ust be admitted that
the sensations he experienced on seeing his detachment equipped for the
scout were those of mild consternation. That much latitude as to
individual dress and equipment was permitted he had previously been
informed; that "full dress," and white shirts, collars, and the like
would be left at home, he had sense enough to know; but that every
officer and man in the command would be allowed to discard any and all
portions of the regulation uniform and appear rigged out in just such
motley guise as his poetic or practical fancy might suggest, had never
been pointed out to him; and that he, commanding his troop while a
captain commanded the little battalion, could by any military
possibility take his place in front of his men without his sabre, had
never for an instant occurred to him. As a consequence, when he bolted
into the mess-room shortly after daybreak on a bright June morning with
that imposing but at most times useless item of cavalry equipment
clanking at his heels, the lieutenant gazed with some astonishment upon
the attire of his brother-officers there assembled, but found himself
the butt of much good-natured and not over-witty "chaff," directed
partially at the extreme newness and neatness of his dark-blue flannel
scouting-shirt and high-top boots, but more especially at the glittering
sabre swinging from his waist-belt.

"Billings," said Captain Buxton, with much solemnity, "while you have
probably learned through the columns of a horror-stricken Eastern press
that we scalp, alive or dead, all unfortunates who fall into our
clutches, I assure you that even for that purpose the cavalry sabre has,
in Arizona at least, outlived its usefulness. It is too long and clumsy,
you see. What you really want for the purpose is something like
this,"--and he whipped out of its sheath a rusty but keen-bladed Mexican
_cuchillo_,--"something you can wield with a deft turn of the wrist, you
know. The sabre is apt to tear and mutilate the flesh, especially when
you use both hands." And Captain Buxton winked at the other subaltern
and felt that he had said a good thing.

But Mr. Billings was a man of considerable good nature and ready
adaptability to the society or circumstances by which he might be
surrounded. "Chaff" was a very cheap order of wit, and the serenity of
his disposition enabled him to shake off its effect as readily as water
is scattered from the plumage of the duck.

"So you don't wear the sa