He gave the Sergeant three days' rest, though, and spoke about transferring him a man if required, which offer Ellis declined, however. With his taciturn and secretive nature he preferred to follow alone, and in various disguises, the tortuous windings of stock cases, calmly relying on his own great strength, cunning, and ability with gun and fist, to effect any arrest.
The four-fifteen West-bound carried him as a passenger back to Sabbano, his nearest railway depot, the detachment being on the prairies forty miles away from the line. It was raining, and Ellis felt miserable as he gazed through the window and contemplated the wet, cheerless ride he would have in the morning.
He vaguely thought of "Johnny" waiting for him in Sergeant Churchill's stable at Sabbano. Was he being properly looked after? Churchill was a "booze artist," d--n him, and like as not he'd neglect him, like he did his own horse.
He was aroused from his gloomy abstraction by something tugging at his riding-crop and, turning his eyes he beheld a little curly-headed tot leaning over the back of the seat ahead of him. She was perhaps about three years old, and her blue eyes were sparkling with determination as she pulled at the leather thong with all her baby strength, in a desperate effort to possess herself of the desired treasure.
Benton's moody face immediately softened with a friendly grin. He loved children and they instinctively came to him without fear.
"Hello, Sis," he said. "You want it?" and he surrendered the coveted plaything, which she immediately started to flourish with great glee. The mother, a thin, shabbily dressed, careworn-looking young woman about thirty, looked on with a loving smile that glorified her poor, pinched face.
"Oh, Nellie, Nellie," she said reprovingly; "you mustn't--you'll hit somebody" and she turned to Benton, saying, "I hope my little girl isn't worrying you?"
"Not a bit--not a bit," he returned cheerily. "Kids are welcome to tease me any old time."
Scrambling down from her perch, the little one gazed at his uniform with lively interest and tentatively tapped his boots and the rowels of his spurs with the crop. "Toldier," she lisped, and without more ado she climbed up beside him on the seat and, putting her little arms around his neck, gave him a genuine loving hug and kiss which fairly took him by storm and caused broad laughs of amusement to come from those sitting near.