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Lanier of the Cavalry or, A Week's Arrest By: Charles King (1844-1933) |
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or A Week's Arrest by GENERAL CHARLES KING Author of "The Colonel's Daughter," "Marion's Faith,"
"Captain Blake," "Foes in Ambush," "Under Fire," etc. With illustrations by Frank McKernan [Illustration: "TELL HIM THAT I'D LIKE AN EXTENSION OF ARREST."
Page 143 ]
[Illustration: logo] Philadelphia & London
J. B. Lippincott Company
1909
Copyright, 1909 by
J. B. Lippincott Company
Published April, 1909
Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE
"TELL HIM THAT I'D LIKE AN EXTENSION OF
ARREST." Frontispiece "MR. LANIER, GO TO YOUR ROOM IN ARREST" 26 "BUT DO YOU MEAN COLONEL BUTTON ACCUSED
MR. LANIER OF THOSE LETTERS?" 195
LANIER OF THE CAVALRY
I
The sun was sinking low beyond the ford of the foaming Platte. The
distant bluffs commanding the broad valley of the Sweetwater stood sharp
and clear against the westward skies. The smoke from the camp fires
along the stream rose in misty columns straight aloft, for not so much
as a breath of breeze had wafted down from the far snow fields of Cloud
Peak, or the sun sheltered rifts of the Big Horn. The flag at the old
fort, on the neighboring height, clung to the staff with scarcely a
flutter, awaiting the evening salute of the trumpets and the roar of the
sunset gun. The long June day had seemed unusually unconscionably long to the young
girl flitting restlessly about the vine covered porch of the roadside
cottage. She laid the big binocular aside, for perhaps the twentieth
time within the hour, with a sigh of impatience, a piteous quiver about
the pretty, rosebud mouth, a wistful, longing look in the dark and
dreamy eyes. Ever since stable call, and her father's departure to his
never neglected duty, she had hovered about that shaded nook, again and
again searching the northward slopes and ridges. The scouts had been in
three hours ago, reporting the squadron only a mile or so behind. It
should have dismounted, unsaddled, fed, watered, and groomed by this
time, and Rawdon should have been here at her side Rawdon, whom she had
not seen for three mortal days Rawdon, whom, for three mortal weeks
before the march, she had not missed seeing sometimes several times a
day, even when he was on guard Rawdon, whom she had never set eyes on
before the first of April, and whom now she looked upon as the foremost
soldier of the regiment, when in point of fact he was but a private
trooper, serving the first part of his first enlistment, in the eyes of
his elders a mere recruit, and in those of Sergeant Fitzroy an
unspeakable thing. Another long peep through the signal glasses, another sigh, and then she
came, this girl of seventeen, in her dainty white frock, and plumped
herself dejectedly down on the top step, with two very shapely, slender,
slippered feet displayed on the second below, two dimpled elbows planted
on her knees, two flushed, soft, rounded cheeks buried in two long and
slender hands. Away over at the stables she could hear the tap, tap, of
curry comb on brush back, as the First Squadron groomed its fidgety
mounts. Away up the valley the voices of the children in the Arapahoe
village rose gleefully on the air. Away up among the barracks and
quarters at the fort, the band of the Infantry was playing sweet melody.
Peace, content, and harmony were roundabout her, but the dark eyes,
welling with unshed tears, told of a troubled heart. And then of a sudden the tears were dashed away and the girl sprang to
her feet. A blithe voice hailed her from within. "Dey's comin', Miss Dora two on 'em, at least like enough to be twin
brudders." The girl ran to the northward corner again and gazed out across the
rushing, swollen river. Not so much as a sign of a dust cloud to tell of
marching cavalry, and she turned again, with rebuke ready on her tongue,
but again the voice from within: "Comin' t 'other way, chile... Continue reading book >>
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