valley, had come back, reporting that the ambulance mules
were found, huddled together, half starved and still half harnessed, in
a log shack or shelter to which their instinct had guided them after
their heels had made chopsticks of the running gear. The ambulance body
was snowed under somewhere and nowhere in sight. The driver, a civilian
employed in the Quartermaster's Department, had totally disappeared.
Scott, the paymaster; Thomas, his clerk; and Rafferty, Lanier's soldier
servant, or "striker" as then called, were still half dazed--Rafferty,
indeed, so much dazed that no coherent words had yet escaped him.

One more unfortunate, the driver of Foster's sleigh, was in trouble. Not
until two hours after the dance had he turned up with the missing
equipage, a cock-and-bull story, and a case of what the corporal called
"jag." He swore that, having got chilled through, waiting, he just
thought to get one hot whiskey at the store. Sentry Number Six said he'd
mind the team while the driver went in, and the next thing he knew
"they'd run'd away, hell for leather," and he, their driver, had to
follow two miles to Flint's Ranch, close to town, where he "might have
taken a nip or two more." It was his first offense and Foster forgave.
It should be remarked, however, that Number Six declared that it was not
he with whom the driver left the sleigh, but two "fellers," _i.e._,
troopers, who happened to be near the store. However, that did not seem
much to matter at the time.

And Fort Cushing was in unhappy frame of mind. Colonel Button was in
most inhospitable mood, and chafing because he could not communicate
with the general commanding the department. Mrs. Button was confined to
the house and denied to all but one or two intimates. Bob Lanier was
still in close arrest. No man could say what might be the result, for
Barker, the adjutant, declared he knew no more than they. "The Old Man
had something up his sleeve"--several somethings--against him, but was
confiding in no one, for he and Stannard were at odds over the matter;
he and Sumter were practically estranged because of it, and for the
first time in regimental history Button seemed to be giving all his
attention to Snaffle and men of his stamp and set. They were not more
than three or four in number. They had been rather tolerated than sought
in the past, but now the colonel seemed to have use for them alone.

And there was sorrow and estrangement at Sumter's. Never bef