riders falling in behind, it was as if Tragedy had not showed her awful
visage for one fearful moment.

All the cheering and clapping and weeping and laughing and shouting
that had gone before were nothing to what followed after, while the
band played "For He Is a Jolly Good Fellow," and everybody who could
sing, or thought he could sing, joined in the refrain. Colonel
Fortescue, whiter than death, sat straight up in his place. Mrs.
Fortescue whispered in his ear:

"Be brave,--brave as you were in battle."

Colonel Fortescue had been in battle, but the screaming shells and
crash of machine guns brought with them no such wild and shivering
terror as when he saw Gamechick's forefeet in the air over Anita, lying
on the tanbark.

The procession passed once more around the hall, Anita's face flushed
and smiling, Broussard outwardly calm, but the red blood showing under
his dark skin. When they reached the entrance doors and were about to
ride out Sergeant McGillicuddy stopped Broussard with a word. The
audience, watching and smiling, knew what would happen and all eyes
were fixed on the C. O.'s. box. In a minute Broussard, with his
cavalry cap in his hand, was seen mounting the stairs; Colonel
Fortescue rose and clasped Broussard's hand, while Mrs. Fortescue
frankly kissed him on both cheeks. The band broke loose again and so
did the people. Although Fort Blizzard was a great fort it was so far
away in the frozen northwest that those within its walls constituted
one vast family. Anita was known to all of them, officers and ladies,
troopers and troopers' wives and children, and the company washerwomen,