tom watched him as a dying eagle watches; then the slim hand of
the granddaughter fell on the bandmaster's arm, and he turned and
clanked out into the open air.

The boy stood waiting for them, and as they appeared, he caught their
hands in each of his, talking all the while and walking with them to the
gateway, where pony and charger stood, nose to nose under the trees.

"If you need anybody to dash about carrying dispatches," the boy ran on,
"why, I'll do it for you. My father was a soldier, and I'm going to be
one, and I----"

"Billy," said the bandmaster abruptly, "when we charge, go up on that
hill and watch us. If we don't come back, you must be ready to act a
man's part. Your sister counts on you."

They stood a moment there together, saying nothing. Presently some
mounted officers on the hill wheeled their horses and came spurring
toward the column drawn up along the road. A trumpet spoke briskly; the
bandmaster turned to the boy's sister, looked straight into her eyes,
and took her hand.

"I think we're going," he said; "I am trying to thank you--I don't know
how. Good-by."

"Is it a charge?" cried the boy.

"Good-by," said the bandmaster, smiling, holding the boy's hand tightly.
Then he mounted, touched his cap, wheeled, and trotted off, freeing his
sabre with his right hand.

The colonel had already drawn his sabre, the chief bugler sat his
saddle, bugle lifted, waiting. A loud order, repeated from squadron to
squadron, ran down the line; the restive horses wheeled, trampled
forward, and halted.

"Draw--sabres!"

The air shrilled with the swish of steel.

Far down the road horsemen were galloping in--the returning pickets.

"Forward!"

They were moving.

"Steady--right dress!" taken up in turn by the company
officers--"steady--right dress!"

The bandmaster swung his sabre forward; the mounted band followed.

Far away across the level fields something was stirring; the colonel saw
it and turned in his saddle, scanning the column that moved forward on a
walk.

Half a mile, and, passing a hill, an infantry regiment rose in the
shallow trenches to cheer them. Instantly the mounted band burst out
into "The Girl I Left Behind Me"; an electric thrill passed along the
column.

"Steady! Steady! Right dress!" rang the calm orders as a wood, almost
behind them, was suddenly fringed with white smoke and a long, rolling
crackle broke out.

"By fours--right-about--wheel!"

The band swung out to