The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-08-08

upon the good horse that had so
steadily. SO bravery, carried me mile
after mile. His cold body, bridled and
saddled, lying there on the grass, con-
pletely unnerved me; and I sat me
down on the porch before all those
standing there, and put my head / III
my arms. A Ia can stand but so
much, after all.
CHAPTER VIII.
IN WHICH I AM TO ENTER A FOR
RIDDEN HOUSE.
$50 you're stationed with us now, my
friend?" asked Acton a couple of days
later, as we sat in Lieutenant Curtis
quarters in the upper story of Colonel
LivinEstone's house.
I told him that he was right. For, on
presenting the commander-in-chief's
note to the colonel, the later a
shaken me cordially by the hand, and
told me that no n could be. more
pleased than he over the result. 1t
turned out that when he read Putnam's
note, While I was undergoing my first
examination in the g~uardhouse, he felt
that something was ron and, real
izing that Washington often had agents
at work whom no one else knew, he had
called me to him, judged for himself,
and done what he could to help me
along. 1t goes without saying that Ar
nolds treason was as unknown to him
as to every one else; and, as I learned
now, if I had told him the whole story,
he would not have thought Of believing
it. ] T
Their I had been placed IN his staff
as an aide, to do what might come
within my power, while I awaited fur
Their orders from General Washington.
And I had looked up the only two men
I had made friends with during my
short %sojourn at the fort. They appeared
each in his own way-glad to have
me with them again, the one bolster
GUS and full Of regard for a man who,
however unconsciously, had been the
means of saving him from possible
death, the other calm, cool, serious, and
reserved, a gentleman to his finger tips.
Curtis, indeed, haunted me a little by a
strange twist which his face had now
and again of looking familiar, as if I
had known him long ago In a past age,
when he wore other garments. Nay, It
was more than the face. The voice, the
little mannerisms that a man will al
ways carry about him, would all now
and hen bring this peculiar prior ex-
iStence to my mind.
Yet it was all intangible and curious
so strangely SO that I almost Of neces-
SHY lilSu u lGdIll SOlllGLIllllS OIL Ills lie
and antecedents. Here again I was baf->
fled. No memo a soul in that regi-
ment-knew aught of him back a couple
Of years., when he had joined with a
lleutenant's commission and been
placed under Captain Jacob Barnes,
who commanded a company of Living
stones foot. Distinguished service had
raised him to the colonel's staff. ~
Acton, whom I Immediately came to
10nS IN G a ffrfQnG-o fridp6 who ha q
remained the same through thirty-odd
years-told me what little I could learn
of Robert Curtis. He himself was the
con Of an old jamestown colony family,
and had drifted into Livingstone's regl-
ment through a Captain Henry, whose
lieutenant he now was. And it appeared.
that Curtis had little to do with any
one but this one southern officer. Ac-
cording to John, Curtis had no lack of
money, but spent little or nothing. The
frank fellow, after their acquaintance
became established. had asked his
friend concerning his own family, and
had been cut short by Curtis gloomy
face and his answer that he had none.
Neither could he learn where the
young mar came from, nor why he was
weighed down so by such sorrow as
prevented him from taking part in any
of the ~recreationS Of camp life. He new
er laughed; sometimes he would smile.
He never talked to any great extent;
but on occasion, when some military or
political subject came up, he could talk
freely and well, with the knowledge Of
a travelled and studied man. He lived,
in fact, a life apart from the life Of the
camp, camp where I soon found that,
in spite Of the lack Of money, there
was 40 lack of amusement OF every
lSina. Yet, withal, Curtis was never
brusk; no one was too low for his
courtesy; no officer could browbeat him
with the rights of discipline when the
higher rights were or his side. He had
fought Captain Barnes and wounded
him, because the latter had ruined a
country wench near by, and then tried
to browbeat Curtis when the latter
criticised him to has face. Several times
he had, I learned, called a superior to
account, as on the day of my arrest.
John Acton. or Jack, as I, like all the
world, at once called him, was Of an
other type. Huge in size, he was big in
every way-open-hearted, open-handed.
full OF a great, hearty laugh, careless
of himself and all else, fond of a jovial
evening, but as big in his sense of hon
esty and ~chivalry as he was in stature.
They made a strange pair, these two.
Yet, perhaps by their very opposites,
they were drawn together. My dropping
IN with them was all Acton's doing.
Curtis I should never have known OF
herwise for he did his best to avoi
meeting any one excepting Acton. Twas
the latter who took me to his heart at
once, and SOL saw Curtis and became
SO strangely fascinated by the peculiar
Unfamiliar look II he seemed
to I've that, perforce, he had to toll
crate me; and in a few days I came to
the habit Of being with these two men
whenever we were off duty.
In such a camp, lifelong friendships
and enemies are quickly made, ard the
existence Of our American officers of
those days, filled always with work.
was relieved by the social life OF little
cliaues and groups. Such an one was
IEnow taken into, and before long we
three had agreed, among ourselves, that
whenever occasion arose for special
duty on the part of anyone of us, that
one would if possible secure the other
v to help. him carry through the af-
fair.
The especially Important case in point
was tbs capture of a certain man calleGs
fCaptain Hazietine. I had overheard.
something of him that morning In the
guardhouse, and learned now that the
man had become a sort i mania with
Curtis. The latter had distinguished