laughter at the expense of Pete; but as they reached the next
divide, and got another look well to the front, the laughter gave place
to the grinding of teeth and muttered malediction. A broad glare was in
the northern sky, and smoke and flame were rolling up from the still
distant valley of the Chug, and now the word was "Gallop!"

Fifteen minutes of hard, breathless riding followed. Horses snorted and
plunged in eager race with their fellows; officers warned even as they
galloped, "Steady, there! Keep back! Keep your places, men!" Bearded,
bright-eyed troopers, with teeth set hard together and straining
muscles, grasped their ready carbines, and thrust home the grim copper
cartridges. On and on, as the flaring beacon grew redder and fiercer
ahead; on and on, until they were almost at the valley's edge, and then
young Ralph, out at the front with the veteran captain, panted to him,
in wild excitement that he strove manfully to control,--

"Now keep well over to the left, captain! I know the ground well. It's
all open. We can sweep down from behind that ridge, and they'll never
look for us or think of us till we're right among them. Hear them yell!"

"Ay, ay, Ralph! Lead the way. Ready now, men!" He turned in his saddle.
"Not a word till I order 'Charge!' Then yell all you want to."

Down into the ravine they thunder; round the moonlit slope they sweep;
swift they gallop through the shadows of the eastward bluffs; nearer and
nearer they come, manes and tails streaming in the night wind; horses
panting hard, but never flagging.

Listen! Hear those shots and yells and war-whoops! Listen to the hideous
crackling of the flames! Mark the vengeful triumph in those savage
howls! Already the fire has leaped from the sheds to the rough
shingling. The last hope of the sore-besieged is gone.

Then, with sudden blare of trumpet, with ringing cheer, with thundering
hoof and streaming pennon and thrilling rattle of carbine and pistol;
with one magnificent, triumphant burst of speed the troop comes whirling
out from the covert of the bluff and sweeps all before it down the
valley.

Away go Sioux and Cheyenne; away, yelling shrill warning, go warrior and
chief; away, down stream, past the stiffening form of the brave fellow
they killed; away past the station where the loop-holes blaze with
rifle-shots and ring with exultant cheers; away across the road and down
the winding valley, and so far to the north and the sheltering arms o