Prunes, men, prunes.' With that, the Major turned and was gone.
Augustus was nonplussed. He knew he ought to send someone with the Major, to help him find his way back, but he had no one to send except himself and he did not feel it wise to leave the troop, in such a situation. The men were huddled around him--in the blowing sand they seemed spectral, like gray ghosts. His rangers, veterans of many severe northers, were stoical, but the army boys were nervous, stunned by the abrupt departure of their commander.
'I guess I should have roped him, but it's too late now,' Augustus observed. The sandstorm had promptly swallowed up the Major.
'Now he's rode off and left me in command,' Lieutenant Dikuss said, appalled at being thrust into a position of responsibility under such conditions, at such a time and in such a place.
Augustus smiled. He could not help being amused by the large lieutenant from Wisconsin.
At that moment Lieutenant Dikuss was staring hopelessly at the wall of sand into which his commanding officer had just disappeared.
'It must have been a mighty good compass,' Jake Spoon said. 'It would have to be made of emeralds for me to go looking for it in a wind like this.' 'I doubt you'd know an emerald if you swallowed one, Jake,' Augustus said, dismounting. 'That compass was made in Reading, England, and besides, the Major's got his pa to think about.' 'I don't know what to do, Captain,' Lieutenant Dikuss admitted, looking at his gray, cold, gritty men.
'Well, one thing we can do is let the prunes be,' Augustus said. 'Myself, I'd vote for a cup of coffee over a goddamned prune.'
The sandstorm raged until sunset; the whirling sand seemed to magnify the sun as it sank--fora time the sand and dust even made it seem that the sun had paused in its descent. It seemed to hang just above the horizon, a great malign orb, orange at the edges but almost bluish in the center.
Some of the young army men, newcomers, like their Major, to the country of sand and wind, thought something had gone wrong with nature. One private, a thin boy from Illinois, almost frozen from a day in the biting wind, thought the bluish sun meant that the world was coming to an end. He had a memory of a church in Paducah, Illinois, where he had lived as a boy, saying that the world would end with the setting of a blue sun.
The boy's name was Briarley Crisp; he was the youngest man in the troop. His mother and all his sisters wept when he left home; they all expected Briarley to be killed. Briarley had been eager, at the time, to get gone into the army, mainly to escape the plowing, which he detested. Now, looking at the ominous blue sun, its edges tinged with the orange hues of hellfire, andwiththe sand piling up on his eyelids so heavy he could hardly focus his eyes, Briarley knew he had made a terrible, fatal mistake. He had come all the way to Texas to be a soldier, and now the world was ending.
He began to shiver so violently that his shaking caught the eye of Lieutenant Dikuss, who, though nervous himself, felt it was now his responsibility to see that morale did not falter within the troop.
'Stop that shaking, Private Crisp,' he said. 'If you're chilly get a soogan off the pack mule and wrap up in it.' 'I ain't shivering from the chill, Lieutenant,' Briarley Crisp said. 'I see that old blue sun there--a preacher told me once the world would end the night the sun set blue, like that one's setting.' 'I doubt that that preacher who upset you had spent much time along the Pecos River,' Augustus said. 'I've seen the sun set blue many a time in these sand showers, but the world hasn't ended. What I do doubt is that we'll see any more of Major Featherstonhaugh this evening--hm or his compass either.' They didn't. To Briarley Crisp's relief the sun finally did set; the night that followed saw the temperatures drop so far that the men slept beneath white clouds of frozen breath.
Toward midnight the sandstorm finally blew out--'four the stars were visible again. Augustus debated with himself whether to take advantage of the faint starlight to conduct a quick search for Major Featherstonhaugh; but, in the end, he didn't. The morning promised to be clear--they could easily find the Major then, assuming he had survived the chilly night.
They were not long in doubt on that issue. There was still so much sand in the air that the sun rose in haze, with a fine nimbus around it. To Private Crisp's joy, the world was still there and still dry.
Augustus had just picked up his coffee cup when he saw a moving dot to the south, a dot that soon became Major Featherstonhaugh, cantering briskly toward them on his heavy white mare.
Augustus had advised against the mare, not because of her heft but because she was white. The Comanches they were supposed to be scouting particularly loved a white horse.
'If Kicking Wolf gets sight of her that's one more horse the army won't have to feed, Major,' Augustus had informed him, but the Major had only returned a chilly stare.
Now, though, he was simply relieved that Major was alive--it would have been a task to locate him, if he had lost himself on the llano.
'Good morning, Major--I hope you found that compass,' Augustus said when Featherstonhaugh trotted up, his uniform caked with dust.
'Of course I found it--t was why I went back,' Major Featherstonhaugh said. Dusty as he was he still seemed startled by the suggestion that he might not have found the compass.
'It was made in Reading, England,' he added.
'My father took it around the Cape.' 'I wish I had a bath to offer you, Major,' Augustus said. 'You look like you've been buried and dug up.' 'Oh, it was weathery,' the Major admitted.
'I thought I might find one of those springs and have a wash, but I couldn't find one--of course I had to wait for daylight before I could locate my compass.' The Major dismounted and took a little coffee, carefully inspecting his compass while he breakfasted.
'I wish it would snow,' he remarked, to Lieutenant Dikuss. 'I'm accustomed to snow when it's this weathery.' Lieutenant Dikuss regarded it as a miracle that the Major had reappeared at all; the absence of snow, of which there was an abundance in Wisconsin, did not disturb him.
'You can melt snow, and once it's melted you can heat the water and have a wash,' the Major said.
'Does it ever snow here, Captain?' 'It snows, but not too many people care to wash in it, Major,' Augustus said. 'I doubt that washing's as popular in this country as it is in Vermont.' An hour later, pressing on north with the aid of Major Featherstonhaugh's compass, Augustus spotted a rider coming toward them across the long sage flats.
