nce Department. The trooper himself wore the field uniform of the
cavalry,--the dark-blue blouse, crossed by the black carbine sling,
whose big brass buckle Ned could even now see gleaming between the
broad shoulders, and gathered at the waist by the old-fashioned
"thimble belt" the troop saddlers used to make for field service
before the woven girdle was devised. Even more: Harvey in his misery
remembered the thrill of joy with which he had noted, as the splendid
rider reined in and threw himself from the saddle, the crossed sabres,
the troop letter "C," and the regimental number gleaming at the front
of his campaign hat. Who--who could this be, wearing the honorable
garb of a soldier of United States, yet figuring as a ringleader in a
band of robbers and assassins now adding rapine to their calendar of
crime? Edward Harvey's heart almost burst with helpless rage and
wretchedness when he saw his precious sisters dragged within the
canvas shelter,--saw the tall, uniformed brigand leap lightly after
them, and heard him shout to the ready driver, "Now, off with you!"

Crack! went the whip as the men sprang from the heads of the frantic
mules, and with a bound that nearly wrenched the trace-hooks from the
stout whippletree, the Concord went spinning over the sands to the
south, whirling so near him that over the thud of hoofs and whirl of
wheels and creak of spring and wood-work he could hear poor Fanny's
despairing cry,--the last sound he was aware of for hours, for now in
dead earnest Harvey swooned away.

Half an hour later, the rafters of the ranch having by this time
tumbled in and turned the interior into a glowing furnace, there came
riding from the west a slender skirmish line of horsemen in the worn
campaign dress of the regular cavalry. With the advance there were not
more than six or eight, a tall, slender lieutenant leading them on and
signalling his instructions. With carbines advanced, with eyes peering
out from under the jagged hat-brims, the veteran troopers came loping
into the light of the flames, expectant every instant of hearing the
crack of outlaw's rifle, or perhaps the hiss of feathered arrow of
unseen foe. Though some of the steeds looked hot and wearied, the big
raw-boned sorrel that carried the young commander tugged at his bit
and bounded impatiently as though eager for the signal--"charge."
Straight into the circle of light, straight to the southern entrance,
now a gate of flame, the soldier r