_A WOMAN'S TREACHERY._
"How much you resemble Mrs. Arnold!" exclaimed the Doctor's wife, afteran hour's acquaintance, the day we reached Fort ----. It was not thefirst time I had heard of my resemblance to this, to me, unknown ladyremarked on. A portion of the regiment of colored troops to which DoctorKline belonged, and which we met on their way in to the States, as wewere coming out, had been camped near us one night; and a coloredlaundress, who had good-naturedly come over to our tent to take theplace of my girl, who was sick, had broken into the same exclamation onfirst beholding me. Captain Arnold belonged to the same regiment, andwas expecting, like all the volunteers then in the Territory, to beordered home and mustered out of service, as soon as the body of regulartroops, to which my husband belonged, could be assigned their respectiveposts. Their expectations were not to be realized for some time yet; andwhen I left the Territory, a year later, a part of these troops werestill on the frontier.
Fort ---- was not our destination; to reach it, we should be obliged topass through, and stop for a day or two at, the very post of whichCaptain Arnold had command--which would afford me excellent and ampleopportunity for judging of the asserted likeness between this lady andmyself. I must explain why we were, in a measure, compelled to stop atFort Desolation (we will call it so). It was located in the midst of adesert--the most desolate and inhospitable that can be imagined--in theheart of an Indian country, and just so far removed from the directroute across the desert as to make it impracticable to turn in therewith a command, or large number of soldiers; for which reason, troopscrossing here always carried water-barrels filled with them. A smallparty, however, such as ours was then, could not with any safety campout the one night they must, despite the best ambulance-mules, pass onthe desert.
With most pardonable curiosity, I endeavored to learn something more ofthe woman who was so much like me in appearance; and I began straightwayto question Mrs. Kline about her. The impression of a frank, opencharacter, which this lady had made on me at first, vanished at oncewhen she found that Mrs. Arnold was to be made the subject ofconversation between us.
"Is she pretty?"
"Yes--quite so." Ahem! and looked like me. But my mother's saying, thatthere might be a striking resemblance between a very handsome and a veryplain person, presented itself to my memory like an uninvited guest, andI concluded not to fall to imagining vain things on so slight a support.
"What kind of a man is Captain Arnold?"
"The most good-natured man in the world."
"Oh!" Something in the manner of her saying this in praise of CaptainArnold made me think she wanted to say nothing further; so I stoppedquestioning.
We left the Doctor and his wife early the next morning, and reached FortDesolation at night-fall. The orderly had preceded us a short distance,and, when the ambulance stopped at the Captain's quarters, Mrs. Arnoldappeared on the threshold, holding a lantern in her hand. She raised it,to let the light fall into the ambulance; and as the rays fell on herown face, I could see that she looked like--a sister I had. The Captainwas absent, inspecting the picket-posts he had established along theriver, and would return by morning, Mrs. Arnold said; and she busiedherself with me in a pleasant, pretty manner. She could not resemble mein height or figure, I said to myself, for she was smaller and moredelicately made; nor had any one in our family such deep-blue eyes, savemother--we children had to content ourselves with gray ones.
The night outside was dark and chilly; but in the Captain's house therewere light and warmth, and it was bright with the fires that burned inthe fireplaces of the different rooms--all opening one into the other. Iwas forcibly struck with the difference between the quarters at Fort---- and Mrs. Arnold's home at Fort Desolation. Comforts (luxuries, inthis country) of all kinds made it attractive: bright carpets were onthe floors here; while at the Doctor's quarters at Fort ----, one wasalways reminded of cold feet and centipedes, when looking at the naked_adobe_ floors. Embroidered covers were spread on the tables and whitecoverlets on the beds; while at the Doctor's all these things were madehideous by hospital-linen and gray blankets. Easy-chairs and lounges,manufactured from flour-barrels, saw-bucks, and candle-boxes, were madegorgeous and comfortable with red calico and sheep's-wool; but thecrowning glory of parlor, bed-room, and sitting-room was a dazzlingtoilet-set of china--gilt-edged, and sprinkled with delicate bouquets ofmoss-roses and foliage.
"Where _did_ you get it?" I asked, in astonishment--_not_ envy.
"Isn't it pretty?" she asked, triumphantly. "The Captain'squartermaster, Lieutenant Rockdale, brought it from Santa Fe for me, andpaid, a mint of money for it, no doubt."
