is required to go to arrest Hawk and White Wolf's boy, it will be
with an unwilling hand."

"Yes," said the major, coldly, "the trouble with Davies seems to be that
he has displayed similar unwillingness on previous occasions."

The command of the cantonment had been given to this veteran field
officer of infantry, a man whose motto had been fight from boyhood on.
For ten days had he been hammering away here, hours at a time, to get
his own battalion in readiness for what he considered the inevitable
summer's work. He had fought every one of the dozen or more tribes of
plains Indians, and considered fighting their normal condition as it was
his own. He had made it his boast that during the previous summer his
battalion, day after day, had outmarched the cavalry, and even while the
statement was misleading, the boast was based on facts. The horses of
the cavalry, starved and staggering, worn to skin and bone, had to be
towed along instead of ridden, and the cavalry were therefore
handicapped. Yet there was not a trooper who did not honor the bluff
senior major, and none who really disliked him, except perhaps the
battalion commander of the cavalry, a gentleman whose gold leaves were
as dazzlingly new as the senior's were old and withered, and just about
to be changing into silver, the silver of the lieutenant-colonel. The
contrast between Major White's spirited handling of his battalion of
foot and Major Chrome's listless management of a similar body of horse
was vivid in the last degree. The latter and two of his troops belonged
to Atherton's fine regiment, the --th, the other two troops, Cranston's
and Truman's, were, as we know, of the Eleventh, and here in presence of
four officers of the latter's regiment, and a dozen of the Fortieth
Foot and of the --th Horse,--here on the broad parade of the cantonment,
at high noon and in plain sight and hearing even of three or four
enlisted men, orderlies, horse-holders, etc., had the post commander
spoken words that meant nothing short of discredit, if not disgrace, to
the subaltern who was at that very instant riding away on a perilous as
well as thankless mission. Deep, embarrassed silence fell on one and all
of the major's hearers for a single instant. Cranston reddened with
indignation, little Sanders with wrath. Truman looked quickly and
curiously about him. All three were eager and ready to speak, yet by
common consent the duty devolved upon Cranston, who took the floor.