And yet, down in the bottom of her heart, she knew that just such a
hope had held her there even to the hour of recall. She knew that,
since opportunities for meeting him within the garrison were limited,
she had deliberately chosen to ride alone, and farther than she had
ever ridden alone before, in hope of meeting him without. She knew
that in the pursuit of his winged prey he never sought the open mesa
or the ravines and gorges of the foothills. Only along the stream were
they--and he--to be found. Only along the stream, therefore, had she
this day ridden and, failing to see aught of him, had dismounted to
think in quiet by the pool, so she told herself, but incidentally to
wait and watch for him; and now she had found him, neither watching
nor waiting, but in placid unconcern and slumber.
One reason why they met so seldom in garrison was that her father did
not like him in the least. The captain was a veteran soldier,
self-taught and widely honored, risen from the ranks. The lieutenant
was a man of gentle breeding and of college education, a soldier by
choice, or caprice, yet quite able at any time to quit the service and
live a life of ease, for he had, they said, abundant means of his own.
He had been first lieutenant of that troop at least five years, not
five months of which had he served on duty with it. First one general,
then another, had needed him as aide-de-camp, and when, on his own
application, he had been relieved from staff duty to enable him to
accompany his regiment to this then distant and inhospitable land, he
had little more than reached Camp Sandy when he was sent by the
department commander to investigate some irregularity at the Apache
reservation up the valley, and then, all unsoliciting, he had been
placed in charge pending the coming of a new agent to replace the
impeached one going home under guard, and the captain said things
about his subaltern's always seeking "fancy duty" that were natural,
yet unjust--things that reached Mr. Blakely in exaggerated form, and
that angered him against his senior to the extent of open rupture.
Then Blakely took the mountain fever at the agency, thereby still
further delaying his return to troop duty, and then began another
complication, for the contract doctor, though skillful in his
treatment, was less assiduous in nursing than were the wife of the
newly arrived agent and her young companion Lola, daughter of the
agency interpreter and his Apache-Yuma wife.