nd every man armed with rifle as far as I could
see," said Carey, "and if it was us they was after, they'd have had us
at their mercy down in that pocket at the Springs."

A shout from one of the men attracted the attention of the leaders. The
storm had spent its force and gone rolling away eastward. The thunder
was rumbling far over toward the now invisible crest of the Black Hills
of Wyoming. The rain sheets had given place to trickling downpour. A dim
light was stealing into the blackness of the gorge. Louder and fiercer
roared the Box Elder, lashing its banks with foam. And then came the cry
again.

"I tell you it is, by God! for there goes another!"

All eyes followed the direction of the pointing finger. All eyes saw,
even though dimly, the saddled form of a horse plunging and struggling
in the flood, making vain effort to clamber out, then whirling
helplessly away--swept out of sight around the shoulder of bluff, and
borne on down the tossing waves of the torrent. Men mean no irreverence
when they call upon their Maker at such times, even in soldier oath. It
is awe, not blasphemy.

"By God, lieutenant, that's what we'd a been doing but for your order."
It was the sergeant who spoke.

And at that very hour there was excitement at Fort Emory. At eight
o'clock the colonel was on his piazza looking with gloomy eyes over the
distant rows of empty barracks. The drum-major with the band at his
heels came stalking out over the grassy parade, and the post adjutant,
girt with sash and sword-belt, stood in front of his office awaiting the
sergeant-major, who was unaccountably delayed. Reduced to a shadow, the
garrison at Fort Emory might reasonably have been excused, by this time,
from the ceremony of mounting a guard, consisting practically of ten
privates, three of whom wore the cavalry jacket; but old "Pecksniff" was
determined to keep up some show of state. He could have no parade or
review, but at least he could require his guard to be mounted with all
the pomp and ceremony possible. He would have ordered his officers out
in epaulets and the full dress "Kossuth" hat of the period, but epaulets
had been discarded during the war and not yet resumed on the far
frontier. So the rank and file alone were called upon to appear in the
black-feathered oddity a misguided staff had designed as the headgear of
the array. "Pecksniff's" half-dozen doughboys, therefore, with their
attendant sergeants and corporals in the old fas