if about
to salute, and was just stepping upon the roadside, where he came in
full view of the occupants of the carriage, when a sudden pallor shot
across his face, and he plunged heavily forward and went down like a
shot. Sympathetic officers and comrades surrounded the prostrate form in
an instant. The colonel himself sprang from his carriage and joined the
group; a blanket was quickly brought from a neighboring tent, and the
sergeant was borne thither and laid upon a cot. A surgeon felt his pulse
and looked inquiringly around:

"Any of you cavalrymen know him well? Has he been affected this way
before?"

A young corporal who had been bending anxiously over the sergeant
straightened up and saluted:

"I know him well, sir, and have been with him five years. He's only had
one sick spell in all that time,--'twas just like this,--and then he
told me he'd been sunstruck once."

"This is no case of sunstroke," said the doctor. "It looks more like the
heart. How long ago was the attack you speak of?"

"Three years ago last April, sir. I remember it because we'd just got
into Fort Raines after a long scout. He'd been the solidest man in the
troop all through the cold and storm and snow we had in the mountains,
and we were in the reading-room, and he'd picked up a newspaper and was
reading while the rest of us were talking and laughing, and, first thing
we knew, he was down on the floor, just like he was to-night."

"Hm!" said the surgeon. "Yes. That's plenty, steward. Give him that.
Raise his head a little, corporal. Now he'll come round all right."

Driving homeward that night, Colonel Maynard musingly remarked,--

"Did you see that splendid fellow who fainted away?"

"No," answered his wife, "you all gathered about him so quickly and
carried him away. I could not even catch a glimpse of him. But he had
recovered, had he not?"

"Yes. Still, I was thinking what a singular fact it is that occasionally
a man slips through the surgeon's examinations with such a malady as
this. Now, here is one of the finest athletes and shots in the whole
army, a man who has been through some hard service and stirring fights,
has won a tip-top name for himself and was on the highroad to a
commission, and yet this will block him effectually."

"Why, what is the trouble?"

"Some affection of the heart. Why! Halloo! Stop, driver! Orderly, jump
down and run back there. Mrs. Maynard has dropped her fan.--What was it,
dear?" he asked,