"There was a sort of snarl down at the store this morning, Some mention of it was made while we were talking there at Whaling"s, and I was anxious to get the particulars. Wilkins was saying something about Ray that worries me. Have you heard nothing?"
"Not a thing, Luce. Did you suppose Mrs. Turner was possessed of all the information and would come to me with it?"
The major looked uncomfortable. "She would be apt to go to somebody, and you were the nearest. Both those youngsters, Dana and Hunter, were present, and they are leaky vessels, I"m told. Turner never tells her anything, but the boys do."
"What a thing to say, Luce!"
"Can"t help it," growled the major, thrusting out his spurred boot-heels towards the railing and tilting back in his chair. "You never heard, I suppose, that between her and Mrs. Raymond and Mrs. Wilkins there was a regular intelligence bureau at Sandy two years ago. So you heard nothing about this affair?"
"Not a word; and it occurs to me, Major Stannard, that you look vastly as though you wish Mrs. Turner _had_ come with the details. That"s just the way with you men. You rail at our s.e.x for gossiping, and growl when we can"t or won"t tell you anything. Luce! Luce! How consistent!" And in her enjoyment of her burly lord"s discomfiture, Mrs. Stannard forgot for the moment her many anxieties and laughed blithely.
The major had too much to worry him, however, and this was so evident to his devoted wife that her laugh was brief,--it was never loud or strident,--and she moved her chair nearer to his own.
"Is Mr. Ray in any trouble?" she asked, with genuine concern.
"I don"t know. Of the officers present at the conversation in the store this morning all I have since seen were infantrymen, whom I couldn"t ask. Wayne and Merrill heard something of it and came to me at once because of their regard for Ray, but Blake has gone to town. He is the man who snubbed Crane and Wilkins. It seems Wilkins claims to have a letter from somebody--that man Gleason probably--to the effect that Ray has been on a perpetual tear with the very man of all others I dreaded his meeting. You remember that contractor, Rallston."
"Mr. Ray"s brother-in-law?"
"Yes; worse luck! I knew the fellow by reputation before we went to Arizona. He"s a scoundrel, and a very polished one, too. Ray is smart enough ordinarily, but if Rallston has been trying to sell him horses there will be trouble sooner or later. I"m more worried about that than over the campaign news. Sorry about H----, of course, though I"d never met him: They say he is a capital officer; but I can"t start to-morrow and have this thing haunting me all the way up to Laramie. I"ll go down to camp and hunt up Wilkins, and ask him flat-footed for his whole story; then there will be time to write to Ray, or telegraph if need be."
That was a dreary night at Russell. All the afternoon the telegraph instrument at headquarters was clicking away with details of the brief and sudden fight upon the Rosebud, and the officers read in silence the description of the hordes upon hordes of savages that swooped down upon Crook"s little column, and whirled his allied Absarakas and Shoshones off the wooded bluffs. "They must have been reinforced from every reservation between the Missouri and the mountains," was the comment, for the whole country swarmed with them. Scout after scout had been sent out to strive to push through to the Yellowstone and communicate with General Terry"s forces, known to be concentrated at the mouth of the Tongue. Some had come back, chased in to the very guard by yelling "hostiles." Several had failed to return at all, but--significant fact--none had succeeded in getting through. The last of June would soon be at hand; the forces that were to co-operate--Crook"s from the Big Horn foot-hills at the south, Terry"s from the banks of the Yellowstone at the north--had reached their appointed stations and even gone beyond, but not a vestige of communication could they establish one with the other. Crook, striving to force his way through from his corrals and camps, had been overpowered and thrust back by the concentration upon him of five times his weight in foes. Terry, sending his cavalry scouting up the Rosebud, found an unimpeded pa.s.sage for miles and miles; and even as our friends at Russell were reading with gloomy faces the tidings from the front, a little battalion of cavalry, pushing venturously up the wild and picturesque valley, came suddenly upon a sight that bade their leader pause.
Up from among the wild rose-bushes along the sparkling stream, and climbing the great "divide" to the west, there ran a broad, new-beaten, dusty trail, pounded by the hoofs of ten thousand ponies, strewn on every side with abandoned lodge-poles, worn-out blankets, or other _impedimenta_, malodorous, unsightly. "The Indians have crossed to the Little Horn within the last three days," said the experienced scouts in the advance. Back went the column down the valley to report the news, and three days afterwards two war-tried regiments of horse were _en route_. From the south, heading for the Black Hills of Dakota, with orders to find the trail leading from the reservations to the Indian country and put a stop to the forwarding of reinforcements or supplies, rode our old Arizona acquaintances of the --th. From the north, pushing up the Rosebud into the very heart of the hostile regions, with orders to find the lurking-place of the swarming savages and "hold them" from the east, there came a command and a commander famed in song and story.
