And the excited girl indignantly dashed the sword on the ground, and wheeled her horse to ride away. Then it was that Clark put spurs to his own horse and darted forward, laying his hand on her bridle with iron grasp.
“Not so fast, mademoiselle,” he said, sternly. “You have cast an imputation on my honor that I can not visit on you, but, by heavens, I will visit it on him. Do you understand? I see it all now. You love this boy; and now I warn you that you shall never be his, nor any other man’s but mine. Do you hear? I will resume command of my troops, and my first act shall be to release your lover from arrest. For what will follow, you alone are responsible. I have done.”
He let go the bridle, quietly dismounted from his horse, and picked up his sword, then mounted and turned toward the town at the same slow pace at which he had come.
Ruby sat gazing at him for a moment with a strange smile; it almost seemed tender and compassionate, and yet it was decidedly triumphant.
“I have him safe,” she said, to herself.
Then she dashed away past him at the utmost speed of her mustang, swept through the streets like a whirlwind, and drew up in front of the camp, where every one was still clustered in groups. Ruby rode straight up to the officers.
“What are you doing, gentlemen?” she cried. “You have allowed the greatest General in this country to be insulted by his own troops, whom he has led to victory; and when he resigns in disgust, not one of you is fit to step into his shoes; and yet you have left it to a woman to entreat him to come back. For shame, old women that you are! Do one thing or another. Choose another chief, or welcome back your old one. Beat the drums; fall in the men! Send a deputation to request him to resume command. Act like soldiers, not like boys!”
Her fiery eloquence seemed to go like a shock through the crowd. As if by magic the drummer struck up “To the Colors;” the men rushed to their places; Bowman and Harrod mounted and rode off up the street to salute the returning commander.
The parade of Clark’s Rangers had never been formed before with one-half the celerity that was manifested on this occasion; and when Clark, soon after, rode up to the center of the line, the order was perfect, and every one in his place.
As for Ruby, she was nowhere to be seen. As soon as the parade was formed, she rode straight up the steps of the arsenal, received by her dusky escort with the same impassive silence that they had manifested all through the proceedings.