"No, I was much too big a blackguard, but now it's different, Miss Violet, quite different, you minx. I never burned my Uncle's mill. I was never half so wicked."
She laughed with delight at her own wickedness.
"Kiss me," he said, and that she did right heartily.
"Come, Blackguard," Dandy was quivering with impatience. "You fool, you're spoiling the whole game. Hurry up!"
So La Mancha was dragged away to the stables, where in due course the prisoners' horses were saddled, also the Colonel's grey charger. Then came the champing of horses' bits, the mounting of men, farewells, and the filing-off of a solemn procession into the night. But Miss Violet was left behind for safe keeping, who, with her humble confession, her tears, and a very few smiles, softened the Padre's heart.
CHAPTER XVIII
Great was the stir and turmoil at Wild Horse Creek. Long before daylight, while all the gear was stiff with a rime of frost, tents were struck, kit bags loaded, blankets rolled; and after breakfast these, together with the Quartermaster's stores, mess kit, nosebags, and all the equipments of a summer camp, were bestowed upon the transport waggons. At noon the troop was to march on the first short stage of a journey across the Rocky Mountains by the Crow's Nest Pass to the winter station, the divisional headquarters on the Great Plains.
But the wheels of routine were jarred long before mid-day. The Colonel had, as a magistrate, to hear the charge of incendiarism brought against the prisoners, Burrows and Ramsay. Moreover, Regimental Number 1107, Constable La Mancha, on the expiration of his term of service, was to "turn in" his kit, to receive his discharge, and to be struck off the strength of the Force. But neither could the arson case be examined for lack of the chief witness, nor could La Mancha be discharged until he had surrendered his horse, arms, accoutrements, and clothing. And the Blackguard was absent without leave.
The Colonel was furious, reviled the Sergeant-Major, placed the Corporal of the Guard under arrest, also the picket for permitting La Mancha's midnight defection; the Sergeant-Major hurt the cook's feelings by the tone in which he ordered the unpacking of camp equipment for dinner; the men waited comfortless beside their horses; and all with one accord reviled the Blackguard. But when the culprit rode in at noon, accompanied by a lady whom he blandly presented to the Sergeant-Major as the Señora La Mancha, D Troop changed its mind, greeting the Blackguard with three rousing cheers. From the Colonel to the troop dog all realised that the presence of a lady in camp had changed the situation, particularly as the lady was obviously attractive—a maid so sweetly shy that everything must be done to set her at ease, to smooth the roughness of her surroundings, to show D Troop on its best behaviour.