which he abandoned for that purpose, the --th
admitted that here was a fellow who might be worth having, but, to the
scandal of the entire regiment, no sooner was the order issued which
doomed them to a five years' exile in Arizona--then overrun with hostile
Apaches--than the newly transferred gentleman accepted a detail as
aide-de-camp on the staff of a general officer, and the --th went across
to the Pacific and presently were lost to recollection in the then
inaccessible wilds of that marvellous Territory. Here they spent four
long years of hard scouting, hard fighting, and no little suffering,
while the aide in question was presumably enjoying himself in unlimited
ball and opera in a gay Southern capital. Suddenly he turned up in their
midst just in time to take part in the closing campaign which left the
Apaches for several years a disarmed and subjugated race; he happened to
get command of a well-seasoned and thoroughly experienced "troop," and
through no particular personal merit, but rather by the faculty he had
of seeking the advice of the veteran sergeants in the company, he had
won two or three lively little fights with wandering bands of hostiles,
and had finally been quite enviably wounded. It was all a piece of his
confounded luck, said some of the --th not unnaturally. Many a gallant
fellow had been killed and buried, many another wounded and not
especially mentioned, and all of them had done months of hard work where
Billings had put in only so many days, but here he came in at the
eleventh hour, and they, who had borne the heat and burden of the
campaign and received every man his penny, couldn't help a few
good-natured slings at the fact that Billings's penny was just as big
and round as theirs. The department commander had been close at hand
every time that fortunate youth came in from a scout, and even Ray, who
was incessantly seeking the roughest and most dangerous service, could
not repress a wistful expression of his views when he heard of the final
scrimmage far up towards Chevelon's Fork. "Here we fellows have been
bucking against this game for nigh onto four years now, and if ever we
raked in a pile it's all been ante'd up since, and now Billings comes in
fresh--never draws but he gets a full hand--and he scoops the deck. He
has too much luck for a white man." The remark was one that, said by Ray
himself in his whimsical and downright manner, was destitute of any
hidden meaning, and Billings, wh