The Captain gave permission to speak and with a surprised attention, listened to the other’s few words. Carlota tried not to hear that which was not intended for her and was sadly startled when her “Gray Moustache” gave her a hasty kiss on the tip of her nose and said:
“That’s for good-by, my child. I learn that to take you to the station myself would carry me far out of my way, for my first duty now is at camp. I will write some directions on a leaf from my notebook and enclose some money with it. You must give it to the station-master, the telegraph operator, and he will attend to the matter. Good-by, and a prompt reunion with your father!”
To lose this soldier, whom she had regarded as her own especial friend, seemed a terrible misfortune, and her eyes filled as she felt herself set upon the ground, while, with his squad about him, the Captain loped away. Then she saw that Carlos was beside her and, also, that two troopers had been assigned to their escort. However, the faces of these men had neither the sternness nor the quizzical pleasantry of their commander’s. They were the faces of those detailed to perform a troublesome duty while their own desires were elsewhere.
“Bouton, you take the girl and I will the boy.”
“All right.”
One horseman caught up Carlos and one Carlota, and, without another word, rode off like mad across the plain. They handled the twins very much as they would have handled bags of meal, and they took a direction at right angles from that followed by their commanding officer.
Carlos’s temper flamed and he opened his lips to remonstrate against such contemptuous treatment, but remembered the Apaches just in time to restrain his hot speech. It wouldn’t do to anger his guardians then and there, and he did not know that they would not have disobeyed the Captain’s orders to vent their own spite. Thus they traveled for what seemed hours. Then they came, all in the starlight, to a strange place where were two shining things laid flat along the ground and the light of a lamp showed through the window of a solitary shanty.
The cavalryman who carried Carlota dismounted and struck his saber against the cabin door. After a brief delay this was opened by a rough looking man, who held a candle above his head and was speechless from astonishment.
The troopers saluted and said:
“By Captain Sherman’s orders, these children are to be left here until further notice.”