CHAPTER XVIII
Great was the stir and turmoil at Wild Horse Creek. Long before daylight, while all the gear was stiff with a rime of frost, tents were struck, kit bags loaded, blankets rolled; and after breakfast these, together with the Quartermaster's stores, mess kit, nosebags, and all the equipments of a summer camp, were bestowed upon the transport waggons. At noon the troop was to march on the first short stage of a journey across the Rocky Mountains by the Crow's Nest Pass to the winter station, the divisional headquarters on the Great Plains.
But the wheels of routine were jarred long before mid-day. The Colonel had, as a magistrate, to hear the charge of incendiarism brought against the prisoners, Burrows and Ramsay. Moreover, Regimental Number 1107, Constable La Mancha, on the expiration of his term of service, was to "turn in" his kit, to receive his discharge, and to be struck off the strength of the Force. But neither could the arson case be examined for lack of the chief witness, nor could La Mancha be discharged until he had surrendered his horse, arms, accoutrements, and clothing. And the Blackguard was absent without leave.
The Colonel was furious, reviled the Sergeant-Major, placed the Corporal of the Guard under arrest, also the picket for permitting La Mancha's midnight defection; the Sergeant-Major hurt the cook's feelings by the tone in which he ordered the unpacking of camp equipment for dinner; the men waited comfortless beside their horses; and all with one accord reviled the Blackguard. But when the culprit rode in at noon, accompanied by a lady whom he blandly presented to the Sergeant-Major as the Señora La Mancha, D Troop changed its mind, greeting the Blackguard with three rousing cheers. From the Colonel to the troop dog all realised that the presence of a lady in camp had changed the situation, particularly as the lady was obviously attractive—a maid so sweetly shy that everything must be done to set her at ease, to smooth the roughness of her surroundings, to show D Troop on its best behaviour.
Leaving his wife in charge of Dandy Irvine, as the most presentable man in the division, La Mancha went about the camp raking up ill-conditioned rags and worn-out garments to represent his kit, which was to be delivered over to the authorities, together with his arms and accoutrements. At another time the Quartermaster would have asked what scarecrow had been robbed, now he received the whole mess of rubbish with his blandest smile. Changing into his cowboy equipment, the Blackguard gave away his Government clothes to all who would accept them as his parting gift, reserving only a fine buffalo overcoat, a set of blankets, and some underwear for future use.
The Colonel hastily, sitting as magistrate, found means to discharge his prisoners on the ground of insufficient evidence. Then the Sergeant-Major presented La Mancha's discharge, filled in with the obvious falsehood that his character and behaviour were both, and had always been, "very good."
"Now, La Mancha," said the Colonel, "besides your pay you are entitled to transport and sustenance to your place of enlistment—Winnipeg. Will you have cash or a requisition?"
"Cash, sir."
The Colonel wrote out a cheque to cover the costs of this imaginary journey of twelve hundred miles, a second cheque for La Mancha's pay up to date, and a third in lieu of a wedding present from the officers of the division.
Dinner followed, Dandy and all the non-commissioned officers fighting among themselves for the right to serve the Señora La Mancha, who sat in state upon a buffalo coat near their camp fire, all smiles and blushes. This was her wedding breakfast, served under the frosty blue sky by a swarm of soldiers, who one and all would have offered with the beef and bread their hearts and hands, but for the prior claims of their comrade.
Meanwhile the Blackguard, respectfully declining invitations from the Officers' and Sergeants' Messes, dined for the last time with the troop, and afterwards, when pipes were lit before the saddling, accepted a wedding present from D Division which would materially help in his provision for married life.
Only Mr. Burrows and Mr. Ramsay, discharged from their arrest and welcomed by the Officers' Mess, were discontented with the wintry sunlight, the dry bright wind, the scent of the dying summer. Outwitted by the Blackguard, humiliated in their summary treatment by the law, their grievance received hilariously as a huge joke, they were only too glad to excuse themselves with a plea of pressing business at the Throne, while their crestfallen departure after dinner provoked the troop to a burst of ironical cheering.
But the Blackguard and his Señora, mounted on horses lent by the Sergeant-Major, rode out with the troop on its first stage down the valley, an adventure which Violet La Mancha will ever remember as the most delightful thing in her life. Indeed, it was a sight to stir one's blood, that march of frontier cavalry, to see the big bronzed men sitting their horses with careless grace, the tough, wiry bronchos walking sedately after a canter, the transport lumbering briskly in the midst, and all down the long double line of riders the gleam of blue rifle barrels, a glitter of belts, a glow of scarlet.
The valley reached away on every side in all its loveliness of bush and prairie, on either side hung white Alps above the misty blue of distant forest, and over all were soft little clouds like herds of driven sheep, while the sun raced westward to his setting through dim immensities of sky.
"See," said the Blackguard proudly to his wife, "yonder, right at the foot of the hills, I've built a cabin for you of great big logs, and the chinks are all filled in with moss to make it cosy. The hearth is in the snuggest corner, and all the furniture is made with an axe of clean red cedar, smelling ever so fresh, like pencils. You can look out among the pine trees down to the creek, which is full of trout for our supper, and I've chopped away the bush, so that when we sit by the door after sundown we can see right away across the valley to the great high peaks above the Crow's Nest Pass. Will you be contented, little one?"
"Yes, I shall always be content, because I have you, my great big Blackguard—and I love you."