ilitary Affairs proved receptive,
appreciative, in fact responsive, might not the ends of justice better
be subserved by leaving to the parent the duty of personally and
privately correcting the son? and, in consideration of the post
commander's wisdom and continence, pledging the influence of the
Military Committee to certain delectable ends in the major's behalf?
Long had Flint had his eye on a certain desirable berth in the distant
East--at the national capitol in fact--but never yet had he found
statesman or soldier inclined to further his desire. That night the
major bade Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins hold their peace as to Field's
peccadilloes until further leave was given them to speak. That night the
major, calling at Captain Dade's, was concerned to hear that Mrs. Dade
was not at home. "Gone over to the hospital with Mrs. Blake and the
doctor," was the explanation, and these gentle-hearted women, it seems,
were striving to do something to rouse the lad from the slough of
despond which had engulfed him. That night "Pink" Marble, Hay's faithful
book-keeper and clerk for many a year, a one-armed veteran of the civil
war, calling, as was his invariable custom when the trader was absent,
to leave the keys of the safe and desks with Mrs. Hay, was surprised to
find her in a flood of tears, for which she declined all explanation;
yet the sight of Pete, the half breed, slouching away toward the stables
as Marble closed the gate, more than suggested cause, for "Pink" had
long disapproved of that young man. That night Crapaud, the other
stableman, had scandalized Jerry Sullivan, the bar-keeper, and old
McGann, Webb's Hibernian major domo, by interrupting their game of Old
Sledge with a demand for a quart of whiskey on top of all that he had
obviously and surreptitiously been drinking, and by further indulging in
furious threats, in a sputtering mixture of Dakota French and French
Dakota, when summarily kicked out. That night, late as twelve o'clock,
Mrs. Ray, aroused by the infantile demands of the fourth of the olive
branches, and further disturbed by the suspicious growlings and
challenge of old Tonto, Blake's veteran mastiff, peeped from the second
story window and plainly saw two forms in soldier overcoats at the back
fence, and wondered what the sentries found about Blake's quarters to
require so much attention. Then she became aware of a third form,
rifle-bearing, and slowly pacing the curving line of the bluff--the
sentry be