s--"returns" as the regulations
call them--were referred to by a model adjutant general as model papers.
He knew it was due to young Field's care and attention, and he knew he
thought all the world of that young gentleman. It was just because he
thought so much of him he was beginning to feel that it was high time to
put a stop to something that was going on. But, it was a delicate
matter; a woman was the matter; and he hadn't the moral courage to go at
it the straightforward way. He "whip sawed" again. Thrumming on the desk
with his lean, bony fingers he began:--

"If I let my adjutant out so much, what's to prevent other youngsters
asking similar indulgence?"

The answer came like the crack of a whip:--

"Nothing, sir; and far better would it be for everybody concerned if
they spent more hours in the saddle and fewer at the store."

This was too much for the one listener in the room. With something like
the sound of a suppressed sneeze, a tall, long-legged captain of cavalry
started up from his chair, an outspread newspaper still full-stretched
between him and the desk of the commander, and, thus hidden as to his
face, sidled sniggering off to the nearest window. Young Field had
fearlessly, if not almost impudently, hit the nail on the head, and
metaphorically rapped the thrumming fingers of his superior officer.
Some commanders would have raged and sent the daring youngster right
about in arrest. Major Webb knew just what Field referred to,--knew that
the fascinations of pool, "pitch" and poker held just about half his
commissioned force at all "off duty" hours of the day or night hanging
about the officers' club room at the post trader's; knew, moreover, that
while the adjutant never wasted a moment over cards or billiards, he,
the post commander, had many a time taken a hand or a cue and wagered
his dollars against those of his devoted associates. They all loved him.
There wasn't "a mean streak in his whole system," said every soldier at
Fort Frayne. He had a capital record as a volunteer--a colonel and,
later, brigade commander in the great war. He had the brevet of
brigadier general of volunteers, but repudiated any title beyond that
of his actual rank in the regulars. He was that _rara avis_--a bachelor
field officer, and a bird to be brought down if feminine witchery could
do it. He was truthful, generous, high-minded, brave--a man who
preferred to be of and with his subordinates rather than above them--to