"I know it all," he answered, soberly, "from the lips of Hampton."
"You have seen him? Oh, Lieutenant Brant, please tell me the whole truth. I have missed him so much, and since the day he rode away to Cheyenne not one word to explain his absence has come back to me. You cannot understand what this means, how much he has become to me through years of kindness."
"You have heard nothing?"
"Not a word."
Brant drew a long, deep breath. He had supposed she knew this. At last he said gravely:
"Naida, the truth will prove the kindest message, I think. He died in that unbroken ring of defenders clustered about General Custer on the bluffs of the Little Big Horn."
Her slight figure trembled so violently that he held her close within his arms.
"There was a smile upon his face when we found him. He performed his full duty, Naida, and died as became a soldier and a gentleman."
"But—but, this cannot be! I saw the published list; his name was not among them."
"The man who fell was Robert Nolan."