CHAPTER XXVIII. A FAMILIAR FACE.
Leon made the best of his way across the parade-ground, and threw himself helplessly down upon the steps of a warehouse. He was so ill, and so utterly discouraged, that he almost wished he might die then and there, and so bring his sufferings to an end.
He sat with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, looking the very picture of misery.
His gaze being directed toward the gate through which he had entered the day before, he did not fail to see the neatly dressed young civilian who walked briskly up the hill and stopped to speak to the sentry.
At the sight of him Leon started up, and even attempted to get upon his feet; but he was so weak that he fell back upon the steps again.
"I thought at first it was Oscar Preston," said he. "He looks like him, walks like him, and dresses like him. How much good the sight of one familiar face would do me! I wish I was at Oscar's side this minute. I tell you, it wouldn't take me long to get home!"
"Corporal of the guard number seven!" shouted the sentry.
As Leon wearily raised his head he saw the corporal come out of the barracks in response to the call and hasten toward the gate. He exchanged a few words with the visitor, after which he conducted him along the path toward where Leon was sitting.
Again the boy raised his head; his eyes opened to their widest extent; his under-jaw dropped downward; he trembled in every limb. He staggered to his feet, winked hard to clear away something that seemed to be obstructing his vision, and when he looked toward the visitor again he and the corporal were just disappearing through the door of the colonel's quarters.
"That's Oscar Preston, if I ever saw him!" panted Leon; "but what brought him out here? Did my father send him after me? No, that can't be, for he did not know where Frank and I were going."
Leon picked up his overcoat, which was as heavy a load as he wanted to carry now, and, moving slowly along the path, seated himself upon the threshold of the first door below the colonel's quarters, intending to wait there until the visitor came out again.
He would have a good view of his face as he passed, and then he would know whether or not he had been mistaken in regard to his identity.
At the end of half an hour—it seemed an age to the impatient runaway—a door opened in the commandant's quarters, voices sounded in the hall, and presently the visitor came out, accompanied by the colonel, the post surgeon, and several subordinate officers.
They walked leisurely down the path, conversing gayly, and Leon's heart seemed to stop beating when he heard the colonel say:
"Mr. Preston, when you write to the professor, give him my kindest regards, and assure him that I will do all in my power to assist you. Hallo, here!" he added, in a very different tone of voice, as a pale and trembling figure arose from a door-step close at his side. "Who are you?"
Leon could not reply. He covered his face with his hands, and tottered as if he were about to fall; but Oscar (for it was he), who was struck motionless and dumb with astonishment, recovered himself in time to spring forward and catch the runaway in his arms.
"Leon! Leon!" he exclaimed, in a voice that was husky with emotion, "is this you? Look up and speak to me."
But Leon's sobs effectually choked his utterance. Supporting him with one arm, Oscar forcibly drew away his hands, and was amazed at the sight of the pale and sunken face which rested on his shoulder.
"It is Leon, as sure as the world!" cried Oscar, who was almost beside himself with excitement. "Doctor, this is a friend and schoolmate of mine, and he is sick. Won't you do something for him?"
"Did you call him Leon?" asked the surgeon, stepping up and putting his hand under the boy's arm. "Then he must be that runaway my steward was telling me about. Ah!" he added, as Oscar nodded his head to him. "If that's the case, you can do more for him than I can."
Leon was at once assisted into the surgeon's quarters and placed on a sofa.
The doctor felt his pulse, while Oscar knelt beside him, and rested his arm over Leon's shoulder, as if to assure him of protection.
"What's the matter with him, sir?" he asked.
"Oh, I've got something that's catching," sobbed Leon, "and I'm to be kicked out of the fort. The trader told me so. He wouldn't let me stay about where he was."
Oscar and the surgeon looked at each other in surprise, and the latter said:
"Why, my young friend, you're homesick. There's nothing else the matter with you."
"But that's bad enough," said Leon, who was, nevertheless, greatly encouraged. "I shall never see my home again."
"Yes, you will," exclaimed Oscar. "You can start to-morrow, if you are strong enough to sit on a stage-coach."
"There!" said the surgeon. "That assurance will do him more good than all the medicine in the dispensary. Sit down and talk to him," he added, handing Oscar a chair. "I'll give him a tonic and go out for half an hour. He will be all right at the end of that time."
When the surgeon had seen Leon swallow the medicine he prepared for him, he left the room, and Oscar drew his chair up beside the sofa and sat down.
Leon pinched himself to make sure that he was not dreaming, and then took Oscar's hand in his own and clung to it as if he were afraid that his friend might vanish into thin air.
"Oscar," said he, "I don't deserve this treatment at your hands."
"Yes, you do," replied Oscar cheerfully. "I shall do all I can for you, and then I shall not begin to cancel the debt I owe your father."
"But you don't owe me anything but ill-will. It was I who shot Bugle."
"I know it; but you didn't hurt him. You only made him angry. Now, drop that—it is all forgotten—and tell me what in the world brought you to the plains. If I had met my own mother in the fort, I certainly could not have been more surprised."
"I came out to be a hunter," confessed Leon.
"You did? So did I."
It was now Leon's turn to be astonished.
