to get them into some
exposed position, where they could be cut off to a man--and had the
cavalry been unaccustomed to border life, the artifice would have
succeeded; but they were not to be seduced to their ruin by any such
transparent stratagem.

Now and then these redskins, a number of Comanches, sent in a rifle ball
or two by way of reminding the cavalry that they were accustomed to that
business. The lieutenant commanding permitted his men to reply
occasionally, but no thought of pursuit was entertained. None of the
soldiers were injured by these shots, although a number passed
uncomfortably close, and the ambulance was pierced several times.

At one time Corporal Hugg checked his horse, and pointing his gun out of
the stage, took deliberate aim at the nearest redskin, who was
displaying his horsemanship by shooting from beneath the neck and belly
of his mustang, and then, as the latter wheeled, flopping upon the other
side of the animal, and firing as before. The corporal held his fire
until he attempted one of these turn-overs, when he pulled the trigger
and "took him on the wing." The result was a whoop, a beating of the air
with a pair of moccasined feet, and the mustang galloped away without a
rider.

This skillful shot was a good thing for the party, as it taught the
Comanches the very lesson they needed. They instantly retreated to a
further point upon the prairie, and finally vanished from view
altogether.

The company had been on the road for nearly a week. Six of them,
including the lieutenant, were riding at the head, and the remainder
were in the rear of the ambulance. Corporal Hugg was holding the reins
of his horse, who was stepping along with his heavy, ponderous tread,
while the driver was drowsy and indolent from the long, monotonous ride
in which he had been engaged for so many days, and for so many hours
during this last day. It was near the middle of the afternoon, and Ned
Chadmund was the only one of the company that seemed to be full of life
and spirits. He had run along by the side of the vehicle, until he was
pretty well jaded; he had crawled in again, and was chatting away to the
corporal in a fashion that left no room for his giving way to
drowsiness. The men sat like statues upon their horses, indifferent and
silent, and wishing, in a general way, that the day were over and the
time had come for going into camp, where they might stretch out their
legs and smoke their pipes to their