tenant's valise to the pommel of a trooper's saddle at
two o'clock in the morning. Various were the theories and conjectures at
the sutler's all the rest of the day as to the information possessed by
Lieutenant Loring which led to such extreme precaution. The major was
close-mouthed, and, for him, rather stern. He held aloof from his
juniors all day long and seemed to be keeping an eye and an ear attent
on Nevins. That officer's conduct was a puzzle. Six months before he was
the personification of all that was lavish, hospitable, good-natured,
extravagant. Everybody was apparently welcome to the best he had. Then
came the collapse, his arrest, his flight, his capture and confinement,
his laughing defiance of his accusers until he found how much more they
knew than he supposed, his metaphorical prostration at the feet of his
judges, his humility, repentance, suffering and sacrifice, his pledge of
future atonement, his protestations of love for his long-suffering wife,
his surrender of his valuables for her benefit, his meekness of mien
until the court had concluded his case and gone. Then, his sudden
resumption of bold, truculent, defiant manner, his midnight breach of
arrest, which had leaked out through the guard that was promptly sent
forth to fetch him in; then his demand for the return of his property,
and his furious outburst on learning that Loring had taken him at his
word and sent it without delay by the safest possible hands.

That proved an exciting day. The adjutant's message had temporarily awed
and quieted the man, but toward three P. M. the mail carrier arrived
from the Gila with his sack of letters and papers. He reported having
been stopped only five miles out from Sancho's by masked men who quickly
examined his big leather bag, silently pointed to a curious mark, a dab
of paint that must have gotten on it while he was there at the ranch,
and sent him ahead without a word being spoken. He saw other men, but
they passed him by in wide circuit. He met Lieutenant Blake and the
troop, and the lieutenant bade him hurry, so the letters were delivered
nearly two hours earlier than usual. In the mail were a dozen missives
for Captain Nevins, two in dainty feminine superscription postmarked San
Francisco, several that might be bills, others that were local, one
postmarked Tucson, and one slipped in at Sancho's. The major himself
looked these envelopes over as though he thought their contents ought to
be examined,