"Yes, sir," continued Oscar. "I expect to make my living for years to come by hunting. I am sent out here to procure specimens for the museum connected with the Yarmouth University."
"Well," sighed Leon, after thinking a moment, "your way of becoming a hunter is better than mine."
"Tell me your story from beginning to end," said Oscar, "and then I'll tell you all about myself."
We know the story of Leon's adventures and mishaps; so we will not repeat what he said to Oscar.
We know everything that happened to Oscar, too, up to the time he left Sam Hynes at his mother's gate on the night he returned from Yarmouth. We dropped the thread of his narrative there, and will now go back and take it up.
Oscar's mother, you may be sure, was overjoyed to see him. The letters she had received from him during his absence had prepared her for a portion of the story he had to tell, but there were also some things for which she was not prepared, because the boy had had no time to write about them.
"I was never so surprised in my life as I was this morning," said Oscar, after he had told of his reception and experience at the university. "The committee invited me into their room and gave me a check for sixteen hundred dollars. There it is. The thousand dollars I am to use in paying my expenses, and the rest belongs to me. I shall leave it all with you, with the exception of a hundred dollars, which I shall need to buy an outfit; so you will be well provided for during my absence."
"O Oscar!" exclaimed Mrs. Preston; "I don't see how I can consent to this. You will be so far away from home and among strangers——"
"But I shan't be among strangers, either," interrupted Oscar, handing his mother a package of papers which he drew from the inside pocket of his coat. "There are my credentials, my instructions, which tell me just where to go and what to do, and letters of introduction to high government officers, both civil and military. You see, Professor Kendall—he is the geologist, you know—has taken two parties of students out to the plains, and during his excursions he made the acquaintance of these officers, who gave him every assistance. These letters will bring me the same aid and comfort. The professor is going to take another party out there next summer, and I am going to arrange matters so that they can camp with me for a few days."
The conversation was kept up until midnight, and when Oscar went to bed he had the satisfaction of knowing that, although his mother could hardly bear the thought of so long a separation, she would adhere to her promise and throw no obstacles in his way.
He set about making preparations for the journey as soon as he arose the next morning, and when Monday came he was all ready to start.
His friend Sam, who went around looking as though he had lost everything on earth that was worth living for, was with him night and day, and accompanied him when he went to say good-by to his friends.
Early on Monday morning the omnibus drew up before the door. Oscar assisted the driver to carry out his trunk, and then went back to take leave of his mother.
This was by no means an easy thing to do, and when he came out he held his handkerchief to his face.
The only other passenger was Sam Hynes, who did not speak to or even look at him, although Oscar walked to the forward end of the vehicle, where his friend was sitting, and took a seat by his side.
He resolutely kept his back turned, and looked steadily out of the window until they reached the depot; then he jumped up, wrung Oscar's hand for a moment, and started for the door.
"Say good-by, Sam, and tell me that you wish me success," cried Oscar.
But Sam did not act as though he heard him. He dashed open the door, and sprang to the ground and hurried away.
There was a large company of schoolboys assembled on the platform to see Oscar off, and if he had stopped to shake all the hands that were stretched out to him, he would have been obliged to wait for the next train.
He sprang upon the steps of the nearest car as the train was moving off, waved his cap to the boys, and looked around for Sam Hynes.
Presently he discovered that young gentleman far up the street, striding along with his hands in his pockets and his chin resting on his breast.
"Good luck to you, Sam, wherever you go and whatever you do!" said Oscar, while a big lump of something seemed to be rising in his throat. "You're the best friend any fellow ever had."
Oscar stopped one day in St. Louis to make a few purchases, and then went on to Atchison, where he took the stage for Julesburg. He arrived there on time, ate a hearty breakfast, and, leaving his luggage at the station, walked up to the fort to present his letters of introduction to the commandant and surgeon.
The reception these gentlemen extended to him was all he could have desired. They were astonished that a boy like himself should have been selected for so arduous and dangerous a mission, but they entered heartily into the spirit of the matter, and promised to assist him in every way.
We have seen that Oscar's arrival was most opportune. Had he delayed his coming a few days longer, there is no telling what would have become of Leon Parker.
Oscar spent the afternoon in writing long letters to his mother and Sam. The one intended for Sam, which was marked "confidential," contained a full history of Leon's adventures, and wound up with the request that Sam, for the sake of the friendship he bore the writer, would take Leon under his protection. Oscar hoped in this way to make things smooth for Leon.
There were mean boys in Eaton, as there are everywhere, but they would not be likely to say much to Leon about running away from home when they found he had a friend in such a heavy hitter as Sam Hynes was known to be.
The two boys took their meals with the officers' mess, and slept at the surgeon's quarters that night.
Leon's recovery was wonderfully rapid, as the doctor said it would be, but he was not yet himself by any means. What would his father and his acquaintances in Eaton say to him when he reached home, was the question that worried and haunted him continually.
Oscar said all he could to cheer him, and the next morning he placed in his hands a sum of money sufficient to bear all his expenses, and accompanied him to the station.
The coach arrived in time and the runaway, after shaking Oscar warmly by the hand, and thanking him over and over again for his kindness, climbed to a seat on the top, and in five minutes more was whirled away out of sight.