“Idiots!” said the colonel, contemptuously. “Riding! A day like this! Where’d they go?” “They says they’d go as far as Holly Hill, colonel, and then have their meal at the spring, an’ then go right over Baldy, and home!” “Crazy! Climbin’ the hill in this heat!” She looked about the clean, wide stable. “What horses did you give ’em?” Henry looked very uncomfortable. “I thought you knew, colonel. I give your aunt Sixpence--he’s up to her weight. But Miss Rose says she was to ride _your_ horse.” The colonel whirled about, her eyes flashing. “Rose said--_my_ horse! You don’t mean _Baby_?” “That’s what she _says_.” Jerry turned white. “But--my goodness! Baby’s _sick_! The vet said she wasn’t to be ridden!” “I told Miss Rose I didn’t think the horse was up to it,” said Henry, aggrievedly. “I _says_ to ask you.” “You fool--you!” said the colonel, blazing. She reached for an old cap, and snatched a whip. “Give me any horse!” she commanded, pulling down her own saddle. “I’ll follow them! They’ll be at the spring. I’ll bring them home through the woods.” “Why, there you are, colonel! There aint a horse on this place. It was so hot yesterday that we turned them all out. They’re two miles away, in long meadow. You can’t get a horse on this post.” Baffled, the child dropped the saddle. She leaned against the door-post, her swimming eyes looking across the baking earth. “It’ll kill Baby, Henry,” she whispered, with trembling lips. No one was about. Above the Ralston stable some little boys had made a fire in the shade. Jerry clinched her hands in agony above her heart. Then she picked up her saddle, and went resolutely along the path. “Where are you going, colonel, dear?” called Henry. She did not answer. “Oh--Baby! Baby!” she was sobbing as she ran; “I can’t let them kill you! I’ve _got_ to disobey orders!” The carriage, with the three men in it, was met by the news. A mile from the post a little boy shouted that the Ralston stable, with the wonderful mare inside, was burned to the ground. The old general, bouncing out uncomfortably, kept up a running fire of sympathetic ejaculation. The major, urging on the big grays, freely used his strongest language. But his brother did not speak. Sweating, dust-covered, panting, the horses tore past Officers’ Row, and stopped at the ruins of what had been the stable. A few fallen beams still smoked sullenly, the sickening odor of wet wood filled the air. A group of men and boys in their shirt-sleeves stood near. At the sound of the wheels, Baron, his face streaked with soot and perspiration, came toward them. “I was off duty, sir!” he said, hoarsely. “I was getting my dinner. We done all we could! We had the hose here in ten minutes, but the fire was too big.” His master nodded. After a moment he asked: “She was loose?” “Yes, sir. She must have suffocated. She didn’t struggle----”