e a little whiskey to steady his nerves--a
cocktail to aid his appetite and stir his stomach? "Like it," said
Case, "you bet I would--which is why I won't take it. Three days'
liquor, two days' taper, one day suffer, then the water wagon for a
spell. Thank you all the same, Mr. Craney. What can I do for you
without the drink?"

But when Craney mentioned Sanchez, the ghost and the drinking bout by
night at the rookery, Case said he must have been nigher to jimjams
than he'd got in a year. "I never saw any ghost," said he, and Craney
had to give it up, and report his failure to the commanding officer.

"Ever try threatening him with discharge?" asked Bucketts, by way of
being helpful.

"Ever try? I don't _have_ to try! The one time I started in on that lay
he never let me finish; said all right, he'd go just as soon as he'd
balanced the books. Then, by gad, it was all I could do to get him to
stay. He is the most independent damn man I ever met. Says he knows
he's a drunkard and nuisance one week out of four, and don't wonder I
want to discharge him. Discharge him? I couldn't get along without him!
Any time he wants a better job and plenty of society all he's got to do
is go to Prescott. Discharge him! All I'm afraid of is he'll discharge
himself!"

So Bucketts dropped the subject and he and Strong went to report
non-success to Archer just as the sun was going down and the peak, in
lone grandeur, loomed up dazzling above the black drapery about its
base, and Bonner, pacing up and down with his much-honored chief, saw
the gloom deepen in his deep-set eyes. Only Lilian seemed able to win a
smile from him, as she came and took him by the arm and led him away to
dinner.

Darkness settled down apace. The moon rose late and the stars were
holding high carnival in consequence, for the skies were gorgeous in
their deck of gold. Mrs. Stannard was dining with the Archers _en
famille_, as she did now almost every evening, for the Archers would
so have it, and Archer had been talking of Harris's proposition, and
his determined stand for 'Tonio. Mrs. Archer shook her pretty head in
negation. She could not see how any one who distrusted her general
could himself be loyal. She had said the same of Secretary Stanton
during the war, for one of that iron master's most masterly convictions
was that every soldier, Southern born--even such as Thomas--must of
necessity be a Southern sympathizer. 'Tonio must needs be a traitor
since he a