.

"Has he ever seen service?"

"No, but he knows what danger is, and he has been in some situations
that you wouldn't care to be placed in. During long months of his life
he lived in constant fear of a violent death."

"I don't doubt that he told you so, but I don't believe it, all the
same," observed the orderly.

"I can't help that. I am personally acquainted with him, and you are
not. I was with him when the steamer to which he belonged was burned on
the Mississippi River, and came to Texas with him. He owns a big
cattle-ranche a few miles from here, and has an income of about forty
thousand dollars a year."

"Aha! that accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut," exclaimed the
orderly. "I know now why it was that the colonel met him in so friendly
a manner. Even those stern old regulars soften in the presence of one
who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, don't they?"

"But George Ackerman's money didn't get him the position he holds," said
Bob quickly. "He has been a prisoner among the cattle-thieves on the
other side of the river, and knows where they hang out. He is here to
act as our guide when we pursue the raiders across the river."

"What did the cattle-thieves take him prisoner for?"

"Because they were promised twenty thousand dollars for it by George's
guardian, who wanted to get him out of the way, so that his son could
inherit George's property. But he managed to escape from them, went up
North and became a pilot, and it was while he was serving in that
capacity that I made his acquaintance."

"That's a very pretty story," remarked the orderly, "but doesn't it
sound almost too much like a dime novel?"

"If you don't believe it ask Gus Robbins, if you get a chance to speak
to him. He knows George, and has reason to be grateful to him too. Gus
came down here to visit Ned Ackerman while the latter's father was
acting as George's guardian, and got himself into trouble that would
have ended seriously if George had not befriended him. It was through
that same visit that Gus got into the army."

"Did you hear what the colonel said to him about a servant?" asked the
orderly. "Whoever saw a scout with a servant? I never did, and neither
did I ever before see a man holding that position treated with so much
consideration by a post-commander. I can't account for it."

Bob could not account for it either, and so he attempted no explanation.
We may tell the reader that there were two good reasons fo