Owen Wister

“ The clank of the stage is close. One shot cracks. The Captain is up. One horse lies on the road, beating his legs.
Again a shot rings, and there's a shout from the Captain, and more shots. Jack finds himself kneeling, his gun cold and hard against his cheek, sighting, firing, and dropping the wild figures that now leap into sight below. He doesn't remember when he began.
More Indians now; more figures leaping to view all over the hill; smoke and shots from the stage, smoke everywhere, the sharp smell of it; shots high and low and echoing din among the rocks ”

“ Until Verbena Frankish came to visit cousins at Walla Walla none of them had heard of her; then all heard of her the first day and all declared her the best girl the post had ever entertained; the prettiest, sweetest little thing—and how brightly she could talk when she felt like it!
“She knows how to keep still, too,” Mrs. Wade remarked.
Women can understand women at sight. It seems hardly fair to us.
Callers surrounded Verbena at every permissible hour. Each day in the week her unmistakable blond hair was discerned from afar, with some figure in uniform invariably contiguous. ”

“ The thought of it made each of the women breathe a pensive sigh.
Not many months later, James and Verbena were stationed at Fort Bowie, Arizona. Little was near there but cactus, mountains and hostile Apaches. It was between massacres, with nothing doing. One night a young officer, at whose quarters they were playing cards, came out rather strongly. Glasses of whisky were beside all the players but James. Talk had dwelt so far upon the recent burning of the Butterfield stage and the massacre of its passengers in Apache Pass, when the aroma of James's cigar changed the subject. ”

“ He looked quickly across to the opposite hill; not a sign of anything was visible there; and yet, these rocks and cactus were full of men with their hands on their guns.
Memories and thoughts swept through him. How could this place look so natural? Could he have made Toney feel like telling him, if he had only begun after that talk with the Captain? Yes, he could. Toney surpassed any of his experiences so far. What would the next one be? Where? Experiences waited in the world everywhere for such a man as he knew himself to be. Or else—to die here, quick and sharp, helping the Captain win. ”

“ If James from first to last ever knew how they talked, they never knew he knew it.
“And what are we to believe now?” asked Mrs. Day of Mrs. Slocum when he had gone back to Fort Bayard. Mrs. Slocum was another veteran.
“I never noticed him with a cigar till this evening,” observed Captain Slocum, “if that'll help you.”
“Perhaps that's it,” Mrs. Day mused. “She's got him down to that. Or perhaps it's when he feels safe.”
“Do you suppose he ever thinks he made a mistake?” said Mrs. Slocum. “Sometimes he doesn't look a day over twenty-five,”
“Not a day!” assented her friend. ”

“ James Junior lucidly amplified. He had lately gone into long trousers.
Jack Whetstone was silent. He knew. He had seen them as he came to pot-luck. But he was their friend and hoped for the best.
“If you expect to grow up and catch Indians,” said their father, “you'll have to step livelier.”
“There will be no more Indians then, Captain,” said Verbena, smiling. “Eat your beef, Charlie.” ”

“ Damned if ever I marry!”
In this hot youthful unjust state he entered the private room of Captain Monk wondering what could be the matter that the Captain's striker had brought him so early a message. The sound of people at breakfast came through the door; and while Jack stood waiting he scowled gloomily at the rack for pipes, so orderly, so interesting, so deserted. Absorbed in his mood, he did not hear the quiet entrance of his superior officer, gave a slight start at being spoken to and turned quickly away from the rack. The Captain appeared not to be aware of the rack. ”

“ Those that lay near together could smell each other's sweat.
With Captain Monk the rest moved out of their hearing farther downward, crossed the stage road quickly, climbed up and back among the rocks and mounds for a while, dispersed and lay low, hidden from those opposite and from themselves. Their grip was on their guns; they were to wait for one word from their Captain. He kept his Lieutenant with him in a bare space which they had often marked for their own. Cactus grew thick around this little clear spot of ground and small stones and thin weeds covered it. ”

“ By looking between two bristling clumps of Yucca, you got in daylight a slit of view out of the gap and over the flat to Dragoon Summit; but you must not lift your head as much as six inches and your body must lie close against the earth. The sweat dried in the backs of the wet shirts, the damp chests and bellies of the men began to grow cold.
“The waiting is the longest part,” whispered Jack.
He saw Monk's head nod. ”

