ust Mr. Gleason as little as did
their lords, but there was no snubbing him. "Snubs," said the senior
major, "are lost on such a pachydermatous ass as Gleason," and however
tough might be his moral hide, and however deserved might have been the
applied adjective, the major was in error in calling Gleason an ass.
Intriguing, full of low malice and scheming, a "slanderer and
substractor" he certainly was, but no fool. More's the pity, Mr. Gleason
was far too smart for the direct methods and simple minds of his
associates in the --th. He never in all his life failed to take full
note of every slight or coldness, and though it was his role to hide the
sting, and "smile and smile and be a villain still," never was it his
purpose to permit the faintest snub to go unpunished. Sooner or later,
unrelentingly but secretly he would return that stab with interest ten
times compounded. And sooner or later to the bitter end he meant to feed
fat his ancient grudge on Ray.

Up to this time he had scant opportunity. For two or three years
preceding their removal to the East Gleason had been stationed in
Southern Arizona, while Ray, after months of lively service in the
mountains, had been sent to regimental headquarters, and marched with
them when they came into Kansas. Now once more six companies were
gathered at the post of the standard,--two were tenting on the prairie
just outside the garrison, the other four were regularly in barracks,
and the concentration there boded a move or "business" of some kind.
"Old Catnip," the colonel, was East, but the lieutenant-colonel was
commanding, and the junior major was there. Drills were incessant, but
scouts were few, and after the years of "go-as-you-please" work in
Arizona the --th was getting rapidly back into soldierly shape. The
little frontier fort was blithe and gay with its merry populace. All
the officers' families had joined; several young ladies were spending
the spring in garrison and taking their first taste of military life;
hops and dances came off almost every night, a "german" every week;
rides, drives, hunts, and picnic-parties were of daily occurrence; the
young officers were in clover, the young ladies in ecstasy, the young
matrons--perhaps not quite so well pleased as when they had the field to
themselves in Arizona, where young ladies had been few and far between,
and all promised delightfully for the coming summer,--all but the
war-cloud rising in the far Northwest.