the tiny premises. As Corporal Cassidy later expressed it, he felt "like
I'd lost a bulging pot on an ace full." He couldn't run after and beg
them to come back, yet he and his comrades were stiff from cold and
almost breathless from exhaustion. Suddenly Number Five's carbine
slipped from his frozen glove and fell with a crash on the kitchen
floor. The next instant the voice of Lieutenant Lanier was heard.

"Who the devil's that?"

"Corporal Cassidy, sir. The post surgeon told me to bring Number Five
in here and thaw him out. We'd find Doctor Schuchardt. But the doctor's
just gone, sir, and----"

But by this time Mr. Lanier himself appeared in the hall, his feet in
warm woollen slippers, his hands in bandages. "Well, I should say! Come
right in here, you two. Pull off your gloves and get out of those caps
and things. Man alive"--this to Number Five--"why didn't you come
before? This is no time to stand on ceremony--or stay on post, either.
My striker's stormbound somewhere. I'd help you if I could, but I can't.
Help yourselves now, best you can; rub and kick all you want to; _dance_
if it'll warm you." And all the time he was crowding them up about a
roaring stove, where presently he made them sit while he bustled about
at a buffet in the adjoining room. "You'll have to help me, corporal,"
presently he cried. "One hand can't mix and pour and lift. There's
sugar; there's hot water on the stove; there's glasses and here's
whiskey. Mix it hot, and down with it!"

And so hospitably and heartily, after the manner of old frontier days
and men, the young officer administered to his humbler comrades;
cheered, and warmed, and insisted on their eating with their second
tumbler, and when in course of half an hour the two stood before him,
glowing, grateful, and resuming their buffalo coats and fur caps and
gloves, honest Cassidy tried to say his say:

"'D' Troop's fellers never can brag enough about their lieutenant, sir,
and though we don't belong to 'D' Troop, it hasn't taken this to tell us
why. If ever the time comes when me or Quinlan here can do the
lieutenant a good turn he'll--he'll know it."

After which they were gone, rejoicing in their new-found strength, yet
reaching the nearest barracks only after severe struggle, and, later
still, the crowded, suffocating guard-room,--where now some thirty men
were huddled in a space intended for twenty at most--where Cassidy and
Number Five were speedily telling to eager, app