"Perhaps so. I will consider the matter."
The mail was taken to the office of the Quartermaster, and soon distributed through the command. Among my letters was one from Colonel Burton, the father of the boy sergeants. He said he had expected to send for his sons by this mail, but additional detached service had been required of him which might delay their departure from Whipple for another month, if not longer. He informed me that a detail which I had received to duty as professor of military science and tactics in a boys' military school had been withheld by the Department Commander until my services could be spared at Fort Whipple, and that he thought the next mail or the one following it would bring an order relieving me and ordering me East. This would enable me to leave for the coast the first week in November.
Frank and Henry occupied quarters with me. Seated before our open fire I read their father's letter, and remarked that perhaps I should be able to accompany them to San Francisco, and if the Colonel consented to their request to go to the military school with me, we might take the same steamer for Panama and New York.
"Oh, won't that be too fine for anything!" exclaimed Henry. "Then I'll not have to leave Vicky here, after all."
Vic, upon hearing her name called, left her rug on the hearth and placed her nose on Henry's knee, and the boy stroked and patted her in his usual affectionate manner.
"Then you have been dreading to leave the doggie?" I asked.
"Yes; I dream all sorts of uncomfortable things about her. She is in trouble or I am, and I cannot rescue her and she cannot help me. Usually we are parting, and I see her far off, looking sadly back at me."
"Henry is not alone in dreading to part with Vic," said Frank. "We boys can never forget the scenes at Laguna and the Rio Carizo. She assisted in the recovery of Chiquita, and she helped rescue Manuel, Sapoya, and Henry from the Navajos."
"Nice little doggie. Nice little Vicky. Are you really going to San Francisco and the East with us!" said Henry, assuming at once that he was to accompany me to the military school. "I believe if I only had Chiquita back, and Frank had Sancho, I should be perfectly happy."
After a slight pause, during which the boy seemed to have relapsed into his former depression, Henry asked,