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The lieutenant returned hastily. "Miss Landcraft, I am ordered to convey you to Alamito Ranch under guard," said he. Banjo Gibson, held to be harmless and insignificant by Major King, had been set free. Now he came up, leading his horse, shocked to the deepest fibers of his sensitive soul by the cowardly deed that Saul Chadron had done.
Colonel Landcraft was shaking a trembling finger at her, his face thrust within a foot of her own. "I'll not have it! you'll not who is the fellow, who?" "There is nothing to conceal, there is no humiliation on my part in speaking his name, but pride the highest pride of my heart!"
She did not look after him, but stood with the soiled glove spread in her hands, gazing upon it in sad tenderness. Colonel Landcraft was a slight man, and short of stature for a soldierly figure when out of the saddle. His gray hair was thinning in front, and his sharp querulous face was seamed in frowning pattern about the eyes.
Colonel Landcraft blazed up in sudden explosion, after his manner, and set his heel down hard on the floor, making his sword clank in its scabbard on his thigh. "I have not had much to say," Frances admitted, bitterly, "but I am going to have a great deal to say in this matter now. Both of you have gone ahead about this thing just as if I was irresponsible, both of you " "Hold your tongue, miss!
"If there is anything that I can do for you in my private capacity, I am at your command," offered Colonel Landcraft, with official emptiness, "but I regret that I am powerless to grant your request for troops. I couldn't lift a finger in a matter like this without a department order; you ought to understand that, Chadron."
Macdonald saw her stiffen in the saddle and lift herself a little from her seat as he drew near, his companions stopping a little distance back. Her eyes were stern and reproachful; a little frown troubled her white forehead. "I was starting out to find you, Mr. Macdonald," she said, severely. "If there is any service, Miss Landcraft "
A man should have put his life down for it." "It might have been expected of a man," said she. "But I ask you not to borrow trouble over the circumstance of its return to you, Miss Landcraft," he said, cold now in his word, and lofty.
She knew that Major King was waiting for a word; she was conscious of his stern eyes upon her face. But she did not speak. As far as Major King's part in it went, the matter was at an end. "Miss Landcraft, I am waiting." Major King spoke with imperious suggestion. She started, and looked toward him quickly, a question in her eyes.
Without waiting for the password into the mysteries of that chamber, Chadron had entered, his heavy quirt in hand, gauntlets to his elbows, dusty boots to his knees. Colonel Landcraft stood at his desk to receive him, his brows bent in a disfavoring frown.
"Them damn rustlers of Macdonald's are up and standin' agin us, and I tell you I want troopers, and I want 'em on the spot!" Colonel Landcraft swallowed like an eagle gorging a fish. His face grew red, he clamped his jaw, and held his mouth shut. It took him some little time to suppress his flooding emotions, and his voice trembled even when he ventured to trust himself to speak.
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