"Yes, sir," answered the Sergeant, "if she'd just get over the fancy
she has for Briggs, the artillery corporal. That man is bound to be
killed by a wheel runnin' over him. You know, sir, if there is
anything on earth that skeers me stiff it is a horse hitched to any
kind of a vehicle. I don't mind ridin' 'em because then the horse's
heels is behind me. But in a vehicle the horse's heels is in front of
me, and it makes me nervous. I have told Anna Mariar that she shan't
so much as look at Briggs unless he exchanges into the cavalry, so the
horse's heels will be behind him, and not in front of him."

The entrance bell rang, and Kettle went to the front door. Colonel
Fortescue could neither hear nor see the visitor, but the step and the
sound of a military cloak thrown on a chair indicated the arrival of a
junior lieutenant. Colonel Fortescue looked annoyed. The junior
officer running after Anita bothered him even more than Briggs, the
artillery corporal, bothered Sergeant McGillicuddy. Anita was but a
child--only seventeen; the Colonel had proclaimed this when he brought
Anita to the post. Colonel Fortescue did all that a father and a
Colonel could do to keep the junior lieutenants away from Anita, but no
method has yet been found to keep junior officers away from pretty
girls.

There were still twenty minutes before dinner, and the scoundrel, as
Colonel Fortescue classified all the juniors who, like himself, adored
Anita, seemed determined to stay until the musical gong sounded, and
later, if he were asked. This particular scoundrel, Broussard, was the
one to whom the Colonel most objected of all the slim, good-looking
scoundrels who wore shoulder straps, for Broussard had too much money
to spend, and spent it wildly, so the Colonel thought; he, himself, had