but even a convicted man had his rights, and the letters
were sent to him. In less than three minutes thereafter the hot,
breathless air of the long afternoon was suddenly burdened with another
eruption of oaths and ravings. One or two women sitting in the shade of
their canvas shelters across the parade clapped their hands to their
ears and ran indoors, and the major's orderly dashed full tilt for the
guard. Half an hour later Captain Nevins was escorted to a new abode, a
tent pitched just outside, not within, the corral, and there he was left
to swear at will, with the sentry on No. 4 warned to call the corporal
of the guard if the gentleman for one moment quit the seclusion of his
solitary quarters.

And this was the status of affairs when the sun went down at the close
of the third day after adjournment. When it rose upon the fourth all was
quiet about the impetuous captain's canvas home--too quiet, thought the
officer of the day after his visit to the guard at reveille, and
therefore did he untie the cords that fastened the flaps in front and
peer within. Five minutes later two new prisoners were placed in charge
of the guard, of which they had been members during the night--Privates
Poague and Pritzlaff, of the first and second reliefs, respectively. But
the aggregate gain in the column of "in arrest or confinement" was only
one, for Captain Nevins had disappeared.

Of course there was a rush to the outlying ranch, whose few remaining
occupants grinned exasperatingly and shrugged their shoulders, but gave
no information. Of course a courier was sent scurrying away on the trail
of the cavalry, but he came back sore-footed at night, relieved of his
horse, arms and equipments, and thanking God for his life. Of course
another courier was started by night to make the perilous ride to the
Salado and order the instant return of at least a platoon, but nothing
more was heard of him for a week, and it was nearly five days before
these desert-bound exiles of Camp Cooke got another atom of reliable
news from Sancho's, and meantime wondrous other things had happened.

It did not take long to determine the means by which Nevins had
succeeded in getting away. There was little, indeed, to prevent his
doing so if he saw fit to go, for, unless sentries were posted on all
four sides of his tent, he might crawl off in the darkness unobserved.
The sentry on No. 4 had received orders merely to summon the corporal
and report to him i