Paul--and the old packer, though it's all in the day's work to him."

"And you are satisfied with Paul, father?"

"He didn't desert his command to save his own skin." The colonel smiled
grimly.

"When the men of the Fourth discovered those other fellows they had
literally sat down in the snow to die. Not a man of them knew how to pack
a mule. Their meat pack slipped, going along one of those high trails, and
scared the mule, and in trying to kick himself free the beast fell off the
trail--mule and meat both gone. They got tired of carrying their stuff and
made a raft to float it down the river, and lost that! Paul has been much
better off in camp than he would have been with them. So cheer up, my
girl, and think how you'd like to have your bridegroom out on an Indian
campaign!"

"Ah, but that would be orders! It's the uselessness that hurts. There was
nothing to do or to gain. He didn't want to go. Oh, daddy dear, I made fun
of his shooting,--I did! I laughed at his way with firearms. Wretched fool
and snob that I was! As if I cared! I thought of what other people would
say. You remember,--he went shooting up the gulch with Mr. Lane, and when
he hit but didn't kill he wouldn't--couldn't put the birds out of pain.
Jephson had to do it for him, and he told it in barracks and the men
laughed."

"How did you know that! And what does it all amount to! Blame yourself all
you like, dear, if it does you any good, but don't make him out a fool!
There's not much that comes to us straight in this world--not even orders,
you'll find. But we have to take it straight and leave the muddles and the