n were
not expected to take cognizance. That it ever could call for more
science, skill, and pluck than the so-called civilized wars of which Mr.
Barnard was a conscientious student he would probably never have
admitted, and his comment at mess on the frequently-recurring tales of
unsuccessful attack upon savage foes was the comprehensive remark that
the affair must have been badly handled; "those fellows of the cavalry
didn't seem to understand the nature of the work they had to tackle." As
those were the days before a cavalry superintendent went to the Academy
and showed an astonished academic board what a cavalryman's idea of
scholarship and discipline really was, it followed that the corps of
instructors was made up almost entirely from the more scientific arms;
only two or three cavalrymen were on the detail of forty officers, and
they were mainly for duty as instructors in tactics and horsemanship. So
when Mr. Barnard dreamily blew the smoke of his cigarette through his
elevated nostrils and gave it as his opinion that those cavalry fellows
didn't seem to understand their work, his audience, consisting mainly of
staff and artillery officers, gave the acquiescence of silence or the
nod of wisdom; and the casual visitor would have left with the
impression that the whole mistake of this Indian business lay in failure
to consult the brilliantly-trained intellects of the higher corps. Odd
as it may seem, it is the men who have had the least to do with Indians
and Indian fighting who have apparently the most ideas on the subject.
This is not a paradox. Those who have spent several years at it probably
started in with just as many, and exploded them one after another.

Mr. Barnard, therefore, was more intent on humming the tenor part of
"See the Pale Moon" than of affording Mrs. Truscott any information as
to rumors of the orders sending additional troops to the field, but her
anxiety was only slightly appeased by his airy dismissal of the subject.

"Indeed, Mrs. Truscott, I would not feel any concern in the matter; with
the forces now concentrated up there in the Yellowstone country, the
result is a foregone conclusion. The Indians will simply be surrounded
and starved into surrender."

At last they went. Mr. Ferris with evident reluctance and not until he
had plainly received intimation from Miss Sanford that it was more than
time. Knowing Mrs. Truscott well, she could see what was imperceptible
to their visitors, th