George at the Fort | Page 2

An Unexpected Guest.]
The officer of the day closed the door of the colonel's head-quarters
behind him, and in a few minutes the orderly opened it again to admit a
sturdy young soldier, about eighteen years old, who wore upon his
arms the yellow chevrons of a corporal of cavalry. This was Bob
Owens--the boy who stole the mail-carrier's hard-earned money and
ran away from home to enjoy it. He had not changed much in
appearance. He had grown taller and his shoulders were broader, but
any one who had known him before he entered the army would have
recognized him now. The fact that he had been selected to perform the
hazardous duty of pursuing and arresting the deserters who had left the
fort the night before fully armed, and who would not hesitate to make a
desperate resistance rather than allow themselves to be taken back to
stand the punishment that would be inflicted upon them by a
court-martial, and the colonel's declaration that he was one of the few
non-commissioned officers in the command whom he was not afraid to
trust, seemed to indicate that our old friend Bob had won a reputation
since he enlisted in Galveston, nearly a year ago, and done something
to win the confidence of his superiors. Let us go back and see what it
was.
The last time we saw Bob Owens he was just coming out of a
recruiting-office, having enlisted in the regular cavalry and sworn away
his liberty for a long term of years. He did not take this step of his own
free will, but was driven to it by force of circumstances.

When Bob found Dan Evans in his camp in the woods and stole from
him the money that David, with Dan and Bert Gordon's assistance, had
earned by trapping quails, he ran away from home, and after escaping
from the constable who arrested him at Linwood on suspicion of being
a horse-thief he took passage on board the steamer Sam Kendall for St.
Louis. While he was on the steamer he made the acquaintance of
George Ackerman, who was one of the pilots, and whom he twice
saved from drowning. George owned an extensive cattle-ranche in
Texas, which was held in trust for him by his uncle, John Ackerman,
who was his guardian. After the Sam Kendall was burned he tried to
show his gratitude to his preserver, whom he believed to be alone in the
world, by offering him a home at his house. At first Bob was inclined
to refuse. His imagination having been excited by the cheap novels he
had read, he had left home intending to go on the Plains and make
himself famous as a hunter and Indian-fighter; but George, who had
seen more than one professional hunter in his frontier home, said so
much against it, and painted the poverty and worthlessness of this class
of men, and the dangers of the life they led, in such gloomy colors, that
Bob was finally induced to give up his long-cherished idea, and to
consent to accompany his new friend to his home in Texas. As George
had no money, Bob footed all their bills, and in due time, in spite of the
efforts which Uncle John Ackerman made to separate them in New
Orleans, they arrived in Galveston.
They had scarcely stepped ashore before their troubles began in earnest.
Bob's pocket was picked while he was passing through the crowd on
the wharf, and the boys found themselves alone in a strange city,
without money enough in their possession to pay for supper or lodging,
and no friend to whom they could go for assistance. They spent the
night on the streets, keeping constantly in motion to avoid attracting the
attention of the police, and when morning came they found a
good-natured grocer who gave them a breakfast of crackers and cheese,
and provided George with the means of writing to Mr Gilbert for
money to pay his fare and Bob's by rail and stage-coach to Palos. If
they could only reach that place, their troubles would be over, for
George was well known there, and everybody would be ready to lend
him and his new friend a helping hand. But Mr. Gilbert lived a long

way from Galveston, the mail facilities between Palos and his rancho
were none of the best, and the boys were utterly at a loss to determine
how they were going to exist during the two or three weeks that must
elapse before George could receive an answer to his letter.
The two friends passed the day in roaming about the city looking for
work, but nobody needed them. When the afternoon began drawing to a
close they were almost tired out, and George talked of