"I was sorry not to see you again at Chickamauga, but I started here
next day. I have just written you that there was a place on my staff for
you or your brother--or for any son of your father and my friend. I'll
write to Washington for you to-night, and you can report for duty
whenever you please."
The little man made the astounding proposition as calmly as though he
were asking the Kentuckian to a lunch of bacon and hardtack, and
Crittenden flushed with gratitude and his heart leaped--his going was
sure now. Before he could stammer out his thanks, the general was gone.
Just then Rivers, who, to his great joy, had got at least that far, sat
down by him. He was much depressed. His regiment was going, but two
companies would be left behind. His colonel talked about sending him
back to Kentucky to bring down some horses, and he was afraid to go.
"To think of being in the army as long as I have been, just for this
fight. And to think of being left here in this hell-hole all summer, and
missing all the fun in Cuba, not to speak of the glory and the game. We
haven't had a war for so long that glory will come easy now, and anybody
who does anything will be promoted. But it's missing the fight--the
fight--that worries me," and Rivers shook his head from side to side
dejectedly. "If my company goes, I'm all right; but if it doesn't, there
is no chance for me if I go away. I shall lose my last chance of
slipping in somewhere. I swear I'd rather go as a private than not at
all."
This idea gave Crittenden a start, and made him on the sudden very
thoughtful.
"Can you get me in as a private at the last minute?" he asked presently.
"Yes," said Rivers, quickly, "and I'll telegraph you in plenty of time,
so that you can get back."
Crittenden smiled, for Rivers's plan was plain, but he was thinking of a
plan of his own.
Meanwhile, he drilled as a private each day. He was ignorant of the
Krag-Jorgensen, and at Chickamauga he had made such a laughable
exhibition of himself that the old Sergeant took him off alone one day,
and when they came back the Sergeant was observed to be smiling broadly.
At the first target practice thereafter, Crittenden stood among the
first men of the company, and the captain took mental note of him as a
sharpshooter to be remembered when they got to Cuba. With the drill he
had little trouble--being a natural-born horseman--so one day, when a
trooper was ill, he was allowed to take the sick soldier's place and
drill with the regiment. That day his trouble with Reynolds came. All
the soldiers were free and easy of speech and rather reckless with
epithets, and, knowing how little was meant, Crittenden merely
remonstrated with the bully and smilingly asked him to desist.