often, it all comes back over me, and I
feel then as if my life might have been kept for something that is
still ahead of me."

"And doesn't it leave you feeling anxious about making all your
decisions?" she asked slowly, as she leaned back again in her chair.

"At first. Then I remember how that, and some other things have been
settled for me."

"What then?"

"Then I shut my teeth and face forward. All one can do, is to forget
the future and take the present as it comes, making the best of each
minute and leaving the hour to look out for itself," he answered
simply. "Sometimes one makes better progress by drifting than he
does by punting against the current."

She bit her lip.

"Sometimes I think, though--" Suddenly she roused herself and gave a
nervous little laugh. "Captain Frazer is coming up the steps," she
added.

"You think?" Weldon reminded her, as she rose.

But she shook her head and laughed again, this time more in her
natural manner.

"I think that I wish you would bring Mr. Carew to call on me, next
time you come," she said evasively.

"Thank you. He will be glad to come. The only question is when the
next time will arrive."

"You said Captain Frazer was a prophet," she said, as she moved
towards the door. "Ask him."

Tall, alert, eager, the Captain entered the room in time to catch
her words.

"A prophet of what and to whom, Miss Dent?" he asked, as he bowed
over her outstretched hand.

"To Mr. Weldon, in regard to the future fighting," she answered
gayly.

"You here, Weldon?"

"Yes, to say good by."

Captain Frazer nodded.

"I saw Mitchell, this morning. He spoke well of you; of Carew, too,
for the matter of that. He told me your troop would be off in the
morning, and asked me to diagnose your best points."

"Could you find any?" Weldon asked imperturbably. "A few. I told him
you could sit tight and shoot straight," the Captain answered,
laughing. Then he added gravely, "And I also told him you could ride
the fiend incarnate, and that, as far as I knew, you didn't lose
your head when you were under fire."

For the instant, Weldon forgot his hostess, as he looked up to meet
the Captain's blue eyes squarely.

"Thank you. But it is more than I deserve."

"Then you must try to live up to it," Ethel advised him languidly.
"It merely increases your responsibilities, for now you have two
reputations to support, your own for pluck and the Captain's for
being a judge of his fellow