Taking up a position in front of Bill, Found stood wagging his tail and looking up pleadingly into his master's face, seeming to ask: "May I go with you?"
"No, Found," said the scout, between whom and his dog there seemed to be a perfect understanding, "you can't go. It'd be too long an' hard a road for you an' would wear you out. You must stay right here till I come back."
"You'd better get his chain an' collar an' I'll tie him to that post there, an' he'll know by that that I don't want him to go an' he'll not try to follow us after we leave."
I brought the chain and Bill took it and tied the dog, petting and talking kindly to him, and then making him lie down, which seemed to satisfy Found that his master desired him to remain.
"Let us hear from you, Bill," I requested, "as soon as you get back, will you, for I'd like to know how the Kiowas are feeling."
"Yes, I will," he replied; "if I don't come back this way I'll come over from the fort soon after we get back."
Mounting their horses--Adkins leading the pack-mule, while Wild Bill rode behind to drive it up--they crossed the creek below the beaver dam, and were soon out of sight behind the timber.
Tom returned from Fort Larned that evening. He hoped that his intercession for Flaherty would procure a mitigation of the usual penalty; but desertion, even under extenuating circumstances, was too serious an offence to pass without at least a form of punishment. The culprit was put in the guard-house, with a fair prospect, however, of being released and restored to duty before long.
The long-expected three companies of volunteer cavalry had arrived to relieve the old garrison, and as soon as the government property could be transferred from the old officials to the new, the old garrison--two companies of Second Infantry and one of Second Dragoons--would march away to Fort Leavenworth. A week later our old comrades, the regulars, were gone.
On his return from his next visit to Fort Larned, two weeks later, Tom had much to say about the lack of discipline shown by the volunteers at the fort, and as we gathered around the mess box, after putting the mules away, he continued his complaints.
"The volunteers don't know anything about soldiering," said Tom, "an' the officers are no better. It nearly broke my heart to see the miserable imitation of military service they're gettin' off.