lers believed that those costly trinkets
which Nevins had begged Mr. Loring to take to his wife would not be
withdrawn from the quartermaster's safe, much less sent forth upon their
perilous way. Not until after Colonel Turnbull and the engineer had
ridden off southward, escorted by a sergeant with six tough-looking
troopers; not until after Loring's announcement that the jewels
themselves had been sent ahead; not until after Mr. Gleason had been
remanded to his quarters to "sober up," and the adjutant dispatched to
Captain Nevins with the intimation that if his too audible imprecations
were not stopped he and his tent would be transferred to a corner of the
corral, did Camp Cooke learn that Major Starke had sent a fly-by-night
courier after Blake, recalling the troop, that it had halted on that
stream ten miles above the post, resting all afternoon and evening, had
ridden silently in toward camp an hour after midnight and, after
receiving certain instructions from Starke and a visit from Loring, had
gone on southward, silently as it came, accompanied by the presiding
officer of the court, who hated day marches and the sun-scorched desert,
and leaving escort for those who were still to follow. There was mild
surprise in camp, but untold wrath and vituperation along the line to
Sancho's, for from far and near the choicest renegades of Arizona had
been flocking to the neighborhood only to find themselves outwitted by
the engineer. Not half an hour after the burst of blasphemy from Nevins'
tent informed the camp that something more had happened to agitate anew
his sorely ruffled temper, and the story flew from lip to lip that it
was because the precious jewels were already on their way to 'Frisco,
guarded presumably by Blake and forty carbines, a swarthy half-breed
courier spurred madly southward from the outlying roost on the borders
of the reservation, with the warning that it would be useless risk to
meddle with the Teniente Loring's party when it came along--there were
no valuables with them; they had been sent with the cavalry hours before
the dawn.

Yes, even the sealed record of the court must have been sent at that
time, too, for at ten o'clock in the morning, when Colonel Turnbull and
Mr. Loring mounted and gravely saluted the cap-raising group of officers
as they rode away from the major's quarters, it was observed that Loring
had not even saddle-bags, and the major's striker admitted that he had
hoisted the lieu