“What are you up to?” asked Parker, who knew that Carl had made up his mind to go somewhere, and that he wanted the lieutenant to go with him. “Where are you going?”
“I am going out to my house to see how the fellows there came out during the war,” said Carl. “They don’t know that the war is ended, and there may have been some raiders who went up to the ranch from Standing Rock Agency.”
“I’ll ask the colonel,” said Parker, who was delighted with the thought of being free from all military duty for the time he had mentioned. “I have been here eighteen months, and I have never asked for a furlough. I think he will let me go.”
“Well, when we get back to the fort we will wait a little while until the excitement dies out, and when I tip you the wink, you go and see him.”
But Carl did not wait as long as he thought he was going to. On the next night but one they came within sight of the stockade, and Carl was thunderstruck and alarmed, too, when one of the officers pointed out to him a large herd of cattle that were feeding close by the fort. Something told him whose cattle those were, and it took him but a few minutes to ride up and look at the brand on their flanks. The herd belonged to him, but he could not see signs of any herdsmen who had come there with them.
“Those are some of my cattle,” said he to Parker when he rode up beside him, “but how in the world did they come down here? That captain the colonel left here to command the post during his absence is a brick. He has some of the teamsters and soldiers out there to see that they don’t stray away. I am going home this very night.”
“Not alone, are you?” said Parker, becoming alarmed in his turn. “You may find some Indians there who have left your ranch a pile of ruins.”
“I have to go, at any rate. I will speak to the colonel before I leave. If he has a mind to send a company of men out there with me——”
“Ask for Company D,” said Parker.
“It isn’t likely that he will give me a chance to ask for any company, but I shall be glad to have one.”