Twice he had been out with Ray, which meant a
liberal education in plainscraft and frontier duty. Twice twenty times,
probably, had he said he would welcome a chance to go again with Captain
Ray, and now the chance had come, so had the spoken order, and, so far
from receiving it with rejoicing, it was more than apparent that he
heard it with something like dismay.
But Webb was not the man to either explain or defend an order, even to a
junior for whom he cherished such regard. Field felt instinctively that
it was not because of a wish expressed in the past he was so suddenly
bidden to take the field. Ray's senior subaltern, as has been said, was
absent, being on duty at West Point, but his junior was on hand, and Ray
really did not need, and probably had not applied for, the services of
Mr. Field. It was all the major's doing, and all, reasoned he, because
the major deemed it best that for the time being his young adjutant
should be sent away from the post. Impulse prompted Field to ask wherein
he had offended or failed. Reflection taught him, however, that he would
be wise to ask no questions. It might well be that Webb knew more of
what had happened during the night than he, Beverly Field, would care to
have mentioned.
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