ttention, and knew thereby that the other must be
the general, saw that the interview was very brief, for in a moment the
caller raised a hand in salute, faced about, and went somewhat heavily
down the steps and, avoiding both the main road and the pathway,
disappeared in the direction of the bachelors' quarters under the hill.

At ten the following morning a buckboard called at Willett's door, and
that young officer drove away in travelling rig, with a valise by way
of luggage, and when people inquired, as many did, and many more would
have done had they followed their inclination, what took Willett away
in such a hurry and--er--at such a time, all that black-bearded Wickham
would say was, he heard it was a wagon. As for Bright, one might as
well seek information of the Sphinx. There never was a man who, knowing
all about a matter, could look, as more than one fair critic had been
heard to say, so exasperatingly, idiotically ignorant. At noon,
however, it was known that Willett's wagon stopped but a few moments on
the plaza in the little mining town and capital, then shot away
southward on the Hassayampa road.

Three days later the array of "Casually at Post" on the morning report
of Fort Whipple showed an increase of something like a score.
Lieutenant Briggs with a sergeant and a dozen troopers rode in the
previous evening, after turning over a quartette of dusky civilians at
the calaboose, and leaving a guard at the hospital in charge of a
pallid, nervous, suffering man, whom a big-hearted post surgeon
received with compassionate care. The doctor had known him in better
days. It was what was left of the recent lion of Camp Almy--Case the
bookkeeper.

Among the arrivals extraordinary at head-quarters on the hill were
Captain and Mrs. Stannard of Camp Almy, Captain Bonner, Lieutenant
Strong, post adjutant thereat, and then, as Bright's special guest, was
Lieutenant "Hefty" Harris, of old Camp Bowie, and as Bright's special
charge were 'Tonio, sometime chief of the Red Rock band of
Apache-Mohaves, Kwonahelka, his associate and friend, with two young
braves of the tribe, Kwonahelka's shy, silent wife and her ward, a
motherless young Apache girl, sister to Comes Flying, he whose untimely
taking off had so seriously complicated the Indian question in the
district of the Verde. Bright had his Apache visitors comfortably
stowed, and abundantly provided for, close to his own roof, and 'Tonio,
charged with serious crimes ag