By taking invoices of the property Lieutenant Lang had on hand and comparing them with the invoices of what he had received, I soon found what was deficient. I then set his men to work looking about the post and gathering up, from among the rubbish and castaway property abandoned by the outgoing garrison, every old article of quartermaster's and ordnance stores and camp and garrison equipage that could be found. I then asked the lieutenant to call on the commanding officer for a board of survey, who inspected and condemned the stuff and ordered it burned, thereby relieving Lang of his accountability for it.
There was still a considerable shortage of arms and things that I could not pick up about the post and get condemned, but, on learning that this company had been engaged in a skirmish with the rebels in Missouri recently, I covered a considerable deficit on the returns as "lost in action," on the affidavits of soldiers, and accounted for some other stuff as legitimately "worn out or expended in the public service."
By these and other methods usually resorted to in the regular service to cover deficiencies I soon had Lieutenant Lang's accountability reduced to the property he actually had on hand; and, while doing so, instructed his company clerk so that thereafter he could easily keep the accounts in safe shape.
My work for Lang attracted considerable attention from the other company commanders and they soon got to dropping in to consult me in regard to making out papers and all sorts of military matters.
At the expiration of my contract, Lieutenant Lang cheerfully paid me the two hundred dollars—which I deposited with Weisselbaum to the credit of the firm—and expressed himself as glad to get out of his recent dilemma so cheaply.
While at this work I was often one of the busiest men about the post. These officers, though inexperienced, were gentlemanly fellows, and not having had that regular army legend ground into them about the impassable gulf between the enlisted man and the commissioned officer, though knowing that I had but recently been a private soldier, treated me as an equal. Even the major commanding often consulted me on technical affairs, and offered to use his influence to procure me a commission in the regiment if I would join his command, which kind offer I declined with thanks. I had made up my mind not to bind myself to Uncle Sam again, though—after this wolf hunting campaign—I planned to enter the service as a scout or wagon-master or in some civilian capacity that would give me more freedom than as a soldier or officer.
CHAPTER XVIII
BILL RETURNS FROM HIS SCOUT
During the time I had been at work on Lieutenant Lang's papers there had been another heavy snow, but it had soon passed off. Tom had come over to the fort once or twice, reporting all serene at Camp Coyotelope; and about the time I had finished my job and was preparing to return to wolf skinning, Wild Bill and John Adkins came into the post, returning from the main Kiowa camp by way of old To hausen's village on Walnut Creek.