In a few weeks he had nearly recovered from the wound in his leg which had necessitated the use of his crutches.  Every day he came to my house to play with the children and to care for my horses, a service for which he gruffly refused to accept any pay.

Now and then he would borrow one of my rifles for a little practice.  I soon discovered that he was a splendid shot, as well as an unusually fine horseman.  My surprise at these accomplishments was somewhat lessened when he told me that he had spent his four years’ war service as one of General J.E.B.  Stuart’s scouts.  Stuart had no other kind of men in his command.

For years, wherever I went, no matter how dangerous the errand, my new friend went along.  The first time he followed me I still remember vividly.  I had left the Post on a five days’ scout, and was particularly anxious that no one should know the direction I was to take.

When I was four or five miles from the Post I looked back and saw a solitary horseman riding in my direction about a mile in my rear.  When I stopped he stopped.  I rode on for a little way and looked around again.  He was exactly the same distance behind me, and pulled his horse up when I halted.  This maneuver I repeated several times, always with the same result.  Considerably disquieted by this mysterious pursuit, I decided to discover the reason for it.  I whipped up my horse and when I had put a sandhill between myself and the man behind I made a quick detour through a ravine, and came up in his rear.  Then I boldly rode up till I came abreast of him.

He swung around when he heard me coming, and blushed like a girl when he saw how I had tricked him.

“Look here, White,” I demanded, “what the devil are you following me in this way for?”

“Mrs. Cody said I could follow you if I wanted to,” he said, “and, well, I just followed you, that’s all.”

That was all he would say.  But I knew that he had come along to keep me from getting hurt if I was attacked, and would rather die than admit his real reason.  So I told him to come along, and come along he did.

There was no need for his services on that occasion, but a little later he put me in debt to him for my life.  He and I rode together into a border town, where there were a few gentlemen in the horse-stealing business who had reason to wish me moved along to some other sphere.  I left White to look after the horses as we reached the town, and went into a hotel to get a nip, for which I felt a very great need.  White noticed a couple of rough-looking chaps behind the barn as he put the horses away and quietly slipped to a window where he could overhear their conversation.

“We’ll go in while he is taking a drink,” one of them was saying, “and shoot him from behind.  He’ll never have a chance.”

Without a word to me, White hurried into the hotel and got behind the door.  Presently the two men entered, both with drawn revolvers.  But before they could raise them White covered them with his own weapon and commanded them sternly to throw up their hands, an order with which they instantly complied after one look at his face.