At the supper-table I saw Lieutenant Rockdale, who commanded the post inthe Captain's absence, being the only officer there besides the Captain;and, as he messed with them altogether, I need not say that the tablewas well supplied with all the delicacies that New York and Baltimoresend out to less highly favored portions of the universe, in tin cans.Lieutenant Rockdale was a handsome man--a trifle effeminate, perhaps,with languishing, brown eyes, and a soft voice. He seemed delighted withour visit, and took my husband off to his own quarters, while Mrs.Arnold and I looked over pictures of her friends, over albums, and atall the hundred little curiosities which she had accumulated while inthe Territory. The cares of the household seemed to sit very lightly onher; a negro woman, Constantia, and a mulatto boy, of twelve orthirteen, sharing the labor between them. The boy seemed to be afavorite with Mrs. Arnold, though she tantalized and tormented him, as Iafterwards found she tormented and tantalized every living creature overwhich she had the power.
I had noticed, while Constantia and Fred were clearing off the table,that she had cut him a slice from a very choice cake, toward which thechild had cast longing looks. Placing it carefully on a plate, when hehad to leave it for a moment to do something his mistress had biddenhim, in the twinkling of an eye she had hidden it; and when the boymissed it, she expressed her regret at his carelessness, and artfullyled his suspicions toward Constantia. Hearing him whimpering andsniffling as he went back and forth between dining-room and kitchen, hischildish distress at losing the cake seemed to afford her the sameamusement that a stage-play would, and she laughed till the tears rolleddown her cheeks. Later, he was summoned to replenish the fire; and,knowing the little darkey's aversion for going out of the housebare-headed (he had an idea that his cap could prevent the Indian arrowsfrom penetrating his skull), she hid the cap he had left in theadjoining room, and then laughed immoderately at his terror on leavingthe house without it. The next morning, she led me out to the stables toshow me her horse--a magnificent, black animal, wild-eyed, with arestless, fretful air. Crossing the space in front of the house, shecalled to a soldier with sergeant-chevrons on his arms--a man with justenough of negro blood in his veins to stamp him with the curse of hisrace.
"Harry!" she called to him, "Harry, come hold Black for me; I want togive him a piece of sugar." She opened her hand to let him see thepieces, and he touched his cap and followed us. He loosened the halterand led the horse up to us, but the animal started back when he saw Mrs.Arnold, and would not let her approach him. Harry patted his neck andsoothed him, and Mrs. Arnold holding the sugar up to his view, the horsecame to take it from her hand; but she quickly clutched his lip with herfingers, and blew into his face till the horse reared and plunged sothat Harry could hold him no longer. Laughing like an imp, she called toHarry:
"Get on him and hold him, if you cannot manage him in that way: get onhim anyhow, and let Mrs. ---- see him dance."
The mulatto's flashing black eyes were bent on her with a singularlyreproachful look; but the next moment he was on the horse's back, thehorse snorting and jumping in a perfectly frantic manner.
When Mrs. Arnold had sufficiently recovered from her merriment, sheexplained that the horse had not been ridden for a month; the last timeshe had ridden him he had thrown her--she had pricked him with a pin tourge him on faster.
About noon the Captain arrived; and I foun
d him, as Mrs. Kline haddescribed, "the most good-natured man in the world," and, to allappearances, loving his wife with the whole of his big heart. He was bigin stature, too, with broad shoulders, pleasant face, and cheerful,ringing voice. The shaggy dog, who had slunk away from Mrs. Arnold, cameleaping up on his master when he saw him; the horse he had ridden rubbedhis nose against his master's shoulder before turning to go into hisstable, and Constantia and Fred beamed on him with their white teeth andlaughing eyes from the kitchen-door. Later in the afternoon, he askedwhat I thought of his quarters, and told me how hard his coloredsoldiers had worked to build the really pretty _adobe_ house in strictaccordance with his wishes and directions. But I could not quite decidewhether he was more proud of the house or of the affection his men allhad for him. Then he told me the story of almost every piece offurniture in the house; and, moving from room to room, we came to wheretheir bed stood. Resting beside it was his carbine, which the orderlyhad brought in. Taking it in his hand to examine it, he pointed it athis wife's head with the air of a brigand, and uttered, in unearthlytones:
"Your money, or your life!"
