_?" exclaimed Curbit, puzzled and beginning to bristle.
"I don"t _know_," repeated Lanier, positive and beginning to rejoice.
"Suppose the colonel tells me to explain that," began Curbit, but Doctor Schuchardt set his foot down summarily.
"Here," said he, "this thing"s got to stop;" and he came to the door in his shirt sleeves, leaning half way out, with one hand behind him.
"Lanier"s in a highly nervous and excited state. He has had a fall--and I"m trying to get him to bed and asleep. He doesn"t know--whom--he has seen since he got home in arrest, and you can say so for me."
"All right Shoe," was the philosophical answer. "It"s none o" my funeral, and personally I don"t give a cuss if they _never_ find him, but there are just s-teen reasons why the Old Man wants to see that young man Rawdon forthwith, and as many for believing he"s skipped."
"Then skip after him. You can track anything but a ghost in this new-fallen snow."
Curbit lowered his voice. "That"s exactly the trouble, doctor. Go to the back of the quarters and see for yourself. His trail starts--and ends--_here_."
In all its history Fort Cushing had never known such a day of bewilderment as that which followed. Guard mounting was held as usual at eight A.M., and Colonel b.u.t.ton, awaiting in his office the coming of the old and the new officers-of-the-day, directed his adjutant to drop his own work at their entrance and give attention to what took place. Half a dozen other officers, with little or no business to transact at that hour, made it their business to be present, drawn thither from sheer sympathy, as some declared, and downright curiosity, as owned by others.
The office building was large and roomy; the colonel"s desk was close to the door; beyond it were tables spread with maps, magazines, and papers; a big stove stood in the middle, and a dozen chairs were scattered about, for it was here the officers met one evening each week in the one "book-schooling" to which they were then subjected--a recitation in regulations or "Tactics." Across the hall was a smaller office--the adjutant"s--and beyond that the room where sat the sergeant-major and his clerks. The windows, snow-battered and frost-bitten, gave abundant light from the skies, but none on the surroundings--the view being limited to scratch-hole surveys. There was nothing to distract attention from what might be going on within, and all eyes were on the two burly captains who entered at 8.30, fur-capped, fur-gloved, in huge overcoats and arctics. The wind had begun, even earlier than usual, to whine and stir as it swept down from the bleak northwest, and the mercury had dropped some ten degrees since the previous evening.