's doing it."

"It ain't Crook," said Scott, not without a little malicious delight in
Button's disgust. "He's away up at Washakie, and of course his adjutant
general don't want to act or even advise until he knows all about it.
You've seen fit to charge Lanier with all manner of things, and I don't
wonder headquarters are staggered."

"But--_Bill Riggs_--to come and overhaul _my_ regiment, when it's
notorious he never could command even a two-company camp without having
everybody by the ears! Such men aren't fit to be inspectors!"

Indeed, there was much to warrant poor Button's disgust. He had
preferred most serious charges against Lanier. He had accused him of
quitting camp on campaign, quitting his guard in garrison, quitting his
quarters when in arrest, failing to quit himself of a money obligation,
drinking and consorting with enlisted men, and in his letter of
transmittal he had intimated that there were other misdeeds he might yet
have to uncover. All, said Button, on the information of veteran
officers and sergeants of the regiment--notably Captains Curbit and
Snaffle, Lieutenants Crane and Trotter, Sergeants Whaling and
Fitzroy--and now here were both medical officers, both of his majors,
two of his best captains, seven of his subalterns, and nine-tenths of
the women folk at Fort Cushing taking sides with Lanier and issue with
him--their colonel and commander. And here, too, were Lieutenant and
Mrs. Foster, highly connected, influential, wealthy, insisting that his
most active and important witness, the unimpeachable Sergeant Fitzroy,
had corrupted their coachman, run off with their sleigh, and ruined
(this was Mrs. Foster) their horses.

Foster, first lieutenant of Snaffle's troop, seldom on speaking terms
with his captain, had discovered the deed at morning stables just five
minutes before the aggrieved sergeant drove in with the missing property
_and_ Lieutenant Ennis as escort. Foster was in a fury over it, the more
so because Fitzroy had maintained, respectfully enough but most
stubbornly, that the circumstances were such that he felt justified in
making immediate use of any property under his care or charge, that he
would explain everything to his captain and the colonel, but begged to
be excused in the lieutenant's present frame of mind from arguing the
matter with him.

And the story Snaffle told Button before Foster could reach him went far
to strengthen Fitzroy's position. Snaffle said that so f