With a quick, cat-like spring, she was by the bed, had thrust her handsunder the pillow, and the next instant was holding two Derringers closeto his breast. Throwing back her head, like a heroine in velvet trouserson the stage, she returned, in the same strain:
"I can play a hand at that game, too, and go you one better!"
She laughed as she said it--the laugh that she laughed with her whiteteeth clenched--but there was a "glint" in her eye that I had never seenin a blue eye before.
When once more on the way, my husband asked me how I liked Mrs. Arnold."Very well," said I; "but--," and I did not hesitate to tell him of thepeculiarities I had noticed about her. He himself was charmed with hersprightliness, so he only responded with, "Pshaw! woman!" after which Imaintained an offended (he said, offensive) silence on the subject.
Not quite four months later, my husband was recalled to Santa Fe, and weagain crossed the desert, with only three men as escort. I had heardnothing from either Mrs. Arnold or the Captain in all this time, for ourpost was farther out than theirs; indeed, so far out that nothingbelonging to the same military department passed by that way. It wasmidsummer, and the dreary hills shutting in Fort Desolation, and runningdown toward the river some distance back of the place, were baked hardand black in the sun; the little stream that had meandered along throughthe low inclosure of the fort in winter time was now a mere bed ofslime, and the plateaux, which had been levelled for the purpose oferecting the Captain's house and the commissary buildings on them, couldnot boast of a single spear of grass or any other sign of vegetation.The Captain's house lay on the highest of these plateaux; lower down,across the creek, were the quartermaster and commissary buildings (here,too, were Lieutenant Rockdale's quarters); and to the left, on the otherside of the men's quarters, was the guard-house--part _jacal_, parttent-cloth.
How _could_ any one live here and be happy? Black and bald the earth, asfar as the eye could reach; black and dingy the tents and the huts thatstrewed the flat; murky and dark the ridge of fog that rose on theunseen river; murky and silent the clefts in the rocks where the sunleft darkness forever.
It might have been the fading light of the waning day that cast thepeculiarly sombre shadow on the Captain's house as we drew up to it; butI thought the same shadow must have fallen on the Captain's face, whenhe appeared in the door to greet us. Presently Mrs. Arnold fluttered upin white muslin and blue ribbons; and both did their best to make uscomfortable. How my husband felt, I don't know; but they did not succeedin making me feel comfortable. Perhaps the absence of the bright firemade the rooms look so dark, even after the lights had been broughtin--there was certainly a change. Supper was placed on the table, but Imissed Constantia's round face in the dining-room. In answer to myquestion regarding her, I was told she had expressed so strong a desireto return to the States that she had been sent to Fort ----, there toawait an opportunity to go in. Lieutenant Rockdale's absence I noticedalso. He did not mess with them any more, I was informed.
My attention was attracted to a conversation between Captain Arnold andmy husband. The guard-house, he told him, was at present occupied by twoindividuals who had made their appearance at Fort Desolation severaldays ago, and had tried to prevail on the Captain to sell them some ofthe government horses, and arms and ammunition, offering liberalpayment, and promising secrecy. They were Americans; but as the numberof American settlers, or white settlers, in this country is so small, itwas easy for the Captain to determine that these were not of them, andtheir dress and general appearance led him to suspect that they belongedto that despicable class of white men who make common cause with theIndian, in order to rob and plunder, and, if need be, murder, those oftheir own race. Of course they had not made these proposals directly andopenly to the Captain--at first representing themselves as members of aparty of miners going to Pinos Altos; but they soon betrayed afamiliarity with the country which only years of roaming through itcould have given them. He had felt it his duty to arrest them at once,but had handcuffed them only to-day, and meant to send them, understrong escort, to Fort ----, where their regimental commander wasstationed, as soon as some of the men from the picket-posts could becalled in.
It was late when we arose from the supper-table, and the Captain and myhusband left us, to go down to the guard-house, while Mrs. Arnold led meinto the room where their bed stood. This room had but one window--ofwhich window the Captain was very proud. It was a _French_ window,opening down to the ground. Throwing it open, Mrs. Arnold said:
"What a beautiful moon we have to-night; let us put out the candle andenjoy the moonshine"--with which she laughingly extinguished the light,and drew my chair to the window.
