to break off. At last, with sudden effort, he seized both her hands in
his, where they lay limp and passive.

"_Adios_, little one! Dear little friend!" he said, bent swiftly, and
his curling brown mustache was crushed one instant against the top of
her dusky head. Then he hurried to the lady superior and took his leave,
Pancha standing silent at the window until the door had closed behind
him.

Another day, and he was looking back along the sparkling wake of the
crowded steamer, thinking how beautiful the ocean seemed to him only a
few weeks earlier. Another week and he was at the Isthmus, homeward
bound, yet clinging with strange interest to the scenes of so much
trial. Another month and he was spinning along old, familiar shores, _en
route_ for the distant field of new and stirring duty. Without a day's
delay he was hurried on the trail of a party of officials, designated to
select the site for the new post far up in the heart of the Sioux
hunting grounds. For associates he found a veteran quartermaster with a
keen eye for business, and an aide-de-camp of his new general
commanding, and recent experiences with such combined to render him more
reticent than ever. Major Burleigh confided to Captain Stone that if
that was a specimen of West Point brains and brilliancy, it only
confirmed his previous notions. The site for the new post was decided
upon after brief but pointed argument, and a vote of two to one, the
Engineer being accorded the privilege of a minority report if he saw fit
to make it. Commanding their escort was a young officer whom Loring had
known when as cadets they had together worn the gray, and though there
had been no intimacy there was respect, and the two subalterns, Engineer
and dragoon, agreed that the board might better have stayed at home and
left the selection to the Indians, but Lieutenant Dean had no vote and
Loring no further responsibility. He could make his remonstrance when he
got to Omaha, which would probably be too late. On that homeward way he
saw enough of Burleigh to convince him he was a coward, for the major
collapsed under the seat of the ambulance at the first sign of the
Sioux. Then there came an episode that filled Loring with sudden
interest in this new, yet undesirable acquaintance. Men get to know each
other better in a week in the Indian country than in a decade in town.
They had reached the little cantonment and supply station on the dry
fork of the Powder, stiff and w