led over the survivor, quaking among the willows in
the stream bed, and kicked him out into the open to help bear home his
murdered brother; then pushed out as far as the first ridge in hopes of
a shot, and were rewarded with nothing better than a glimpse of
vanishing breech-clouts. Falling slowly back, toward noon, Bonner
posted two men in each of a dozen rifle-pits, some fifty yards outside
the sentry lines, as a rule, and wherever view of the approaches could
be had. Two of these were on little knolls to the south of the store,
and here were Craney & Co. in full force, every man armed with a Henry
rifle and a war-model Colt, "Mr. Case-Keeper Book," as Sergeant Clancy
jovially hailed him, quite as formidable as his fellows, and every whit
as cool. Craney held that he and his men had a right to be counted in
among those told off to hold the fort, and Bonner smilingly assented.

"You two seem to hit it off pretty well together," said he to Case and
Clancy. "I reckon we'll Cossack you over yonder," and he pointed to a
scooped-out little hummock nearest the stream, commanding much of the
southward road and the trail along the willows, now facetiously termed
the "Ghost Walk." It was an unusual assignment, or distribution, but it
seemed to strike the fancy of both. In times of peril and at the
fore-posts men think less of rank and more of repute. Clancy was known
far and wide as a fearless Apache fighter, with a Gaines's
Mill-Gettysburg record behind him. Case had never before been heard of
afield, but his one exploit in the card room stamped him unerringly,
said these frontier experts, as "a man of nerve." Clancy held out his
big red hand. "Are ye with me?" said he. "Yours truly," said Case.
"Then come on, Pitkeeper," said Clancy, "and we'll leave Book and Case
behind."

The general came jogging down at the moment, bestriding one of
Bucketts's general utility beasts, watching the posting of the post
defenders, and he screwed his eyelids down to a slit as he glared from
under the brim of his then unorthodox slouch hat, and squinted after
the combination of soldier and civilian stalking away to the assigned
station. "What have you there, Bonner?" he asked, as he reined in.

"'Erin go unum, E pluribus bragh,' sir, as Derby would have it." "The
Celt and the Casekeeper," he added to himself. "Clancy and Case going
gunning together as amicably as if they had never squabbled over a
sutler's bill."

"Queer lot--that man Case!"