From where I sat I could just see the men's quarters and theguard-house, though it might have been difficult from there to see thewindow. We had not been seated long when I fancied I heard a noise, asthough of some one stealthily approaching from somewhere in thedirection to which my back was turned; then some one seemed to brush orscrape against the outside wall of the house, behind me. "What's that?"I asked in quick alarm. It had not remained a secret to Mrs. Arnold thatI was an unmitigated coward; so she arose, and saying, "How timid youare!--it is the dog; but I will go and look," she stepped from the lowwindow to the ground outside, and vanished around the corner of thehouse. Some time passed before she returned, and with a little shudder,sprang to light the candle.
"How chilly it is getting," she exclaimed; and then continued, "it wasthe dog we heard out there. Poor fellow; perhaps the cook had forgottenhim, so I gave him his supper."
Rising from my seat to close the window on her remark about the cold, Istepped to the opposite side from where I had been sitting; and there,crossing the planks that lay over the slimy creek, and going towards thecommissary buildings, was a man whose figure seemed familiar: I couldnot be mistaken--it was Lieutenant Rockdale. No doubt the man had aright to walk in any place he might choose; but, somehow, I could nothelp bringing him in connection with "the dog, poor fellow," for whomMrs. Arnold had all at once felt such concern.
Soon the gentlemen returned, and we repaired to the parlor, where agame of chess quickly made them inaccessible to our conversation. Thegame was interrupted by a rap at the front door, and Harry, the sergeantwhom Mrs. Arnold had compelled to mount her black horse that day,appeared on the threshold. In his face there was a change, too; his eyesflashed with an unsteady light as he opened the door, and ever andagain, while addressing the Captain--whose thoughts were still half withthe game--his looks wandered over to where Mrs. Arnold sat. We were soseated that the Captain's back was partly toward her when he turned tothe sergeant; and he could not see the quick gesture of impatience, orinterrogation, that Mrs. Arnold made as she caught the mulatto's eye.Involuntarily, I glanced toward him--and saw the nod of assent, orintelligence he gave in return.
The sergeant had come to report that the prisoners in the
guard-househad suddenly asked to see the Captain: they had disclosures to make tohim. When Captain Arnold returned, his face was flushed.
"The villains!" he burst out. "They had managed to hide about fivethousand dollars in United States bank-notes about them, when they weresearched for concealed weapons, and they just now offered it to me, if Iwould let them escape. Not only that, but from something one of themsaid, I have gained the certainty that they are implicated in themassacre of the party of civilians that passed through here about twomonths ago: you remember, the General ordered out a part of K company,to rescue the one man who was supposed to have been taken prisoner. Thewretches! But I'll go myself, in the morning, to relieve the men frompicket-duty, and select the best from among them to take the scoundrelsto Santa Fe!"
When about to begin my toilet the next morning, I gave a start ofsurprise. Was _that_ what had made the house look so dark and changed?Before me stood a large tin wash-basin--of the kind that all commonmortals used out here--and the beautiful toilet-set of china, with itssplendors of gilt-edge and moss-roses, had all disappeared--all save thesoap-dish and hot-water pitcher, which were both defective, and lookedas though they had gone through a hard struggle for existence.
When our ambulance made the ascent of the little steep hill that hidesFort Desolation from view, I saw three horses led from the stable to theCaptain's house--the Captain's horse and two others. He was as good ashis word, and before another day had passed, the two men penned up inthat tent there would be well on their way to meet justice andretribution. A solitary guard, with ebony face and bayonet flashing inthe morning sun, was pacing back and forth by the tent; and walkingbriskly from the commissary buildings toward the men's quarters, wasHarry, the mulatto sergeant.
From the first glance I had at Mrs. Kline's face, when we reached Fort----, I knew that the mystery of the change at Fort Desolation would besolved here. Constantia was there, and acting as cook in Dr. Kline'sfamily. She was an excellent cook, and we did ample justice to her skillat suppertime. The gentlemen leaving the table to smoke their cigars,Mrs. Kline and I settled down to another cup of tea and _medisance_.From what Constantia had stated on coming to Fort ----, it would seemthat in some way Captain Arnold's suspicions had been aroused in regardto the friendship of Lieutenant Rockdale for his wife. About two monthsago, he one day pretended to start off on a tour of inspection to thepicket-posts; but returned, late the same night, by a different road.Stealing into the house through the kitchen, he had, ratherunceremoniously, entered the bed-room, where he found LieutenantRockdale toasting his bare feet before the fire. Raising his carbine toshoot the man, Mrs. Arnold had sprung forward, seized his arms and tornthe gun from him. In the confusion that followed, the toilet-setreferred to, and other articles of furniture, were demolished: butConstantia, who had crept in after the Captain, to prevent mischief, ifpossible, gave it as her opinion that Mrs. Arnold "had grit enough forten such men as him an' de leftenant."
