The Deserter

ndscape. It was a bitter morning in February. North and south the treeless prairie rolled away in successive ridge and depression. The snow l

ign of life was visible. The tiny mounds in the villages of the prairie-dogs seemed blocked and frozen; even the trusty sentinel had "deserted post" and huddled with his fellows for warmth and shelter in the bowels of the earth. Fluttering owl and skulking coyote, too, had vanished from the face of nature. Timid antelope-fleetest coursers of the prairie-and stolid horned cattle had gone, none knew whither, nor cared to know until the "blizzard" had subsided. Two heavy engines fought their way, panting, into the very teeth of the gale a

few soldiers remained in saddle: they were too frozen to walk at all. Some few fell behind, and would have thrown themselves flat upon the prairie in the lethargy that is but premonition of death by freezing. Like men half deadened by morphine, their rescue depended on heroic measures, humane in their seeming brutality.

got a dozen frozen men with us we must send

p and down the aisle and made impetuous incursions on the various sections by turns, receiving such modified welcome as could be accorded features streaked with mingled candy and cinders, and fingers whose propensity to cling to whatsoever they touched was due no more to instincts of a predatory nature than to the adhesive properties of the glucose which formed so large a constituent of the confections he had been industriously consuming since early

so sore a trial to its possessor and yet so inestimable a comfort to social rivals; but her features were handsome, her teeth fine, her dress, bearing, and demeanor those of a woman of birth and breeding, and yet one who might have resented the intimation that she was not strikingly handsome. She looked like a woman with a will of her own; her head was high, her step was firm; it was of just such a walk as hers that Virgil wrote his "vera incessu patuit dea," and she made the young man in the section by himself think of that very passage as he glanced at her from under his heavy, bushy eyebrows. She looked, moreover, like a woman with a capacity for influencing people contrary to their will and judgment, and with a decided fondness for the exercise of that unpopular function. There was the air of grande dame about her, despite the simplicity of her dress, which, though of rich material, was severely plain. She wore no jewelry. Her hands were snugly g

. Captain Rayner and sister, and they're going out here to Fort Warrener. That's how I know

crossed the Missouri, and in all that time not once had she detected in him a glance that betrayed the faintest interest in her, or-still more remarkable-in the unquestionably lovely girl at her side. Intrusiveness she might resent, but indifference she would and did. Who was this yo

foot, the style and finish of his quiet travelling-dress, the soft modulation and refined tone of his voice on the one occasion when she heard him reply to some importunity of the train-boy with his endless round of equally questionable figs and fiction, the book he was reading,-a volume of Emerson,-all combined to speak of

at Nellie's future was to be. Never, indeed, would she have taken her to the gay frontier station whither she was now en route, had not that future been already settled to her satisfaction. Nellie Travers, barely out of school, was betrothed, and willingly so, to the man she, her devoted elder sister, had especially chosen. Rare and most unlikely of conditions! she had apparently fallen in love

n the army but for the unusual circumstance of a wealthy subaltern among the officers of her father's regiment. Tradition had it that Mr. Rayner was not among the number of those who sighed for Kate Travers's guarded smiles. Her earlier victims were kept a-dangling until Rayner, too, succumbed, and then were sent adrift. She meant that no penniless subaltern should carry off her

im off, and meant to do so, until, to her surprise, she saw that he gave no symptom of a desire to approach. By noon of the second day she was as determined to

iry, addressed to no one in particular. There was no reply. Miss Travers was busily twitching

f the window,

g water-tank all covered with ice. Br-r-r-r!? how cold it looks!" sh

en here full five minutes, and we are behind time now. At this rate we'll never

arose. "I will inquire, madame," he said, wit

"Indeed I must not trouble you. I'm sur

an overcoat, the train rumbled off again. Then

y, they are soldiers,-cavalry! Oh, how I love to se

the horses and the muffled figures in blue and fur. "What can they be doing in the field in such awful weather? I cannot re

erest little less apparent than her own, but in a moment the train had whisked them out of sight of the s

ow them?"

lry, and they have been out scouting after renegade Cheyennes. Pard

lowed him, her eyes full of anxiety. He was

ry being out? Pardon me for detaining you, but I am very

adame, I-have reason to know;

t moment, flask in hand, he was crossing the storm-swe

the movement of the troops? Did you notice how gentle his manner was?-and he never smiled: he has

me into her deep eyes. She was thinking, no doubt, of a dark, oval, distingué face with raven hair and moustache. The youth in the travelling-suit

n the satchel,-only two initial

t there isn't anything there to indicate what he is," she continued, with a doubtful glance at the item

ut ceremony. Both ladies regarded this proceeding with natural astonishment, and Mrs. Rayner was about to interfere and question his right to search the luggage

ozen frozen soldiers in the baggage-car,-some of 'em mighty bad,-an

of a place! Why weren't they brought here, where we could make them w

' noses drop off, that would! Got to keep 'em in the cold and pile snow around 'em. That gentleman si

known to her yet forgotten in the first impetuosity of he

id Miss Travers, presently.

to the cavalry. He knew Major Stannard

speak

tance when he ran to the back door of the car; and

s very

nge that he has not made himself

ow you-or we-are connec

knows perfectly well, and I

't know before th

"At least, he should if he had taken the faintest interest.

was one, indeed, that Mrs. Rayner could have dispensed with as unnecessary,-

en brooding over the indifference of the young man in question, "he ought to have made himself know

to see whether any of the soldiers had come on board. He took his flask with him, and apparently was in haste to offe

drank-is not at all the proper thing now. Captain Rayn

zen and exhausted men are on one's hands," said Miss Travers. "Th

swinging door blew open ahead of the porter, who was h

skey or brandy?" he asked. "We've got some frozen

was heard: "Take this, porter." And she held forth a little silver flask. "I have more in my trunk if it is needed," she added, while a blush mounted to her forehead as

er, "but this would be only a thimbleful, an

o and see what we can do. One of you gentlemen take my place in the game," he continued, indicating the commercial gents, two of whom,

. And please say to the officer that I'm Mrs. Rayner,-Mrs. Captain Rayn

I done told him last night. He's goin' to Fort Warre

" said Mrs. Rayner, triumphant

he army to introduce themselves when travelli

e commonest civility should prompt it; and officers always send their cards by the porter the moment they find

iss Nell, with an inspirat

pucker up his face in alarming contortions preparatory to a wail, and, after one or two soothing and tentative sounds of "sh-sh-sh-sh" from the maternal lips, the m

he sad expression more pronounced than before. The train-conductor stopped him to speak of some telegrams that had been sent, and both ladies noted the respect which the railway official threw into the tone in which he spoke. The

fellow at least, and I thank

d you not get my message, Mr.--?" she asked, with int

your kindness, but we had abundant help, and you really could not have reached the car in the face of this gale. Good-morning, madame."

whispered to Miss Travers, "He's goin

at the platform, and she was not to be beaten so easi

ure you must be of the army. I think I told you I am Mrs.

ed. Gazing at him in surprise and trouble, Nellie Travers saw that his face was full of pain and was turning white

obable that we s

that he t