its bosom about him. We agreed to that. He wrote down that he had just had lunch with the two desperate ruffians; and then he set down the whole bill of fare, from cocktails to coffee. He wound up with the remark that dinner would be ready about six, and would probably be a more licentious and intemperate affair than lunch.
Me and Caligula read it, and decided to let it go; for we, being cooks, were amenable to praise, though it sounded out of place on a sight draft for ten thousand dollars.
I took the letter over to the Mountain Valley road and watched for a messenger. By and by a colored equestrian came along on horseback, riding toward Edenville. I gave him a dollar to take the letter to the railroad offices; and then I went back to camp.
IV
About four o’clock in the afternoon, Caligula, who was acting as lookout, calls to me:
“I have to report a white shirt signaling on the starboard bow, sir.”
I went down the mountain and brought back a fat, red man in an alpaca coat and no collar.
“Gentlemen,” says Colonel Rockingham, “allow me to introduce my brother, Captain Duval C. Rock-
213