Between them and the Big Horn heights and canons, where lay the comrade force of Crook, there rolled a glorious tract of wooded crest, of sweeping, upland prairie, of deep and sheltered valley, of plashing stream and foaming torrent, and there in their guarded fastness, exulting in their strength, mad with rejoicing over their easy victory, lighting the valley for miles with their council-fires, rousing the echoes with triumphant shout and speech, thousand upon thousand gathered the Indian foemen, "covering the hills like a red cloud."
CHAPTER VIII.
AT RUSSELL.
"What do you think!" exclaimed Mrs. Turner, breathlessly, as she rushed in upon her friend Mrs. Stannard one bright morning a week later, "Mrs.
Truscott and Miss Sanford will both be here to-morrow. Mr. Gleason escorts them. Why!" she added, in visible disappointment, "you knew all about it all the time. Why didn"t you tell me?"
"I only knew yesterday, Mrs. Turner," was the smiling reply. "They will stay with me until their quarters are ready. Captain Truscott and Captain Webb will camp here with their troops until further orders, and you knew, of course, that they were on their way. The ladies were to have gone to the hotel in town, but Major Stannard sent word before he left that Mrs. Truscott must come to me, and I have plenty of room for Miss Sanford, too."
"Won"t it be delightful to have them? It will add ever so much to the life of the post," said Mrs. Turner, with visions of hops and parties innumerable flitting through her pretty head. It was a week since the --th had broken camp and marched away. Already they were far across the Platte and up out of reach of all telegraphic communication somewhere among the breaks of the South Cheyenne, and right in among the bands now known to be hurrying day and night, northwestward, to join the hordes of Sitting Bull. Captain Turner had been unusually grave in parting with his wife, but that blissfully const.i.tuted matron had shed few tears. She was philosophic and sensible beyond question. What good was there in borrowing trouble? Didn"t the captain have to go time and again just the same way in Arizona, and didn"t he always come back safely? Of course, poor Captain Tanner and Captain Squires, and Mr. Clay and Mr. Walters and others, had been killed, and lots of them were wounded at one time or another; but heavens! if one had to go into deep mourning every time a husband had to take the field, there would be no living in the cavalry at all! Mrs. Turner was unquestionably sensible, and far be it from our intention to upbraid her. Ladies there were in the --th who spent several days in prayers and tears after they had seen the last of the guidons as they fluttered away over the "divide" towards Lodge Pole, and with these afflicted ones Mrs. Whaling, the "commanding officer"s lady,"
would fain have lavished hours of time in sympathizing converse. She loved the melodramatic, and was never so happy, said Blake, as when bathed in tears. Detractors of this estimable woman, indeed, were wont to complain that she was too easily content with these pearly but insufficient aids to lavatory process; and her propensity for adhering for weeks at a time to an ancient black silk, which had seen service all over the Western frontier, gave sombre color to the statement. The few ladies of the --th who had come to Russell for the summer were hardly settled in their new quarters when the regiment was hurried away, and from one house to another had Mrs. Whaling flitted, a substantial and seemingly well-fed matron in appearance, and one whose eccentricities of costume and toilet were attributable, no doubt, to a largeness of nature, which rendered all care for personal appearance subordinate to the claims of afflicted humanity. All the ladies had gracefully accepted her proffered sympathy, and some had warmly thanked her for the well-meant attentions; but Mrs. Turner was completely nonplussed by the good lady"s offer to come and pray with her, and it must be allowed that Mrs. Whaling"s visit of condolence had been productive of far more comfort to Mrs. Turner than was expected,--and in a far different way; for that volatile young matron rushed in upon Mrs. Stannard late in the afternoon, choking with laughter, to describe her sensations in striving to be proper and decorous until the venerable black silk had whisked itself off out of hearing. Three days after the --th had gone the band arrived from Hays. Mr. Billings had spent two days at the post in seeing his men comfortably established and in turning over property to the infantry officer designated to be post adjutant, and then he had taken stage to Laramie and gone in chase. That evening, after the band had played delightfully an hour or two on the parade, the officers suggested an informal dance; their own ladies went readily, and Mrs. Turner decided to go and see the hop-room, and once there it seemed so poky to come away without a waltz or two. "The floor was lovely, so much better than ours at Hays, and really, several of the garrison officers danced remarkably well." So we infer Mrs. Turner had satisfied herself by personal experiment on that score. Very properly, the informal hops became regular features of the garrison life, and several ladies of the --th, "gra.s.s-widowed" for the summer, were speedily induced to join in these modulated gayeties. What with the band, the influx of some half a dozen new ladies, and the constant arrival of officers _en route_ to the front, the garrison not unnaturally remarked that Russell was jollier now that the --th had gone than it was before.
