d Anita, sitting a little in the shadow of the dim drawing-room.
Mrs. Fortescue, by way of making conversation, said:

"I wonder what he will do with his motors and horses and game chickens,
and all those beautiful things he has in his quarters?"

"Oh, that's easy enough to tell," answered Colonel Fortescue. "All
these young officers who load themselves up with that kind of thing act
just alike. As soon as they are ordered somewhere else they throw away
these things. They call it giving, but it is merely largesse."

"I wish," said Anita, in a soft, composed voice, "that I could have
Gamechick. I can't help loving the horse that might have killed me and
did not. Daddy, if I give up half my allowance for every month until I
pay for him, would you buy him for me?"

Colonel Fortescue was quite as well able as Broussard to own Gamechick,
but Anita had been brought up with a wholesome economy.

"I think so, my dear," replied the Colonel, gravely.

It would, in reality, have taken Anita's modest allowance for a couple
of years to buy Gamechick. Mrs. Fortescue said as much.

"It would take all your allowance for a long time, Anita, to buy
Gamechick. The horse has a pedigree longer than mine, and I have often
noticed that ancestors are worth a great deal more to horses than to
human beings."

"Oh, the price can be managed," said the Colonel, good naturedly.
"Broussard's horses will probably be sold for a song."

Gamechick was not sold for a song, however, but for an excellent price.
Colonel Fortescue was not the man to buy a good horse for a song of any
man, least of all one of his own subalterns. When Broussard got the
Colonel's note containing an offer for Gamechick, he laughed with
pleasure, although he was not in a laughing mood.

"I should like to own the horse," the Colonel's note ran, "which,
together with your fine horsemanship, saved my daughter's life, and he
is well worth my offer."

Broussard would have given all of his other possessions at Fort
Blizzard if he could have made Anita a gift of the horse, but the next
best thing to do was, to sell him to her father. Broussard felt sure
that Anita would ride Gamechick and there was much solid comfort in
that, for an officer's charger, which carries him in life and is led
behind his coffin in death, is near and dear to him. So, Broussard
lost not a moment in accepting the Colonel's offer for Gamechick.

It was quite midnight before Broussard, with t