l neighs. The soldiers asked the Captain to be
allowed to shoot him, but of course he said no. I could not learn if he
winked when he said it. The column wound over the hill, a carbine rang
from its rear, and "Pansy" lay down in the dust without a kick. Death is
better than an Indian for a horse. The thing was not noticed at the
time, but made a world of fuss afterwards, though how it all came out
the sergeant did not develop, nor was it necessary.

Night settled down on the quiet hills, and the dark spots of pickets
showed dimly on the gray surface of the land. The Colonel inspected his
line, and found everybody alert and possessed of a good working
knowledge of picket duties at night--one of the most difficult duties
enlisted men have to perform. It is astonishing how short is the
distance at which we can see a picket even in this bright night on the
open hills.

I sat on my horse by a sergeant at a point in the line where I suspected
the attack would come. The sergeant thought he saw figures moving in a
dry bottom before us. I could not see. A column of dust off to the left
indicated troops, but we thought it a ruse of Garrard's. My sergeant,
though, had really seen the enemy, and said, softly, "They are coming."

[Illustration: 25 THE PURSUIT]

The bottom twinkled and popped with savage little yellow winks; bang!
went a rifle in my ear; "whew!" snorted my big horse; and our picket
went to the supports clattering.

The shots and yells followed fast. The Colonel had withdrawn the
supports towards the post rapidly, leaving his picket-line in the air--a
thing which happens in war; but he did not lose much of that line, I
should say.

It was an interesting drill. Pestiferous little man disturbed nature,
and it all seemed so absurd out there on those quiet gray hills. It made
me feel, as I slowed down and gazed at the vastness of things, like a
superior sort of bug. In the middle distance several hundred troops are
of no more proportion than an old cow bawling through the hills after
her wolf-eaten calf. If my mental vision were not distorted I should
never have seen the manoeuvre at all--only the moon and the land doing
what they have done before for so long a time.

We reached Adobe rather late, when I found that the day's work had done
wonders for my appetite. I reminded the Captain that I had broken his
bread but once that day.

"It is enough for a Ninth Cavalry man," he observed. However, I
out-flanked th