And now Mrs. Truscott and the very interesting Miss Sanford were coming.
This was indeed news! They were to take quarters next to the Stannards, and be Mrs. Stannard"s guests until the furniture arrived and all was made ready for them. Truscott"s troop, with Webb"s, was coming along by rail fast as they could travel in the heavy freight-trains to which they were a.s.signed, and the ladies, Mrs. Webb included, were being escorted on the express direct to Cheyenne by Lieutenant Gleason, who had joined the party as they pa.s.sed through Kansas City, and who had, doubtless, made himself especially agreeable to the young and lovely Mrs. Truscott, of whom he had heard so much, and to her friend, the heiress from New Jersey. These were details of which Mrs. Turner was in ignorance when she came in to surprise Mrs. Stannard with the news, and, after her first astonishment, Mrs. Turner"s sensations were not those of unmixed delight. A whole day, it seemed, had the major"s wife been in possession of the tidings and had not imparted them to her. This was indicative of one of two things: either Mrs. Stannard was so reticent that she did not care to tell anybody, or else she had told others and kept it from her,--from her who believed that she had made a most favorable impression on this charming and popular lady of whom all men and most women spoke so admiringly. Mrs. Turner"s face betrayed her mental perturbation, and Mrs. Stannard was quick to divine the cause. In genuine kindness of heart she came promptly to the relief of her pretty friend. Without being in the least blind to her frivolities, Mrs.
Stannard saw much that was attractive and pleasant in Mrs. Turner. She was vastly entertained by her, and enjoyed studying her as she would a graceful statue or a finished picture. Beneath the surface she had no desire to penetrate. Warm friends and loving friends she had in troops, and women of Mrs. Turner"s mental calibre were sources of infinite, though quiet, entertainment. She enjoyed their presence, was cordial, kindly, even laughingly familiar, yet always guarded. Mrs. Stannard"s most p.r.o.nounced characteristic was consummate discretion. She knew whom to trust, and others might labor in vain to extract from her the faintest hint that, repeated carelessly or maliciously, would wound or injure a friend.
But here was a thing all the world might know. Truscott"s telegram had reached her the evening before, saying that the three ladies, escorted by Lieutenant Gleason, would arrive at such a time, and that Mrs.
Truscott and Miss Sanford would gladly accept her offer. The average woman could hardly restrain herself from going out and seeking some one to whom to tell the interesting news. Few pleasures in life are keener than the bliss of being able to convey unexpected tidings,--when they are welcome,--but Mrs. Stannard knew that the ladies of the regiment with whom she felt at all intimate were over at the hop-room. She had all a woman"s eagerness to tell the news, but--she was loyal to the --th, and would not even in so little a thing let others be the bearers.
That Mrs. Stannard was a woman capable of deeds of heroism we deduce from the simple fact that she went to bed that night without having breathed the story to a soul. She had a strong impulse to tell her cook and housemaid,--old and reliable followers of her fortunes,--but she well knew that those amiable domestics would be clattering up and down the back yards all the evening, and the news would surprise n.o.body when she came to tell it next day. She was too true a woman to want to part with such a pleasure. Then she had--ah! must it be confessed?--a little mischievous desire of her own to see how Mrs. Turner would take it, for those who knew Mrs. Turner best were given to the belief that she would far rather have the attention of the masculine element of the garrison concentrated upon herself than shared with such undoubted rivals as these would be; and so, with perfect truth, Mrs. Stannard"s rea.s.surance took the form of these words:
"You see I could not make up my mind to let any one know until I had told you, and I"ve been expecting you all the morning,"--and Mrs. Turner was charmed. "But," said Mrs. Stannard, "tell me how you heard it. I thought no one knew it but myself."
"Oh! Mr. Gleason telegraphed as a matter of course, to announce that _he_ was escorting these ladies. It was quite a feather in his cap to be able to show the commanding officer here that Captain Truscott intrusts to him the duty of guarding anything so precious. When you get to know Mr. Gleason better you"ll appreciate that," said Mrs. Turner, with a pout. "Captain Turner can"t bear him, and dislikes to have me notice him at all; and what I wonder at is his escorting them. Why is he not with his company? And where is Mr. Ray? If the board has adjourned, I should suppose that Mr. Gleason would be on duty with his men,--he is Truscott"s first lieutenant, you know,--and that Mr. Ray would be rushing through to catch _his_ company. Why isn"t he escorting them I wonder? Perhaps Captain Truscott had reasons of his own for not permitting that,--Ray _was_ smitten with her, I don"t care what Mrs.
