CHAPTER XVI. MY LADY'S MAID

CHAPTER XVII. A MOMENTOUS DAY

CHAPTER XVIII. BLENKE COVERS HIS TRACKS

CHAPTER XIX. AGAIN THE SALOON

CHAPTER XX. A MOTHER'S DREAD

CHAPTER XXI. LOVE'S LAST APPEAL

CHAPTER XXII. THE LOST FOUND

CHAPTER XXIII. A WELCOME PERIL

CHAPTER XXIV. CRISIS

CHAPTER XXV. BLACK WOLF'S BATTLE

CHAPTER XXVI. TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION

CHAPTER XXVII. EXEUNT OMNES

A SOLDIER'S TRIAL

CHAPTER I

TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS

The war with Spain was at an end, and so were the hopes and aspirations
of many a warrior. For several reasons Colonel Ray of the ----th
Kentucky was a disappointed man. One of the best soldiers doing duty
with the volunteers, he had had some of the worst luck. Through long
years of service in the regular cavalry he had borne the reputation of
being a most energetic and valuable officer. He had won a name as an
Indian fighter the Indians themselves respected. He had campaigned all
over the frontier before the railways came and conquered. He knew
Arizona and New Mexico even better than his native State, and was known
from the upper Missouri to the lower Colorado far more generally than in
the "blue grass" country of his boy days. Apache and Arapahoe, Comanche
and Cheyenne, Sioux and Shoshone, they all had met, and many had
measured spear with, the dark-eyed, curly-headed Kentucky
light-horseman. He bore the scars of more than one sharp encounter; had
given more than he had received, yet found himself in no wise blessed
with profit or promotion. The Civil War was fairly ended when he stepped
from the Point into his first commission. Over thirty years had he done
valiant and faithful duty in the line, yet was he only just wearing the
gold leaves as junior major of his regiment, when the long-expected
happened in the spring of '98, and the nation called out its first levy
of volunteers. Slow as had been his advancement, it was phenomenally
swift as compared with that of classmates who, choosing the artillery
arm, had languished those thirty years in the line of file closers. Ray
had no complaint to make. He was even rejoiceful in his luck when called
to Kentucky to command one of her regiments of volunteer infantry. He
was, indeed, among the few envied men in the army where so very few have
anything to excite the cupidity of their kind. His record and reputation
were things no man could undermine, though some might und