point where
the road crosses the railway to give him a cup of coffee and water the
horses. There were some trappers and plainsmen in there, and one of them
was telling with much gusto of the performances of a soldier of our
troop who deserted that night,--how he had chartered the adjoining room
to that in which the officers and ladies were dancing and had a whirl to
the officers' music with some ladies of his own choosing, and the girls
lassoed a waiter and hauled him into their room and got a bottle of the
officers' champagne----"

"Pardon me, Mr. Davies, but do not these plainsmen rather like to tell
big stories at the expense of the officers,--the bigger the better?"

"I believe so, and paid little attention to it at first, but among the
listeners was a scout who went through last summer's campaign with us
and did good service. He rode over to the post with me, and on the way
we met a sergeant and two men of 'A' Troop, returning from an
unsuccessful pursuit of deserters. They told the same story with some
additions, and said the fellow openly boasted in Braska that afternoon
that he was going to the dance. Then the scout admitted reluctantly that
he had heard the story from several sources, and gave the names of the
women who were said to have been introduced there, and they were not
Robideau's family. The sergeant had heard just what the scout had as to
the identity of the intruders. Then on my arrival at home I learned that
Mrs. Davies was one of the fort party, and Mrs. Stone and other ladies
who were present referred to some rude creatures in a neighboring room
who peeped and stared at the dancing. There was also awaiting me with my
mail an anonymous letter, which I burned without reading through. Next
I learned that the man who frightened them on the homeward way and then
deserted after a fracas with Mr. Willett was Howard, of 'A' Troop, and
that man's associations in town are matters of notoriety. That was the
chain that led to my belief in the story."

Langston looked grave. "And Howard was probably Robideau's friend,
though Cresswell didn't know it! He had been paying court to Robideau's
daughter during her visit to Braska, always in civilian dress and always
claiming to be a civilian clerk in the quartermaster's department with a
salary of twelve hundred a year. I have seen her friends in town where
she visited, and they are very plain, honest, and well-to-do people,
whose daughter was sent to Illinois to