a
curious manner taken under his protection.

"Look at what they give us for a blanket to sleep in," said Cumnor. "A
fellow can see to read the newspaper through it."

"Look at my coat, Cumnor." It was Sergeant Keyser showing the article
furnished the soldier by the government. "You can spit through that." He
had overheard their talk, and stepped up to show that all were in the
same box. At his presence reticence fell upon the privates, and Cumnor
hauled his black felt hat down tight in embarrassment, which strain
split it open half-way round his head. It was another sample of
regulation clothing, and they laughed at it.

"We all know the way it is," said Keyser, "and I've seen it a big sight
worse. Cumnor, I've a cap I guess will keep your scalp warm till we get
back."

And so at two in the morning F troop left the bunks it had expected
to sleep in for some undisturbed weeks, and by four o'clock had eaten
its well-known breakfast of bacon and bad coffee, and was following
the "awful old man" down the north bank of the Boise, leaving the
silent, dead, wooden town of shanties on the other side half a mile
behind in the darkness. The mountains south stood distant, ignoble,
plain-featured heights, looming a clean-cut black beneath the piercing
stars and the slice of hard, sharp-edged moon, and the surrounding
plains of sage and dry-cracking weed slanted up and down to nowhere and
nothing with desolate perpetuity. The snowfall was light and dry as
sand, and the bare ground jutted through it at every sudden lump or
knoll. The column moved through the dead polar silence, scarcely
breaking it. Now and then a hoof rang on a stone, here and there a
bridle or a sabre clinked lightly; but it was too cold and early for
talking, and the only steady sound was the flat, can-like tankle of the
square bell that hung on the neck of the long-eared leader of the
pack-train. They passed the Dailey ranch, and saw the kittens and the
liniment-bottle, but could get no information as to what way E-egante
had gone. The General did not care for that, however; he had devised his
own route for the present, after a talk with the Indian guides. At the
second dismounting during march he had word sent back to the pack-train
not to fall behind, and the bell was to be taken off if the rest of the
mules would follow without the sound of its shallow music. No wind moved
the weeds or shook the stiff grass, and the rising sun glittered pink on
the patch