ou
and Hastings can divide the detail work of stables and roll-call between
you," said Devers. "Just remember we've got an infantry adjutant here
who's only too anxious to find fault and stir up trouble between us and
the post commander."

Going into the troop office the day after his return, Davies was
surprised to see a dark-eyed, dark-haired, rather handsome young
soldier at the clerk's desk. He recognized him as one of the recruits
whom he had brought out in July, but of whom he had seen very little
during the campaign.

"That's our new company clerk," said Hastings. "One of Differs's latest
pets. There are better clerks and better men in the troop. He relieved a
better man when he sent Moran up to the agency. But what Devers is
driving at is past finding out. There's been a total shaking up since
that--well, since the campaign."

And that this was true Davies could see for himself. Never having known
the troop, except in the field on the worst of campaigns, it took him a
few days to become accustomed to the change. Some of the most prominent
of the troop sergeants were still on duty with it, but in their
spick-and-span uniforms and clean-shaven cheeks and chins he found them
greatly altered. The first sergeant was the same, and the relationship
between him and the captain seemed closer than ever. Haney recognized no
middleman in his dealings with the troop commander, and had long been
allowed to consider himself as of far more importance than a junior
lieutenant, a theory in which, perhaps, there was much to sustain him.
The manner of this magnate to the two subalterns, therefore, was just a
trifle independent. Two veteran corporals had stepped up to an
additional stripe vice Daly killed and McGrath missing in September.
Some new corporals had been "made." None of those whom Davies best knew
and most noticed during the summer were among them. He missed two or
three of the old hands and asked for them. Sergeant Lutz had gone to
the agency. Corporal O'Brien had been reduced for a spree on the
home-coming and was serving as private in Boynton's detachment, and
Privates Sercomb and Riley were up there, too. The resultant vacancies
in the troop had been filled by raw recruits who were being
energetically licked into shape.

When Cranston was asked why he supposed it had pleased Captain Devers to
send a recruit like Brannan up to the bleak and unwholesome life at the
agency, Cranston replied by saying, "Differs said