Krag-Jorgensen, and at Chickamauga he had made such a laughable
exhibition of himself that the old Sergeant took him off alone one day,
and when they came back the Sergeant was observed to be smiling broadly.
At the first target practice thereafter, Crittenden stood among the
first men of the company, and the captain took mental note of him as a
sharpshooter to be remembered when they got to Cuba. With the drill he
had little trouble--being a natural-born horseman--so one day, when a
trooper was ill, he was allowed to take the sick soldier's place and
drill with the regiment. That day his trouble with Reynolds came. All
the soldiers were free and easy of speech and rather reckless with
epithets, and, knowing how little was meant, Crittenden merely
remonstrated with the bully and smilingly asked him to desist.

"Suppose I don't?"

Crittenden smiled again and answered nothing, and Reynolds mistook his
silence for timidity. At right wheel, a little later, Crittenden
squeezed the bully's leg, and Reynolds cursed him. He might have passed
that with a last warning, but, as they wheeled again, he saw Reynolds
kick Sanders so violently that the boy's eyes filled with tears. He went
straight for the soldier as soon as the drill was over.

"Put up your guard."

"Aw, go to----"

The word was checked at his lips by Crittenden's fist. In a rage,
Reynolds threw his hand behind him, as though he would pull his
revolver, but his wrist was caught by sinewy fingers from behind. It was
Blackford, smiling into his purple face.

"Hold on!" he said, "save that for a Spaniard."

At once, as a matter of course, the men led the way behind the tents,
and made a ring--Blackford, without a word, acting as Crittenden's
second. Reynolds was the champion bruiser of the regiment and a boxer of
no mean skill, and Blackford looked anxious.

"Worry him, and he'll lose his head. Don't try to do him up too
quickly."

Reynolds was coarse, disdainful, and triumphant, but he did not look
quite so confident when Crittenden stripped and showed a white body,
closely jointed at shoulder and elbow and at knee and thigh, and
closely knit with steel-like tendons. The long muscles of his back
slipped like eels under his white skin. Blackford looked relieved.

"Do you know the game?"

"A little."

"Worry him and wait till he loses his head--remember, now."

"All right," said Crittenden, cheerfully, and turned and faced Reynolds,
smiling.

"Gawd,"