noon
I met and knew a number of West Pointers during the war , and I am glad to have met you . If ever I can be of service to you in my way , -- and my duties carry me out here on the frontier very often , -- let me know . '' Never dreaming how it might be needed , Davies accepted the proffer of services with all that the proffer implied . Guarded by a detachment of veteran infantry , the recruits so turbulent at noon were spiritless now in every sense of the word . Turning over his charge , as well as his account of their conduct and of his own , to the commander of the escort , Captain Muffet remained at department head-quarters long enough to impress the officials thereat on duty with his version of the riot at Bluff Siding , -- its inciting cause and its incisive cure . Then he went back to the cavalry depot and presumably improved on his initial effort . The story of Muffet 's wild ride with the raw recruits and Muffet 's method of quelling a mob was often told that summer at the rear long after Lieutenant Davies and the recruits in question had gone to the front and were lost to all communication .