d the last lines. He almost kissed the letter
in his ecstasy. He hardly slept that night from excitement, and it was
the very next morning that Russell was electrified by the telegraphic
news that the --th had had sharp fighting; that the main body of the
regiment, early in the morning three days previous, had met and driven
back to the reservation a large force of Cheyennes seeking to join
Sitting Bull; that Captain Wayne's squadron had been surrounded and cut
off by others of the same tribe, and rescued by Truscott's squadron at
the same instant that the fight was going on at the War Bonnet; that
Wayne's people would undoubtedly have been massacred to a man--as their
ammunition was spent--but for the heroism of Ray, who had run the
gauntlet through the Cheyennes all alone in the darkness, found
Truscott's squadron going rapidly away in another direction, turned him
to the rescue just in the nick of time, and now, weak and wounded, was
being sent in to Russell; that there had been several men killed, quite
a number wounded, and that among these latter were Blake, Wayne, and
Dana; and that Blake, too, would be sent to Russell. Further
particulars came every hour or two. Every report had something
additional to say of Ray's valor, and though he ground his teeth in rage
at the thought of Ray's temporary exaltation, Gleason was philosopher
enough to know that no man was long a hero in garrison life, and so took
advantage of the excitement to go and besiege the ladies with
congratulations. How could they exclude him at such a time? Grace was in
an ecstasy of pride and joy over her Jack's splendid charge, and Marion
Sanford, who gloried in deeds of valor, sat wondering if it were really
true that she knew the man whose name was on every lip, gallant, daring
Ray,--that--that even then, as Truscott wired them, he never forgot he
was riding for her colors.

But it was delicious to hear Gleason: "I cannot rejoice too much,
ladies, that it was the troop _I_ so long commanded that made the
decisive charge. They have fulfilled my highest expectations," was an
oft repeated remark. And when Mrs. Whaling came the second time to
dispense tearful felicitations, she found him ready to say amen to her
pious suggestions that they should unite in praise and prayer to the
Throne of Mercy.

The man was indeed

"A rogue in grain,
Veneered with sanctimonious theory."

They--Grace and Marion--had early fled to their rooms an