"If you did but know the ingratitude of the creature," continued Mrs.Kline, "and the devotion her husband has always shown her!" And she gaveme a brief sketch of her career: Married to Arnold just at the breakingout of the war, and of poor parents, she had driven him almost todistraction by her treatment, when thrown out of employment some timeafter. At last he went into the Union forces as substitute--giving everycent of the few hundred dollars he received to his wife, who spent it onherself for finery. Later, when for bravery and good conduct he was madelieutenant in a negro regiment, she joined her husband, and finally cameto the Territory with him. In their regiment, it was well known that hehad always blindly worshipped his wife; and that she had always ruledhim, his purse, and his company, with absolute power.
Before retiring for the night, we debated the question: Should we remainthe next day at Fort ----, or proceed on our journey? The mules neededrest, as well as the horses, for the quartermaster could not furnishfresh mules, which we had rather expected; still, my husband was anxiousto reach Santa Fe as soon as possible--and we left the question of ourdeparture where it was, to settle it the next morning at breakfast. Thenews that came to Fort ----, before the next morning, made us forget ourjourney--for that day, at least. Captain Arnold had been murdered! Thebig, true-hearted man was lying at Fort Desolation--dead--with hisbroken eyes staring up to the heaven that had not had pity on him--hisbroad breast pierced with the bullet that a woman's treachery had sped!
Before daybreak, a detachment of six men had come in from FortDesolation to Fort ----, to report to the commander of their regimentthat Captain Arnold had been assassinated, and Sergeant Henry Tulliverhad deserted, taking with him one horse, two revolvers, and a carbine.Captain Arnold had started out the morning before, with only two men, tocall in the picket-posts. An hour later, the two men had come dashingback to the fort, stating that they had been attacked, and CaptainArnold killed, by the two white men who had been confined in theguard-house. It was ascertained then, for the first time, that theprisoners had made their escape. A detachment of men was sent out with awagon, and the Captain's body brought in--the men, with their blackfaces and simple hearts, gathered around it, with tears andlamentations, heaping curses on the villains who had slain their kindcommander.
Suddenly a rumor had been spread among them that Harry, the sergeant,had set the prisoners free; and instantly, a hundred hoarse voices wereshouting the mulatto's name--a hundred hands ready to take the traitor'slife. Vainly Lieutenant Rockdale--who, after the Captain's departure,had at once repaired to his house--tried to check the confusion, thatwas quickly ripening into mutiny: the excitement only increased, andsoon a crowd of black soldiers moved toward the men's quarters, withanything but peaceful intentions. Perhaps Harry's conscience had warnedhim of what would come, for while the mob were searching the quarters, alithe figure sprang over the planks across the creek, ran to the stablesbelow the Captain's house, and the next moment dashed over the road,mounted on a wild-looking, black horse.
Could they but have reached him--the infuriated men, who sent yells andcarbine-balls after the fugitive--he would have been sacrificed by themto the _manes_ of the murdered man; and perhaps this effect had beencalculated on, when the fact of his having liberated the prisoners hadbeen brought, to their ears.
"How did it come to their ears?" I asked of the Doctor, under whose careone of the six men, overcome with fatigue and excitement, had beenplaced. It seems that Mrs. Arnold had expressed her conviction of thesergeant having liberated the prisoners to Lieutenant Rockdale in littleFred's hearing, and the boy had innocently repeated the tale to the men.
In the afternoon of the same day, the detail had been made of the menwho brought the news to Fort ----; but when the detachment had been onlyan hour or two on the way, they found the trail of the escapedprisoners. The men could not withstand the temptation to make an effort,at least, to recapture them. They knew them to be mounted, for the twohorses which Sergeant Tulliver had that morning separated from the herdwere missing; but the trail they followed showed the tracks of _three_horses, which led them to suppose that Harry had found the men andjoined them.
But the trail led farther and farther from the road, and fearing to beambushed, they turned back, leaving the man who had been driven from thecompanionship of his brethren by a woman's treachery, to become one ofthe vultures that prey on their own kind.
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