"I--I was going to ask you once before I was hurt, but--but I could n't, and somehow I trusted you from the first, when you got in." She hesitated, and then asked, "How did you know I was Molly McDonald?
You never asked." The Sergeant's eyes smiled, turning away from her face to stare out again across the river.
"Because I had seen your picture." "My picture?
But you told us you were from Fort Union ?" "Yes; that is my station, only I had been sent to the cantonment on the Cimarron with despatches.

Your father was in command there, and worried half to death about you.

He could not leave the post, and the only officer remaining there with him was a disabled cavalry captain.
Every man he could trust was out on scouting service.

He took a chance on me.

Maybe he liked my looks, I don't know; more probably, he judged I would n't be a sergeant and entrusted with those despatches I 'd just brought in, if I was n't considered trustworthy.