in choice
of words and in the intonation of every phrase that he is a man whose
antecedents have been far different from those of the majority of the
rank and file:

"Will the captain permit me to take my horse and those of three or four
more men outside the corral? Sergeant Clancy says he has no authority to
allow it. We have found a patch of excellent grass, sir, and there is
hardly any left inside. I will sleep by my picket-pin, and one of us
will keep awake all the time, if the captain will permit."

"How far away is it, sergeant?"

"Not seventy-five yards, sir,--close to the river-bank east of us."

"Very well. Send Sergeant Clancy here, and I'll give the necessary
orders."

The soldier quietly salutes, and disappears in the gathering darkness.

"That's what I like about that man Gower," says the captain, after a
moment's silence. "He is always looking out for his horse. If he were
not such a gambler and rake he would make a splendid first-sergeant.
Fine-looking fellow, isn't he?"

"Yes, sir. That is a face that one couldn't well forget. Who was the
other sergeant you overhauled for getting fleeced by those sharps at the
cantonment?"

"Clancy? He's on guard to-night. A very different character."

"I don't know him by sight as yet. Well, good-night, sir. I'll take
myself off and go to my own tent."

* * * * *

Daybreak again, and far to the east the sky is all ablaze. The mist is
creeping from the silent shallows under the banks, but all is life and
vim along the shore. With cracking whip, tugging trace, sonorous
blasphemy, and ringing shout, the long train is whirling ahead almost at
the run. All is athrill with excitement, and bearded faces have a
strange, set look about the jaws, and eyes gleam with eager light and
peer searchingly from every rise far over to the southeast, where stands
a tumbling heap of hills against the lightening sky. "Off there, are
they?" says a burly trooper, dismounting hastily to tighten up the
"cinch" of his weather-beaten saddle. "We can make it quick enough, 's
soon as we get rid of these blasted wagons." And, swinging into saddle
again, he goes cantering down the slope, his charger snorting with
exhilaration in the keen morning air.

Before dawn a courier has galloped into camp, bearing a despatch from
the commanding officer of the Riflers. It says but few words, but they
are full of meaning: "We have found a big party of hostiles. They