Raymond says. Have you heard where Mr. Ray is?"
"Not a word. I wish I knew," said Mrs. Stannard, wistfully.
"Have you--have you heard anything about his being in any trouble, in anything likely to keep him from going with the regiment?" asked Mrs.
Turner, hesitatingly, yet watching closely Mrs. Stannard"s face.
"Nothing in the least that is anything more than a very improbable story, and one that I have too little faith in to repeat. Tell me what news you have from the captain." And Mrs. Turner knew "twas useless to ask questions. She hurried through her visit, and tripped eagerly away up the row to carry the news throughout the garrison, meeting Mrs.
Whaling coming down, and the latter had the start.
And so, before the setting of a second sun, Grace Truscott was once more in garrison, and Miss Sanford, with quietly observant eyes, was forming her first impressions of army life in the far West, and welcoming with sweet and gracious manner the ladies, who could not resist their hospitable impulse to gather on Mrs. Stannard"s piazza and greet the new-comers as soon as they had removed the dust and cinders of railway travel, and in the bewildering freshness of their New York costumes reappeared on the parlor floor.
That evening, of course, they held quite a levee. The band played delightfully upon the parade, welcoming back to the frontier the colonel"s daughter, and wishing, many of them, that old Catnip, too, had come, for he was very thoughtful and kind to his men, and they were realizing that it is no fun to be musicians for somebody else"s regiment. Many officers and ladies called, and Mrs. Stannard"s pleasant parlor was filled from early until late. One man appeared there before anybody else, accepted an invitation to join them at dinner and stayed until after eleven: this was Mr. Gleason.
The sunshine of Mrs. Stannard"s bonny face was something the --th were p.r.o.ne to speak of very often, perhaps too often to suit other ladies, whose visages on the domestic side were not infrequently clouded. Just as it is an unsafe thing to speak in presence of some mothers of the grace or beauty or behavior of other children than their own, so it is simply idiotic to talk of Mrs. So-and-so"s sweet manners or sweeter face to Mrs. Vinaigre, who is said, at times, to be snappish. It may be far from your intention to inst.i.tute comparisons or to refer, by inference, to graces which are lacking in the lady to whom you speak, but there is nothing surer in life than that you get the credit of it in the fullest sense, and that, most unwittingly, you have affronted a woman in a way the meekest Christian of her s.e.x will find it hard to forgive; she will never forget it. Mrs. Stannard"s smile was sweetness itself; her eyes smiled quite as much as her mouth, and her very soul seemed to beam through the winsome, winning beauty of her face. All the young officers looked up to her with something akin to worship; all the elders spoke of Mrs. Stannard as the perfection of an army wife; even her closest friends and acquaintances could find no one trait to speak of openly as a fault. The nearest approach to such a thing was Mrs. Turner"s exasperated and petulant outbreak when her patient lord had ventured, in presence of several of her coterie, to speak once too often of that lovely smile. "Merciful powers! Captain Turner. Any woman with Mrs.
Stannard"s teeth could afford to smile from morning till night; but it"s all teeth!" But even Mrs. Turner knew better. It was a smile born of genuine goodness, of charity, of loving-kindness, and of a spiritual grace that made Mrs. Stannard marked among her a.s.sociates. In all the regiment no woman was so looked up to and loved as she.