“ James simply adores her, and I've yet to see a happier wife.”
“Or a happier husband,” said Mrs. Brewster.
“Doesn't he look young!” exclaimed his mother-in-law with bright quickness. “You'd never in the world take him for forty. Well, that's what love does! We all think Christine is just the sweetest name.”
And then, one day Mrs. Frankish ceased her excursions and sat indoors with her daughter; Dr. Stoff had thought it would be prudent for Verbena to keep rather quiet. There was whispering in the post that afternoon. Captain Monk and Lieutenant Whetstone had gone after quail again. ”

“ Every unwedded officer had his turn for a long ride or a walk.
“I'm Tuesday,” said a captain to a first lieutenant. “Which are you?”
“I used to be Thursday,” said the other pensively.
“Cheer up, old man. Never say die.”
So the blue-eyed Verbena remained everybody's sister.
Then James Monk returned from a scout on the John Day river. In one week he was engaged to Verbena Frankish, in four he went East on leave, married her in Caesar Borgia, Kansas, where the family lived, and brought her back to Walla Walla. ”

“ But when you come from Kansas you're apt to think your neighbor sins when he enjoys anything you don't happen to like yourself. Verbena had been heard to say it made the curtains smell. This might account for it. Or possibly was she determined to tame her red-headed Indian fighter just to show how much he was hers? Jealousy, the tobacco hearted uncle, enlargement of the conscience, smelly curtains, love of power—any of these, or all, might account for Verbena; but what could explain James? ”

“ Jack sat up ruefully. “Cactus.” And then respect and restraint struggled faintly again. His Captain had them all fooled—Verbena, everybody. To think of Verbena filled the boy with savage delight. While James Monk was carefully picking the porcupine lances of the cactus out of his back, respect dissolved in confiding affection.
“Captain, you've stunned me.”
“I guess I've about got 'em all out of your shirt,” said Monk. “Take it off and let's have a look at your back.”
Whetstone removed the garment.
“Here are some more,” Monk said. “Mustn't give 'em a chance to work under the skin. Bad. ”

“ What I'm counting on is their impatience. They've acquired the habit of considering the Butterfield stage their particular prey. Keep 'em away from it, keep 'em waiting till they're worked up over it, and then withdraw your patrol. They'll be more in the mood to think you feel safe than that you're up to something.”
“You've completed your study of the country?”
“The day after I made my last report to you. Those Indians will sneak in from the south—or else from Dragoon Summit. They may feel bold.”
“Well, Captain, I'd not care to be one of the passengers in that stage.” ”

“ I have sometimes met men whose feelings for their wife's mother were—er——”
“Yes,” said James Monk succinctly.
“But,” the Colonel hurried on, “about her journey across the San Simon and up into these hills. I don't like that. Let me know in time and I'll send the ambulance with an escort to meet her in Lordsburg—that is unless you've got the Indians discouraged by then. Now, Captain Monk, I count on you. You understand the fix we're in just as well as I do. Some mean skunk who calls himself a hardy settler and a great-souled pioneer plays the Indian some stinking trick. ”

“ Down on the road, a stage driver, wiping blood from his neck, with the remark, “Just creased me;” passengers getting out and shaking hands with him; cavalry soldiers moving warily on the hillside; a shot occasionally from one of these; prone figures, dark, painted, slim, stretched quiet, faces down, arms flung flat out; faces up, arms twisted; dark bodies curved backward across rocks, full in view; dark bodies fallen half out of sight, half sticking out of cactus clumps; here and there a dark body still moving, crawling in a tilted falling motion for shelter ”

“ Hipple, wife of Colonel Hipple, the post commander at Custer. The other Walla Walla troops had gone to Yuma. That was army life then. You saw some people every day for a year, and often longer, and nobody else. Then you never saw them at all; they would be a thousand miles away; then suddenly you would be seeing them every day again. So now at Custer, James and Verbena had a perfectly fresh set of spy-glasses turned upon them. ”

