ctedly, with downcast eyes and troubled visage, back toward the
big quarters at the end of the row, and shook his own head as he
marveled what would be the outcome of all this foreboding. Minneconjou
had breathed freer, for all its subdued chatter, over the elimination of
Captain Foster from the column of probabilities. Minneconjou had seen
little of the lovely Mrs. Dwight of late, for though she appeared at
every dance, several dinners and on many a drive, few women had speech
with her, thanks to Foster's incessant supervision, and, looking at
another woman without unlimited conversation is not "seeing" her as
understood in feminine society. Since Foster's departure the previous
day only the doctor and the maid had been admitted to the presence of
Mrs. Dwight, though there had been callers with "kind inquiries." It was
now time for guard-mounting and the busy routine of another day. One
after another prettily gowned matrons and maids began to appear on the
verandas and flit from door to door, and the band marched forth and took
its station on the parade and the details were being inspected by the
sergeants in front of their quarters, while, well over toward the west
end of the big quadrilateral, a dozen army-bred lads of various ages,
from fourteen down to five, were gleefully surrounding a pair of Indian
ponies recently bought for the doctor's twin boys. Prominent in the
group, Jimmy Dwight, ever a prime favorite, was bestriding the more
promising of the pair, a wall-eyed, surly-looking pinto, and, as perhaps
the most accomplished horseman in the lot, was trying to make the
unwilling brute show his paces, a thing that only an Indian, as a rule,
can successfully do. Officers on their way to their company duty stopped
to see the fun. The adjutant paused before signaling to the drum major
and said a laughing word of caution to the merry crowd, lest their
gleeful shouts and laughter should disturb the dignity of the coming
ceremony. The senior surgeon, coming forth from his quarters, Silver
Hill's morning journal just received, open in his hand, moved an
adjournment to the rear of the administration building. But the colonel
himself, likewise provided by a rushing newsboy with a fresh copy of our
morning contemporary, sallied forth from his gate and shouted
encouragement to the plucky little rider. "Stick to him, Jimmy boy, and
you others don't yell so; keep quiet, and the pony will tire of
kicking."

Then he and the doct