Grace Truscott had known her well by reputation, though this was their first meeting. It seemed not a little strange to Miss Sanford that they should be going thus suddenly and unceremoniously to be the guests of a lady whom neither of them had ever seen, but ""tis the way we have in the Army," was the laughing response when she ventured to speak of it, and any hesitancy or embarra.s.sment she might have felt vanished at the instant when their hostess appeared on the piazza and both her hands were outstretched in welcome. "Did you ever see a lovelier expression in a woman"s face?" was her first impulsive exclamation when she and Grace were shown to their rooms. Yet, once her guests were up-stairs and out of the way, Mrs. Stannard"s brow clouded not a little as she descended to the piazza, where she had left Mr. Gleason superintending the unloading of trunks, boxes, and other baggage, and giving directions about the distribution of this thing or that quite as though "one of the family." She had never liked him; the major cordially hated him; she knew that Captain Truscott could not possibly feel any friendship for such a man, and yet here he was, the escort of Mrs. Truscott and Miss Sanford on their journey. They were her guests, and therefore she had to be unusually civil to him. One or two officers came up to speak to him as he stood at the little gate, and the post adjutant invited him to send his traps to his quarters, where a room was ready. Gleason looked around at Mrs. Stannard and remarked, "Well, I"m much obliged, but you see I"m rather bound as yet to our ladies," and plainly intimated that he hoped Mrs. Stannard would offer him the spare room on the parlor floor, but Mrs. Stannard did nothing of the kind; and, not very gracefully, he availed himself of the young infantryman"s courtesy. The baggage was all in by this time, and there was no need of his prolonging his stay. Mrs. Stannard, of course, announced that they expected the pleasure of his company at dinner at six, and asked him to come in and rest, unless he preferred to go at once and dress. Gleason concluded it best to go, but, in the hearing and presence of the garrison officers who were standing near, begged Mrs. Stannard to explain to the ladies that he had to report to the commanding officer, and would she please say to Miss Sanford that he would call at five?
What could that mean? was Mrs. Stannard"s vexed inquiry of her inner consciousness. Was the widower bent on making the most of his time in an endeavor to fascinate the Eastern belle? The ladies were hardly dressed when he reappeared, and was urging Miss Sanford to come out with him for a brief stroll to see the mountain prairie and take a whiff of Wyoming breezes, when the appearance of Mrs. Turner and others (who had just happened by, but hearing their voices could not resist rushing in to welcome Mrs. Truscott, etc., etc.) put an end to the possibility. It was a comfort to note that though perfectly courteous and pleasant in her manner, even to the extent of that indefinable yet perceptible half intimacy which exists between travelling companions, Miss Sanford seemed in no wise encouraging and by no means displeased at the interruption to the plan so audaciously proposed. At dinner Mr. Gleason sat opposite the young lady, and was, therefore, obliged to talk much with Mrs. Stannard.
After dinner he promptly established himself by Miss Sanford"s side, showing her alb.u.ms full of photographs of the officers,--a collection the major and his wife had been making for years, and one in which they took great delight. Gleason knew most of them, and it enabled him to be very entertaining, as he could tell some anecdote or incident connected with so many, but the early coming of visitors broke in upon his monopoly, yet could not wholly drive him from her side. It was observed by every man and woman who came in that evening how a.s.siduous was Gleason in his attentions. More than that, there was something about them that can best be described by the word possessive. It seemed as though he had studied the art of behaving as though he felt that every look and word was welcome to her. Mrs. Stannard was secretly exasperated; Mrs. Truscott, who knew nothing of him until their westward journey, was only vaguely annoyed, but no one could tell from her manner what Miss Sanford thought.
It was after eleven when the last of the visitors withdrew, and still he lingered. Once more Miss Sanford stood by the centre-table and bent over one of the alb.u.ms. She turned rapidly over the pages until she reached a cabinet picture of a dark-eyed, dark-haired, trim-built young officer in cavalry undress uniform.
"You did not tell me who this was, Mr. Gleason."
"That? Oh! That is Mr. Ray of our regiment," was the reply, in a tone lack-l.u.s.tre of all interest.
"Mr. Ray? Where? Let me see," exclaimed Mrs. Truscott, coming quickly to them. "Oh, _isn"t_ that perfect? When did you get it, Mrs. Stannard? How mean of him not to send us one!"
"It was taken in Denver this spring," said Mrs. Stannard. "The major says it"s the only picture he has ever seen of Mr. Ray, and it is as good as one can be that doesn"t represent him in the saddle. You know we think him the best rider in the --th,--we ladies, that is," she added, knowing this to be one of Gleason"s weak points. Mr. Gleason made no remark.
"What became of the other members of the board, Mr. Gleason?" she continued. "I expected to see Captain Buxton and Mr. Ray."
"Oh, they gave us all ten days" delay in joining so as to say good-by to friends, you know. Buxton stopped to see his wife"s family at Leavenworth, but he"ll be through here in a day or two." Then came a pause.
"And where is Mr. Ray? I supposed that he would be off like a shot."
There was an unmistakable sneer on Mr. Gleason"s face, though the reply was vague and hesitating.
"Yes, Ray made no end of fuss about getting off--until the orders came; since then I haven"t heard much--that is, I haven"t seen anything of him."
"He couldn"t well get to the regiment without going through here, could he?"
"No; but he hasn"t gone, and he won"t be going in any great hurry."