With that he went hobbling down the row. There were the ladies and they accosted him to know if anything were wrong,--if they had not better go to Mrs. Truscott? et caetera, et caetera; but he answered with unaccustomed brilliancy and mendacity that he had a scare for nothing because he could not read her fine Italian hand. She was only getting some things ready to send to Captain Truscott by the stage to Fetterman.
All the same he slipped into his room, got his revolver, gave a quiet twirl to the cylinder to see that all was working smoothly, and the next minute, without knocking, banged into the front room of Gleason"s quarters, finding that worthy sluicing his head and face with cold water at the washstand.
"Who"s that?" he shouted, turning half round to find Ray standing less than ten feet away with a c.o.c.ked six-shooter gleaming in his hand. There was dead silence a moment, then Ray"s placid tones were heard,--
"Sit down, Gleason."
Gleason stood glaring at him an instant, a ghastly pallor stealing over his face, his rickety legs trembling beneath him.
"Do you hear? _Sit down!_"
And though the words were slow, deliberate, clean-cut, there was a hissing prolongation of the one sibillant that gave the impression of the "scape-valve of some pent-up power that bore a ton to the square inch. There was a blaze, a glitter, in the dark, snapping eyes; there was a pitiless, contemptuous, murderous set to the lips and jaw; a fearful significance in the slowly-raising pistol hand and the pointing finger of the other. Limp as a wet rag, cowering like a lashed cur, terrified into speechlessness, Gleason dropped into the indicated chair.
"If you attempt to move except at my bidding I"ll shoot you like a dog.
I want that letter."
"What letter?" he whimpered, in his effort to dodge.
"The letter you were blackguard enough to steal and coward enough to threaten Mrs. Truscott with. Where is it?"
"Ray, I swear I meant no harm! It was all a--a joke. I didn"t dream she"d take it so seriously. I picked it up in her yard, and meant to give it----"
"Shut up! Where is it?"
"I--I haven"t got it now."
"You lie! Bring it out, or I"ll----" And again the rising pistol hand with dread suggestiveness supplied the ellipsis.
Gleason began fumbling in the pocket of his waistcoat. It was evident that he was on the verge of maudlin tears; he shook and trembled and began protesting.
"Bah!" said Ray. "The idea of showing a pistol to such a whelp of cowardice! Hand me the letter!" And with an impatient step forward, he stood towering over the cringing, shrinking, pitiful object in the chair. The nerveless hands presently drew forth a letter from an inner pocket. This Ray quickly seized; glanced hurriedly over it, stowed it in his blouse, then walked to the door.
Fancying him going, Gleason"s drunken wits began to rally. He half rose, and with a face distorted with rage, shook his fist, and his high, reedy, querulous tenor could have been heard all over the house.
"You think you"ve downed me, but, by G.o.d! you"ll pay for this! You"ll see if in one month"s time you don"t bemoan every insult you put upon me, and if she don"t wish----"
"_Silence!_ you whelp, you drivelling cur! Don"t you dare utter her name! Just what I"ll do about this infamous business I don"t know--yet.
A woman"s name is too sacred to be dragged into court, even to rid the service of such a foul blot as you; but, now mark me: by the G.o.d of heaven, if you ever dare bring up this matter again to a single soul, I"ll kill you as I would a mad dog."
And with one long look of concentrated wrath, contempt, and menace, Ray turned his back upon his abject enemy and left him. Gleason"s orderly entering the room a minute after was told to hand him a tumbler and the whiskey-bottle, and with shaking hand the big subaltern tossed off a b.u.mper, while the man went on strapping and roping his trunks and field-kit. Half an hour afterwards, half sobered and partially restored, he was able to say a brief word of farewell to the post commander,--a venomous word.
Meantime, stopping at his quarters a moment to return his revolver and wash his hands, Ray went up the row to Truscott"s. He had not time to knock. Grace was waiting for his coming with an intensity of eagerness and anxiety, and the moment she heard his step flew to the door and admitted him, leading, as before, the way to the parlor.
Mrs. Turner had, meantime, been apprised by some of her infantry friends that Mrs. Truscott had sent a note to Mr. Ray, and also that there must be something queer going on. Mr. Ray had been much agitated at first and had hurried thither, and heaven only knows the variety of conjectures propounded. By the time Ray was seen coming up the row again there were four ladies on Mrs. Turner"s piazza, who were vehemently interested in his next move. They watched his going to Truscott"s; but, of course, watching was perfectly justifiable in view of their anxiety about her.
"Did you see?" said Mrs. Turner. "He didn"t even knock. She was waiting to let him in."
It was by no means an unfrequent thing for any one of the ladies of the garrison to receive a visit from some old and tried friend of hers and her husband"s while the latter was in the field. Mrs. Turner never thought anything of having officers call day or evening, though, as a rule, there was a sentiment against it, and the majority of the ladies--especially the elders--thought it wrong for the young matrons to receive the visits of young officers at any time when the head of the house was far away. Now that there were only four young officers in garrison and more than a dozen ladies, the feeling had strengthened to the extent of considerable talk. It was therefore the unanimous view of the ladies on Mrs. Turner"s piazza that in Mrs. Truscott"s receiving two visits from Mr. Ray in one morning, under circ.u.mstances provokingly mysterious, there was something indecorous, to say the least, and unless they knew the why and the wherefore, it was their intention to so declare. "Indeed!" said Mrs. Turner, "I think Mrs. Truscott ought to be spoken to."
