“He knows it already.”
“And did he agree to it?”
“He raised no objections to it, but told me to come back in half an hour. I tell you I had better go on, for twenty minutes of my time is gone already. Good-by, Rand. I hope I shall see you again within forty-eight hours.”
This was too much for Randolph. He got upon his feet and shook his companion’s hand as though he never expected to see him again. Then he opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but no sound came forth. He turned and threw himself upon the bed again.
“I declare, I hope that everybody won’t act that way,” said Lieutenant Parker, as, with a face that had lost considerable of its confidence, he took rapid steps toward his mess-room. “The first thing I know I shall begin to behave that way myself.”
When Parker entered the mess-room he summoned the cook, and found that all that was left for him was what remained of what the officers had had for dinner. “If Lieutenant Parker could only wait for a few minutes”—but Lieutenant Parker could not wait for even one minute. He had an order from the commanding officer which must be fulfilled to the letter; so the cook began to bestir himself, and in a short time a very good meal was placed before him. He ate with his watch open beside him, so that he could cast his eyes upon it with every mouthful he took, and at precisely the time agreed upon he jumped up and started for the door. As he stepped down off the threshold, the first one he saw was Carl, the Trailer. The savage scowl had left his face and he looked just as he did during their hunt.
“You are on hand, I see,” said Lieutenant Parker. “Come on; we have not a single instant to lose.”
The young officer took his way toward the colonel’s headquarters, and found him in the act of sealing an envelope which he was going to send to General Miles. He simply nodded when the boys came in and then went on addressing it; and when he had got that done he settled back in his chair, struck a match to his pipe, which had gone out, and looked at them for several minutes without speaking. Finally he said:
“Preston, are you sure that you want to go to Fort Yates in company with Lieutenant Parker?”
“Why, colonel, I don’t see anything wrong about him,” said the guide. “We will get the dispatches into the hands of the general in due time, but how soon you will get the letters he sends in return I don’t know.”