Crittenden

"I was sorry not to see you again at Chickamauga, but I started here

next day. I have just written you that there was a place on my staff for

you or your brother--or for any son of your father and my friend. I'll

write to Washington for you to-night, and you can report for duty

whenever you please."

The little man made the astounding proposition as calmly as though he

were asking the Kentuckian to a lunch of bacon and hardtack, and

Crittenden flushed with gratitude and his heart leaped--his going was

sure now. Before he could stammer out his thanks, the general was gone.

Just then Rivers, who, to his great joy, had got at least that far, sat

down by him. He was much depressed. His regiment was going, but two

companies would be left behind. His colonel talked about sending him

back to Kentucky to bring down some horses, and he was afraid to go.

"To think of being in the army as long as I have been, just for this

fight. And to think of being left here in this hell-hole all summer, and

missing all the fun in Cuba, not to speak of the glory and the game. We

haven't had a war for so long that glory will come easy now, and anybody

who does anything will be promoted. But it's missing the fight--the

fight--that worries me," and Rivers shook his head from side to side

dejectedly. "If my company goes, I'm all right; but if it doesn't, there

is no chance for me if I go away. I shall lose my last chance of

slipping in somewhere. I swear I'd rather go as a private than not at

all."

This idea gave Crittenden a start, and made him on the sudden very

thoughtful.

"Can you get me in as a private at the last minute?" he asked presently.

"Yes," said Rivers, quickly, "and I'll telegraph you in plenty of time,

so that you can get back."

Crittenden smiled, for Rivers's plan was plain, but he was thinking of a

plan of his own.

Meanwhile, he drilled as a private each day. He was ignorant of the

Krag-Jorgensen, and at Chickamauga he had made such a laughable

exhibition of himself that the old Sergeant took him off alone one day,

and when they came back the Sergeant was observed to be smiling broadly.

At the first target practice thereafter, Crittenden stood among the

first men of the company, and the captain took mental note of him as a

sharpshooter to be remembered when they got to Cuba. With the drill he

had little trouble--being a natural-born horseman--so one day, when a

trooper was ill, he was allowed to take the sick soldier's place and

drill with the regiment. That day his trouble with Reynolds came. All

the soldiers were free and easy of speech and rather reckless with

epithets, and, knowing how little was meant, Crittenden merely

remonstrated with the bully and smilingly asked him to desist.