“ Sliding slowly out of the cactus into e warming sun, ten feet away, a rattlesnake was headed toward the Captain's face, Captain didn't see it. What would it do if it got to him? It must be turned. Turned now, at once, or killed. But the Indians would hear you. You mustn't move, you mustn't speak. That would spring the trap too soon. That would ruin all, and the Captain must win. Jack seized a little stone. No. Not that. Desperately, he touched James Monk who turned a fierce, heavy frown upon him, but seeing his glare, looked. ”

“ If you were unused to the sight, you might have taken the two objects for Indians, and you would have been wrong: anybody living in that country would have known them for white men, and with field-glasses might have discerned the yellow stripes on one pair of visible legs. These belonged to James Monk; Jack Whetstone sat beside him and the shirts and faces of both were brown with dust. A large rip slanted across Jack's trousers where a cactus had laid them open ”

“ Stage was burned to ashes, as usual. They must have shot the horses first. The state of the bodies—but I don't want to make you sick. One woman, too. I want to get a look at the place. You'll go with me. Put on your oldest shirt and things—it's rough country, I'll fix it up with the K.O. E. Troop is hunting them now, ordered out from Fort Grant. Fifty men on horseback in broad daylight, riding around and around. So likely to make Indians come right in and surrender! The nanny goat has telegraphed that all arrests must be peaceful. Indians mustn't have any cause for dissatisfaction. ”

“ Captain Quid
How an Indian Fighter Laid Down the Law for Apaches and for Wives
AFTER the Nez Percés war, it began to be said of James Monk, bachelor aged twenty-three, red-headed second lieutenant of cavalry, and particular about his collars and his boots, that he was the makings of a star Indian fighter; but this was scarcely enough yet to win him a name in our army of the old frontier. His brother officers at Walla Walla regretted that he didn't drink and doubted if he would ever tie himself to wedlock; but if he did become a husband they were sure that his wife would thoroughly realize it. ”

“ Verbena colored. “It is not,” she said, “that I ever interfere with James, or that I ever would. I do not have to expect him to tell me his plans; he simply does.”
“Well, we mustn't stay too long,” said Mr. Brewster, getting up.
“Yes, we mustn't tire you,” added Mrs. Stoff, following her example.
They were about to go out of the door when it opened violently and through it burst Nellie and Gertrude. In the hands of each was something creased and bright which they held up to the company. It appeared to be tin foil. On their heels followed Charlie and James Junior. ”

“ Some offspring arrive more punctually than some trains. This one did. But Indians were less regular. Upon a day when Verbena's event was close at hand and she and James had never wanted more to be with each other and to sit together and wait, a glum James rode out of the post northward at the head of his troop. ”

“ After that Christmas pipe at Custer she might do anything.”
Mrs. Dexter sat back, and her broad Atlantic rose and fell serenely. You could have heard a pin drop.
“After the baby was born, Mrs. Frankish—that's her mother—went back to the family home in Caesar Borgia, Kansas. The family home, where the uncle committed suicide with prussic acid in the parlor and Verbena saw him do it. Of course with an uncle like that in the family a queer niece is no surprise. Her mother has always tried to counteract it. Verbena's very smart. You never hear her tell him not to smoke. ”

“ The day the patrol's withdrawn, you and I will be ready at any news to leave the post with our detail. We'll travel by night and hide in the scrub trees on the top by day, well off any trail. They'll come by one of their trails, or they'll come by the road from Dragoon Summit. We've got all trails marked on our maps. Enter the stage bound for Tucson and dressed for the part. Enter Indians. Enter soldiers of pampered and brutalized U.S. cavalry. Alarms and excursions. See?” Monk, absorbed over his scheme, looked at the mountains. ”

“ There was no help for it; the trouble must be headed off and white settlers protected in their lives and property.
Before the soldiers returned the event was successfully over, and Verbena quite beyond the chance of danger. Moreover, Mrs. Frankish, Verbena's mother, had come from Caesar Borgia well in advance. Mrs. Frankish thought highly of her son-in-law.
“It's an ideal union,” she said to Colonel and Mrs. Hipple on the great day that made her a grandmother. “He weighs eight pounds and a half. He's to be James Junior.” ”