"When did this happen?" he presently asked.
"Just after stable call, sir. The horses were all returned to the
corral except the herd guard's. The men marched over, as usual, with
their halters. Shannon fell out as they entered the gate, took young
Bennett's rein as he stood ready to lead in after them, mounted and
rode round back of the wall, leaving Bennett so surprised that he
didn't know what to say. He never suspected anything wrong until
Shannon failed to reappear. Then he followed round back of the corral,
found the sergeant's stable frock lying halfway out toward the bluff,
and saw a streak of dust toward Bowlder Point. Then he came and
reported."
Plume, after a moment's silence, turned abruptly. He had suffered much
that day, and to think of his wife lying stricken and whimpering,
professing herself a sorely injured woman because compelled at last to
part with her maid, angered him beyond the point of toleration.
Tossing his saber to the China boy, he went straightway aloft, failing
to note in the dim light that two soft-hearted sympathizers were
cooing by the gentle sufferer's side.
"Well, Clarice," he broke in abruptly, "we are never to hear the end
of that she-cat's doings! My best sergeant has stolen a horse and gone
galloping after her." It is always our best we lose when our better
half is to blame, nor is it the way of brutal man to minimize the
calamity on such occasions. It did not better matters that her
much-wronged ladyship should speedily reply: "It's a wonder you don't
charge the Indian outbreak to poor Elise. I don't believe she had a
thing to do with your sergeant's stealing."
"You wouldn't believe she stole my whisky and gave it to Downs, though
you admitted she told you she had to go back that night for something
she'd dropped. You wouldn't believe she married that rascally gambler
at St. Louis before her first husband was out of the way! You shielded
and swore by her, and brought her out here, and all the time the
proofs were here in Blakely's hands. It was she, I suppose, who
broke off--"
But here, indeed, was it high time to break off. The visitors were now
visibly rising in all proper embarrassment, for Mrs. Plume had started
up, with staring eyes. "Proofs!" she cried, "in Blakely's hands! Why,
she told me--my own letters!--my--" And then brutal man was brought to
his senses and made to see how heartless and cruel was his conduct,
for Mrs. Plume went into a fit and Mrs. Lynn for the doctor.