in her lot with the South, he became a sergeant in a cavalry regiment
commanded by his father. He had enjoyed that life and won his spurs, yet
it had cost. There was much not over pleasant to remember, and those
strenuous years of almost ceaseless fighting, of long night marches, of
swift, merciless raiding, of lonely scouting within the enemy's lines, of
severe wounds, hardship, and suffering, had left their marks on both body
and soul. His father had fallen on the field at Antietam, and left him
utterly alone in the world, but he had fought on grimly to the end, until
the last flag of the Confederacy had been furled. By that time, upon the
collar of his tattered gray jacket appeared the tarnished insignia of a
captain. The quick tears dimmed his eyes even now as he recalled anew that
final parting following Appomattox, the battle-worn faces of his men, and
his own painful journey homeward, defeated, wounded, and penniless. It was
no home when he got there, only a heap of ashes and a few weed-grown
acres. No familiar face greeted him; not even a slave was left.

He had honestly endeavored to remain there, to face the future and work it
out alone; he persuaded himself to feel that this was his paramount duty
to the State, to the memory of the dead. But those very years of army life
made such a task impossible; the dull, dead monotony of routine, the
loneliness, the slowness of results, became intolerable. As it came to
thousands of his comrades, the call of the West came to him, and at last
he yielded, and drifted toward the frontier. The life there fascinated
him, drawing him deeper and deeper into its swirling vortex. He became
freighter, mail carrier, hunter, government scout, cowboy foreman. Once he
had drifted into the mountains, and took a chance in the mines, but the
wide plains called him back once more to their desert loneliness. What an
utter waste it all seemed, now that he looked back upon it. Eight years of
fighting, hardship, and rough living, and what had they brought him? The
reputation of a hard rider, a daring player at cards, a quick shot, a