For the first month after enlistment Cameron was kept in close touch
with the Fort and spent his hours under the polishing hands of the drill
sergeant. From five in the morning till ten at night the day's routine
kept him on the grind. Hard work it was, but to Cameron a continuous
delight. For the first time in his life he had a job that seemed worth
a man's while, and one the mere routine of which delighted his soul. He
loved his horse and loved to care for him, and, most of all, loved to
ride him. Among his comrades he found congenial spirits, both among the
officers and the men. Though discipline was strict, there was an utter
absence of anything like a spirit of petty bullying which too often is
found in military service; for in the first place the men were in very
many cases the equals and sometimes the superiors of the officers both
in culture and in breeding, and further, and very specially, the nature
of the work was such as to cultivate the spirit of true comradeship.
When officer and man ride side by side through rain and shine, through
burning heat and frost "Forty below," when they eat out of the same pan
and sleep in the same "dug-out," when they stand back to back in the
midst of a horde of howling savages, rank comes to mean little and
manhood much.
Between Inspector Dickson and Cameron a genuine friendship sprang
up; and after his first month was in, Cameron often found himself the
comrade of the Inspector in expeditions of special difficulty where
there was a call for intelligence and nerve.
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