The Dice of God

When the men laid down gun and saber at Appomattox Courthouse, many headed West to settle new land. Many, the taste for soldiering in them now, took up gun and saber again and went to press the Cavalry's tough, thankless fight against the Indian. The hard-bitten veterans came, and the fuzz-cheeked boys, and certain violent men who lived for the moment's opportunity; and their lusty women followed on the skirts of enterprise. They came from every part of the country and every cut of society. On t