ls with the first alarm, and was in
hiding somewhere up at the cantonment.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

One soft spring morning, some two weeks later, a little knot of officers
had gathered about the Cranstons' quarters at the cantonment. Under an
awning of tent flies they were conning the papers that had just reached
them and eagerly discussing their contents. Mrs. Cranston, a shade of
anxiety on her winsome, sunburned face, was glancing quickly from one
speaker to another. Through the open door-way in the cool interior Miss
Loomis could be seen bending over the boys as they fidgeted at their
books. Neither felt like studying this day of days, for absorbing news,
and lots of it, had come. To begin with, a general court-martial had
been ordered to meet at Omaha for the trial of Captain Devers, Eleventh
Cavalry, and officers of high rank and distinction were to be his
judges. With Atherton as president of the court there could be no
"monkey business," said Mr. Sanders, by which that young gentleman was
understood to mean that there would be no trifling with the subject. It
was noticeable that neither Riggs nor Winthrop was of the detail, an
omission readily understood, as Devers would unquestionably object, as
was his privilege, to either or both on the ground of bias, prejudice,
or malice, which, whether sustained or not, would lead to their asking
to be excused from serving and so reducing the array. The court had been
ordered from division head-quarters by the lieutenant-general himself,
and its members, as a rule, were summoned from distant posts and
commands, so as to preclude the possibility of the accused captain
saying it was "packed" from the ranks of his enemies. In other words,
except Atherton, the court was made up entirely of officers who had
taken no part in the campaign of the previous summer. It was understood
that the charges were grave and numerous; rumors of misconduct in the
face of the enemy, disobedience of orders, misrepresentation of facts,
etc., being among the items mentioned. Major Warren had been summoned
from abroad a month earlier than he had planned to come. Colonel Peleg
Stone and Mr. Leonard had both been notified that they would be required
as witnesses, so had Captains Cranston, Truman and Hay, Lieutenants
Boynton, Hastings and Davies. The court could not meet before mid-May
because several of the members came from the department of Dakota, far
up the Missouri, but that it was to be a "cl