Lanier of the Cavalry or, A Week's Arrest

Lanier of the Cavalry; or, A Week's Arrest

The sun was sinking low beyond the ford of the foaming Platte. The distant bluffs commanding the broad valley of the Sweetwater stood sharp and clear against the westward skies. The smoke from the camp-fires along the stream rose in misty columns straight aloft, for not so much as a breath of breeze had wafted down from the far snow fields of Cloud Peak, or the sun-sheltered rifts of the Big Horn. The flag at the old fort, on the neighboring height, clung to the staff with scarcely a flutter, awaiting the evening salute of the trumpets and the roar of the sunset gun. The long June day had seemed unusually unconscionably long to the young girl flitting restlessly about the vine-covered[Pg 6] porch of the roadside cottage. She laid the big binocular aside, for perhaps the twentieth time within the hour, with a sigh of impatience, a piteous quiver about the pretty, rosebud mouth, a wistful, longing look in the dark and dreamy eyes. Ever since stable call, and her father's departure to his never-neglected duty, she had hovered about that shaded nook, again and again searching the northward slopes and ridges. The scouts had been in three hours ago, reporting the squadron only a mile or so behind. It should have dismounted, unsaddled, fed, watered, and groomed by this time, and Rawdon should have been here at her sideRawdon, whom she had not seen for three mortal daysRawdon, whom, for three mortal weeks before the march, she had not missed seeing sometimes several times a day, even when he was on guardRawdon, whom she had never set eyes on before the first of April, and whom now she looked upon as the foremost soldier[Pg 7] of the regiment, when in point of fact he was but a private trooper, serving the first part of his first enlistment, in the eyes of his elders a mere recruit, and in those of Sergeant Fitzroy an unspeakable thing. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 19507
Author: King, Charles
Release Date: Oct 9, 2006
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: McKernan, Frank, 1861-1934