master, who had himself received it from Major
Burleigh and then and there the young officer was bidden by Colonel
Stevens, as the medium of the department commander, to ride with all
haste commensurate with caution, to ford the Sweetwater above its
junction with the Platte, to travel by night if need be and hide by day
if he could, to let no man or woman know the purpose of his going or the
destination of his journey, but to land that package safe at Warrior Gap
before the moon should wane.

And all this Burleigh must have known when he, John Folsom, shook his
hand at parting after tea that evening, and had then gone hopefully to
drive his girls to Emory to see his soldier boy, and found him busy with
the sudden orders, received not ten minutes before their coming.
Something in Burleigh's almost tremulous anxiety to get that money in
the morning, his ill-disguised chagrin at Folsom's refusal, something in
the eagerness with which, despite the furious denunciation of the moment
before, he jumped at Folsom's offer to put up the needed money if he
would withhold the threatened charges--all came back to the veteran now
and had continued to keep him thinking during the night. Could it be
that Burleigh stood in need of all this money to cover other sums that
he had misapplied? Could it be that he had planned this sudden sending
of young Dean on a desperate mission in revenge that he could not take
officially? There were troops at Frayne going forward in strong force
within the week. There were other officers within call, a dozen of them,
who had done nowhere near the amount of field service performed by Dean.
He, a troop commander just in from long and toilsome marches and from
perilous duty, had practically been relieved from the command of his
troop, told to take ten men and run the gauntlet through the swarming
Sioux. The more Folsom thought the more he believed that he had grave
reason for his suspicion, and reason equally grave for calling on the
quartermaster for explanation. He reached the corral gate. It was
locked, but a little postern in the stockade let him through. One or two
sleepy hands appeared about the stables, but the office was deserted.
Straight to Burleigh's quarters he went and banged at the door. It took
three bangs to bring a servant.

"I wish to see your master at once. Tell him I am here," and as the
servant slowly shambled up the stairs, Folsom entered the sitting-room.
A desk near the window was