now. In a few minutes more it will be too late to back out. Once in,
you must see the thing through, performing without flinching whatever
duty is assigned to you, regardless of its difficulty or danger. If it
be garrison duty, you must attend to it; if meeting the fever, you must
be willing; if it is the hardest kind of fighting, you must be anxious
for it. You must know how to ride, how to shoot, and how to live in
the open, lacking all the luxuries and often the necessities of life.
No matter what comes, you must not squeal. Remember, above everything,
that absolute obedience to every command is your first lesson. Now
think it over, and if any man wishes to withdraw, he will be gladly
excused, for hundreds stand ready to take his place."

Did any of those young men accept this chance to escape the dangers and
privations, the hardships and sufferings, awaiting them? Not one, but
all joined in an eager rivalry to first take the oath of allegiance and
obedience, and sign the regimental roll.

As it happened, this honor fell to Ridge Norris, and a few minutes
later he passed out of the building an enlisted soldier of the United
States, a private in its first regiment of volunteer cavalry, and
ordered to report to the first sergeant of Troop "K"--Rollo Van Kyp's
troop, he remembered with pleasure. "Poor old boy! how I wish I could
see him and tell him of my good luck!" he reflected. "Wonder how long
he will be kept in that beastly guard-house?"

At the moment our young trooper was passing headquarters, and even as
this thought came into his mind, he was bidden by Colonel Wood to
deliver a written order to the corporal of the guard. "It is for the
release from arrest of your friend Van Kyp," explained the colonel,
kindly, "and you may tell him that it was obtained through the