"What does that mean?" (nodding his head
in the direction of the telegraph pole).
"Why, it means just this," said the station man, "the people who
hung that man last night had the nerve to put him right in front
of this place, by G - . What would the passengers think of this
town, sir, as they went by? Why, the reputation of Valentine
would be ruined! Yes, sir, we cut him down and moved him up a
pole or two. He was a hard case, though," he added.
CHAPTER XXXI
SANTA FE
I made haste to present Captain Summerhayes with the
shoulder-straps of his new rank, when he joined me in New York.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * *
The orders for Santa Fe reached us in mid-summer at Nantucket. I
knew about as much of Santa Fe as the average American knows, and
that was nothing; but I did know that the Staff appointment
solved the problem of education for us (for Staff officers are
usually stationed in cities), and I knew that our frontier life
was over. I welcomed the change, for our children were getting
older, and we were ourselves approaching the age when comfort
means more to one than it heretofore has.
