ng went out in sudden scream of mingled wrath, hatred and
despair, and, like the Sioux that she was at heart, the girl made one
mad rush to reach the point of bluff where was a sheer descent of over
eighty feet. A shriek of dread went up from the crowded sleigh; a cry of
rejoicing, as the intruder sprang and clasped her, preventing her
reaching the precipice. But almost instantly followed a moan of anguish,
for slipping at the crest, together, firmly linked, they came rolling,
sliding, shooting down the steep incline of the frozen bluff, and
brought up with stunning force among the ice blocks, logs and driftwood
at the base.

They bore them swiftly homeward,--Field senseless and sorely
shaken,--Nanette's fierce spirit slowly drifting away from the bruised
and broken tenement held there, so pityingly, in the arms of Esther
Dade. Before the Christmas fires were lighted in the snowbound, frontier
fort, they had laid all that was mortal of the brave, deluded girl in
the little cemetery of Fort Frayne, her solemn story closed, on earth,
forever.

L'ENVOI

Nearly two years later, with the old regiment still serving along the
storied Platte, they were talking of her one moonlit evening at the
flagstaff. The band, by this time a fixture at Frayne, had been playing
delightfully, and some of the girls and young gallants had been waltzing
on the Rays' veranda. A few new faces were there. Two faces, well known,
were missing,--those of Esther Dade and Beverly Field. The latter had
never been the same man since the tragic events that followed so closely
on the heels of the Lame Wolf campaign. Wounds had slowly healed.
Injuries, physical, were well nigh forgotten; but, mentally, he had been
long a sufferer. For months after the death of Nanette, even when
sufficiently restored to be on duty, he held shrinkingly aloof from post
society. Even Webb, Blake and Ray were powerless to pull him out of his
despond. He seemed to feel,--indeed he said so, that his brief
entanglement with that strange, fascinating girl had clouded his soldier
name for all time. To these stanch friends and advisers he frankly told
the whole story, and they, in turn, had told it to the general, to the
colonel commanding the regiment and to those whose opinions they most
valued; but Field could speak of it to none others. Frankly he admitted
that from the moment he met the girl he fell under the influence of a
powerful fascination. Within twenty-four hour