far less truculent and confident than it had been when he first
went thither. Officers of other regiments rarely spoke to the "Riflers"
of Mr. Hayne. Unlike one or two others of their arm of the service, this
particular regiment of foot held the affairs of its officers as
regimental property in which outsiders had no concern. If they had
disagreements, they were kept to themselves; and even in a case which in
its day had attracted wide-spread attention the Riflers had long since
learned to shun all talk outside. It was evident to other commands that
the Hayne affair was a sore point and one on which they preferred
silence. And yet it was getting to be whispered around that the Riflers
were by no means so unanimous as they had been in their opinion of this
very officer. They were becoming divided among themselves; and what
complicated matters was the fact that those who felt their views
undergoing a reconstruction were compelled to admit that just in
proportion as the case of Mr. Hayne rose in their estimation the
reputation of another officer was bound to suffer; and that officer was
Captain Rayner.

Between these two men not a word had been exchanged for five years,--not
a single word since the day when, with ashen face and broken accents,
but with stern purpose in every syllable, Lieutenant Hayne, standing in
the presence of nearly all the officers of his regiment, had hurled this
prophecy in his adversary's teeth: "Though it take me years, I will live
it down despite you; and you will wish to God you had bitten out your
perjured tongue before ever you told the lie that wrecked me."

No wonder there was talk, and lots of it, in the "Riflers" and all
through the garrison when Rayner's first lieutenant suddenly threw up
his commission and retired to the mines he had located in Montana, and
Hayne, the "senior second," was promoted to the vacancy. Speculation as
to what would be the result was given a temporary rest by the news that
War Department orders had granted the subaltern six months' leave,--the
first he had sought in as many years. It was known that he had gone
East; but hardly had he been away a fortnight when there came the
trouble with the Cheyennes at the reservation,--a leap for liberty by
some fifty of the band, and an immediate rush of the cavalry in
pursuit. There were some bloody atrocities, as there always are. All the
troops in the department were ordered to be in readiness for instant
service, while