It was enough for me to be in the saddle, trusting each day to find some new adventure.
Army life would mean a great deal of routine, and routine was something I could not endure.
So, giving up forever any hope of wearing an officer's shoulder-straps, I was about to turn back to the prairies to see what new opportunities for excitement offered, when a strange new call came to me.
General J.J.Reynolds, who had just arrived at Fort McPherson with the Third Cavalry, called me into the office one day and told me that he had a letter, railroad tickets, and five hundred dollars for me.
Furthermore he informed me that a thirty days' leave of absence was awaiting me whenever I wanted to take it.
All this was the doing of the "Millionaires' Hunting Party," headed by James Gordon Bennett and the Jeromes, which I had guided the year before.
I was, in short, invited to visit my former charges in New York, and provided by them with money and mileage, and leisure for the trip..