You must remember you"re a prisoner now under arrest. You can"t expect the officers to run over here as freely as they used to. What do you want?" she laughed. "Do you think the colonel should parade the band and give you a serenade?" For a moment Ranson stared at her dully, and then his sense of proportion returned to him. He threw back his head and laughed with her joyfully.
From verandas, barracks, and headquarters, the four hundred pairs of eyes noted this evidence of heartlessness with varied emotions. But, unmindful of them, Ranson now leaned forward, the eager, searching look coming back into his black eyes. They were so close to Mary Cahill"s that she drew away. He dropped his voice to a whisper and spoke swiftly.
"Miss Cahill, whatever happens to me I won"t forget this. I won"t forget your coming here and throwing heart into me. You were the only one who did. I haven"t asked you if you believe that I--"
She raised her eyes reproachfully and smiled. "You know you don"t have to do that," she said.
The prisoner seized the palings as though he meant to pull apart the barrier between them. He drew a long breath like one inhaling a draught of clean morning air.
"No," he said, his voice ringing, "I don"t have to do that."
He cast a swift glance to the left and right. The sentry"s bayonet was just disappearing behind the corner of the hut. To the four hundred other eyes around the parade-ground Lieutenant Ranson"s att.i.tude suggested that he was explaining to Cahill"s daughter what he wanted for his luncheon. His eyes held her as firmly as though the palings he clasped were her two hands.
"Mary," he said, and the speaking of her name seemed to stop the beating of his heart. "Mary," he whispered, as softly as though he were beginning a prayer, "you"re the bravest, the sweetest, the dearest girl in all the world. And I"ve known it for months, and now you must know.
And there"ll never be any other girl in my life but you."
Mary Cahill drew away from him in doubt and wonder.
"I didn"t mean to tell you just yet," he whispered, "but now that I"ve seen you I can"t help it. I knew it last night when I stood back there and watched your windows, and couldn"t think of this trouble, nor of anything else, but just you. And you"ve got to promise me, if I get out of this all right--you must--must promise me--"
Mary Cahill"s eyes, as she raised them to his, were moist and glowing.
They promised him with a great love and tenderness. But at the sight Ranson protested wildly.
"No," he whispered, "you mustn"t promise--anything. I shouldn"t have asked it. After I"m out of this, after the court-martial, then you"ve got to promise that you"ll never, never leave me."
Miss Cahill knit her hands together and turned away her head. The happiness in her heart rose to her throat like a great melody and choked her. Before her, exposed in the thin spring sunshine, was the square of ugly brown cottages, the bare parade-ground, in its centre Trumpeter Tyler fingering his bugle, and beyond on every side an ocean of blackened prairie. But she saw nothing of this. She saw instead a beautiful world opening its arms to her, a world smiling with sunshine, glowing with color, singing with love and content.
She turned to him with all that was in her heart showing in her face.
"Don"t!" he begged, tremblingly, "don"t answer. I couldn"t bear it--if you said "no" to me." He jerked his head toward the men who guarded him.
"Wait until I"m tried, and not in disgrace." He shook the gate between them savagely as though it actually held him a prisoner.
Mary Cahill raised her head proudly.
"You have no right. You"ve hurt me," she whispered. "You hurt me."
"Hurt you?" he cried.
She pressed her hands together. It was impossible to tell him, it was impossible to speak of what she felt; of the pride, of the trust and love, to disclose this new and wonderful thing while the gate was between them, while the sentries paced on either side, while the curious eyes of the garrison were fastened upon her.
"Oh, can"t you see?" she whispered. "As though I cared for a court-martial! I KNOW you. You are just the same. You are just what you have always been to me--what you always will be to me."
She thrust her hand toward him and he seized it in both of his, and then released it instantly, and, as though afraid of his own self-control, backed hurriedly from her, and she turned and walked rapidly away.
Captain Carr, who had been Ranson"s captain in the Philippines, and who was much his friend, had been appointed to act as his counsel. When later that morning he visited his client to lay out a line of defence he found Ranson inclined to treat the danger which threatened him with the most arrogant flippancy. He had never seen him in a more objectionable mood.
"You can call the charge "tommy-rot" if you like," Carr protested, sharply. "But, let me tell you that"s not the view any one else takes of it, and if you expect the officers of the court-martial and the civil authorities to take that view of it you"ve got to get down to work and help me prove that it IS "tommy rot." That Miss Post, as soon as she got here, when she thought it was only a practical joke, told them that the road agent threatened her with a pair of shears. Now, Crosby and Curtis will testify that you took a pair of shears from Cahill"s, and from what Miss Post saw of your ring she can probably identify that, too; so--"
"Oh, we concede the shears," declared Ranson, waving his hand grandly.
