Page:Palo'mine (1925).pdf/183

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brought home to Halsey the first morning after he arrived in camp.

He was standing with some recruits watching some perfected troops who were marching away that morning to the front. One minute they had been a conglomerate mass; just horses and men stretching away as far as the eye could reach. Then came a clear bugle call and the meaningless mass changed in a twinkling into the serried formation of the cavalry. Each man stood by the side of his horse with his hand resting on the bridle rein. Then came another clear call from the bugle and as one man the regiment rose to the saddle. There they sat like marble men each at attention, looking straight ahead, between his horse's ears.

The horses stood almost as motionless as the men. Occasionally a horse's ear could be seen to flick when a fly lit upon it, that was all.

For at least a minute they sat thus; a long line of equestrian statues, with no indication of the mighty force they represented. Then came another imperative call from the bu-