Utterly oblivious of this most proper and virtuous espionage, Ray had returned to Mrs. Truscott. She looked at him with imploring eyes as they entered the parlor.
"There is the letter," he said; "do you want it or shall I burn it?"
She shrank back as though recoiling from a loathsome touch.
"Oh, no, no! Burn it! Here is a match," she cried, springing to the mantel, and then her overcharged heart gave way. She threw herself upon the sofa, burying her face in her hands, sobbing like a child with relief and exhaustion. Ray touched the match to the paper; had just fairly started the flame, when laughing voices and quick footsteps were heard on the piazza. The door flew open, and all in a burst of sunshine and balmy air, Marion Sanford, saying, "Oh, come right in. You haven"t a moment to spare, and she"ll be so glad to see you!" whisked into the room followed by Captain Webb.
Tableau!
CHAPTER XVIII.
DESERTION.
In that species of mental athletics known as jumping at conclusions Mrs.
Turner was an expert. That she always. .h.i.t the mark is something a regard for veracity will not permit us to a.s.sert. Indeed, it was not often that her intellectual subtlety enabled her to extract from outward appearances the true inwardness of the various matters that entered the orbit of her observations. All the same she was a born jumper, and, like the Allen revolver immortalized by Mark Twain, if she didn"t always get what she went for she fetched something. Mrs. Turner could fetch a conclusion from everything she saw, and was happy in her facility. Time and again her patient lord had ventured to point a moral from her repeated mistakes of judgment, and to suggest less precipitancy in the future; but to no good purpose. Mrs. Turner"s faith in the justice of her prognostications was sublime, though not unusual. It has been within the compa.s.s of our experience to meet and know undaunted women who, day after day, could, with equal positiveness, announce their theories as incontrovertible facts, or flatly contradict the a.s.sertions of those whose very position enabled them to be well informed. When Mrs. Turner was confronted with the proof of her error, and gently upbraided by the placid captain for being so positive in her affirmation or denial, that pretty matron was wont to shrug her lovely shoulders, and petulantly set aside the subject with the comprehensive excuse, "Oh, well! I didn"t know."
In vain had Turner pointed out to her that the fact was self-evident, that in view of that very fact she should have been less confident in the discussion and should be more guarded in the future: his efforts were crowned with small success. Mrs. Turner"s beliefs were only too apt on all occasions to be heralded by her as undeniable facts.
She saw Miss Sanford and Captain Webb enter the Truscotts" soon after Ray. She saw Captain Webb come out almost immediately and go thence to the Stannards", next door, while Ray soon appeared and walked off homeward. She saw Mrs. Stannard come out with Webb, and while the latter turned to come and say good-by to her, Mrs. Stannard had gone at once into the Truscotts".
"Is Mrs. Truscott ill?" she immediately asked.
"Well--a--she seemed to be. She was evidently a good deal cut up about something," said Webb, who was slow of speech and not quick of intellect.
"Well, what do you think it was? What was she doing? Tell me, captain.
I"m so worried about her, she has been so unlike herself since Mr.
Truscott went away."
"Oh,--ah!--she was very pale and very--a--well, tearful, you know. Been crying, I suppose," and Webb shifted uncomfortably. He couldn"t get over that picture exactly,--Mrs. Truscott springing up from the sofa all tears; Ray standing there burning a letter, all confusion. Still, he believed it something susceptible of explanation, and did not care to talk about it. But that Laramie stage would soon be along, and Mrs.
Turner determined to make the best of her opportunities. Ray had never been one of her satellites, and she never forgave too little admiration, though it would be manifestly unfair to a.s.sert that she would have forgiven too much. She knew that he had been quite devoted to Mrs.
Truscott in the days that succeeded the troublous times at Sandy, though the days were very brief, and now it was her impulsive theory that Mrs.
Truscott"s odd behavior and Ray"s presence at the house were symptoms of a revival of that suspected flame. She was trying to draw Webb out when Gleason, looking black as a thunder-cloud and immensely melodramatic, came in to say good-by to her as she stood on the piazza. The stage came cracking in at the front gate at the moment and stopped below at Gleason"s quarters, where the orderly began stowing in their light luggage.
"Have you said good-by to Miss Sanford and Mrs. Truscott?" she asked, with mischievous interest.
"Er--no. I understand Mrs. Truscott is not well. I saw her this morning a moment, and promised to come round later, but I think it best not to disturb them."
The stage lumbered up to the front, and as it came Mrs. Stannard reappeared and hurried up the walk. Her usually placid face showed evidence of deep emotion and barely repressed excitement.
"Captain Webb, will you say to the major that I will have a long letter to go to him by the very next mail, and that I hope it will reach him without delay." She looked squarely at Gleason with her kind blue eyes blazing, and never so much as recognized him by a nod. "I must return to Mrs. Truscott, who is far from well, but tell Captain Truscott not to be alarmed about her. Good-by, Captain Webb. Come back to us safe and sound."
Another moment and the two officers were borne away, and Mrs. Turner went down to the Truscotts" determined to find out what was the trouble, but came away dissatisfied. There was some mystery, and she could not solve it. What did it portend that Mrs. Stannard should have cut Mr.
Gleason dead?
Later that afternoon, just before sunset, there was a pretty picture in front of Truscott"s quarters. It had been a lovely day, at the very end of July, but the air was cool and bracing, and many of the ladies, seated on the long row of piazzas, or strolling up and down the gravelled walk, had found it necessary to wear their shawls or wraps.