"We admit the first hold-up."
"The devil we do!" returned Carr. "Now, as your counsel, I advise nothing of the sort."
"You advise me to lie?"
"Sir!" exclaimed Carr. "A plea of not guilty is only a legal form. When you consider that the first hold-up in itself is enough to lose you your commission--"
"Well, it"s MY commission," said Ranson. "It was only a silly joke, anyway. And the War Department must have some sense of humor or it wouldn"t have given me a commission in the first place. Of course, we"ll admit the first hold-up, but we won"t stand for the second one. I had no more to do with that than with the Whitechapel murders."
"How are we to prove that?" demanded Carr. "Where"s your alibi? Where were you after the first hold-up?"
"I was making for home as fast as I could cut," said Ranson. He suddenly stopped in his walk up and down the room and confronted his counsel sternly. "Captain," he demanded, "I wish you to instruct me on a point of law."
Carr"s brow relaxed. He was relieved to find that Ranson had awakened to the seriousness of the charges against him.
"That"s what I"m here for," he said, encouragingly.
"Well, captain," said Ranson, "if an officer is under arrest as I am and confined to his quarters, is he or is he not allowed to send to the club for a bottle of champagne?"
"Really, Ranson!" cried the captain, angrily, "you are impossible."
"I only want to celebrate," said Ranson, meekly. "I"m a very happy man; I"m the happiest man on earth. I want to ride across the prairie shooting off both guns and yelling like a cowboy. Instead of which I am locked up indoors and have to talk to you about a highway robbery which does not amuse me, which does not concern me--and of which I know nothing and care less. Now, YOU are detailed to prove me innocent.
That"s your duty, and you ought to do your duty, But don"t drag me in.
I"ve got much more important things to think about."
Bewilderment, rage, and despair were written upon the face of the captain.
"Ranson!" he roared. "Is this a pose, or are you mad? Can"t you understand that you came very near to being hanged for murder and that you are in great danger of going to jail for theft? Let me put before you the extremely unpleasant position in which you have been a.s.s enough to place yourself. You don"t quite seem to grasp it. You tell two brother-officers that you are going to rob the stage. To do so you disguise yourself in a poncho and a red handkerchief, and you remove the army-stirrups from your stirrup-leathers. You then do rob this coach, or at least hold it up, and you are recognized. A few minutes later, in the same trail and in the same direction you have taken, there is a second hold-up, this time of the paymaster. The man who robs the paymaster wears a poncho and a red kerchief, and he has no stirrups in his stirrup-leathers. The two hold-ups take place within a half-mile of each other, within five minutes of each other. Now, is it reasonable to believe that last night two men were hiding in the b.u.t.tes intent upon robbery, each in an army poncho, each wearing a red bandanna handkerchief, and each riding without stirrups? Between believing in such a strange coincidence and that you did it, I"ll be hanged if I don"t believe you did it."
"I don"t blame you," said Ranson. "What can I do to set your mind at rest?"
"Well, tell me exactly what persons knew that you meant to hold up the stage."
"Curtis and Crosby; no one else."
"Not even Cahill?"
"No, Cahill came in just before I said I would stop the stage, but I remember particularly that before I spoke I waited for him to get back to the exchange."
"And Crosby tells me," continued Carr, "that the instant you had gone he looked into the exchange and saw Cahill at the farthest corner from the door. He could have heard nothing."
"If you ask me, I think you"ve begun at the wrong end," said Ranson. "If I were looking for the Red Rider I"d search for him in Kiowa City."
"Why?"
"Because, at this end no one but a few officers knew that the paymaster was coming, while in Kiowa everybody in the town knew it, for they saw him start. It would be very easy for one of those cowboys to ride ahead and lie in wait for him in the b.u.t.tes. There are several tough specimens in Kiowa. Any one of them would rob a man for twenty dollars--let alone ten thousand. There"s "Abe" Fisher and Foster King, and the Chase boys, and I believe old "Pop" Henderson himself isn"t above holding up one of his own stages."
"He"s above shooting himself in the lungs," said Carr. "Nonsense. No, I am convinced that someone followed you from this post, and perhaps Cahill can tell us who that was. I sent for him this morning, and he"s waiting at my quarters now. Suppose I ask him to step over here, so that we can discuss it together."