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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19023-8.txt b/19023-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32b8ed9 --- /dev/null +++ b/19023-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7871 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Daughter of the Sioux, by Charles King + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Daughter of the Sioux + A Tale of the Indian frontier + +Author: Charles King + +Illustrator: Frederic Remington and Edwin Willard Deming + +Release Date: August 10, 2006 [EBook #19023] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX + + [Illustration: RAY'S TROOP.] + + _A Tale of the Indian Frontier_ + + BY + GENERAL CHARLES KING + + AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "FORT FRAYNE," + "AN ARMY WIFE," ETC., ETC. + + "He is bred out of that bloody strain + That haunted us in our familiar paths." + _King Henry V._ + + ILLUSTRATIONS BY + FREDERIC REMINGTON + _and_ + EDWIN WILLARD DEMING + + NEW YORK + THE HOBART COMPANY + 1903 + + COPYRIGHT, 1902, + BY + THE HOBART COMPANY. + +_A Daughter of the Sioux_ _Published March 15, 1903_ + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. + +FORESHADOWED EVENTS, + +CHAPTER II. + +ABSENT FROM DUTY, + +CHAPTER III. + +A NIGHT ENCOUNTER, + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE SIGN OF THE BAR SHOE, + +CHAPTER V. + +A GRAVE DISCOVERY, + +CHAPTER VI. + +FIRST SIGHT OF THE FOE, + +CHAPTER VII. + +BLOOD WILL TELL, + +CHAPTER VIII. + +MORE STRANGE DISCOVERIES, + +CHAPTER IX. + +BAD NEWS FROM THE FRONT, + +CHAPTER X. + +"I'LL NEVER GO BACK," + +CHAPTER XI. + +A FIGHT WITH A FURY, + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE ORDEAL BY FIRE, + +CHAPTER XIII. + +WOUNDED--BODY AND SOUL, + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A VANISHED HEROINE, + +CHAPTER XV. + +A WOMAN'S PLOT, + +CHAPTER XVI. + +NIGHT PROWLING AT FRAYNE, + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A RIFLED DESK, + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +BURGLARY AT BLAKE'S, + +CHAPTER XIX. + +A SLAP FOR THE MAJOR, + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE SIOUX SURROUNDED, + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THANKSGIVING AT FRAYNE, + +CHAPTER XXII. + +BEHIND THE BARS, + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +A SOLDIER ENTANGLED, + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE DEATH SONG OF THE SIOUX, + +_L'ENVOI._ + + * * * * * + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +FRONTISPIECE + +"THE MAJOR SOUGHT TO BLOCK THAT MORNING'S RIDE IN VAIN" + +RAY'S TROOP + +"THE SOLDIER LEAPED FROM HIS SADDLE" + +"WITH ONE MAGNIFICENT RED ARM UPLIFTED" + +"SOME FEW OF THEIR NUMBER BORNE AWAY BY THEIR COMRADES" + +"CHARGE WITH ME THE MOMENT THE LEADERS YELL" + +"HUSH! SHE'S COMING"--SHE WAS THERE + + * * * * * + + + + + A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FORESHADOWED EVENTS + + +The major commanding looked up from the morning report and surveyed the +post adjutant with something of perturbation, if not annoyance, in his +grim, gray eyes. For the fourth time that week had Lieutenant Field +requested permission to be absent for several hours. The major knew just +why the junior wished to go and where. The major knew just why he wished +him not to go, but saw fit to name almost any other than the real reason +when, with a certain awkward hesitancy he began: + +"W--ell, is the post return ready?" + +"It _will_ be, sir, in abundant time," was the prompt reply. + +"You know they sent it back for correction last month," hazarded the +commander. + +"And you know, sir, the error was not mine," was the instant rejoinder, +so quick, sharp and positive as to carry it at a bound to the verge of +disrespect, and the keen, blue eyes of the young soldier gazed, frank +and fearless, into the heavily ambushed grays of the veteran in the +chair. It made the latter wince and stir uneasily. + +"If there's one thing I hate, Field, it is to have my papers sent back +by some whipsnapper of a clerk, inviting attention to this or that +error, and I expect my adjutant to see to it that they don't." + +"Your adjutant does see to it, sir. I'm willing to bet a month's pay +fewer errors have been found in the papers of Fort Frayne than any post +in the Department of the Platte. General Williams told you as much when +you were in Omaha." + +The major fairly wriggled in his cane-bottomed whirligig. What young +Field said was true, and the major knew it. He knew, moreover, there +wasn't a more painstaking post adjutant from the Missouri to the +mountains. He knew their monthly reports--"returns" as the regulations +call them--were referred to by a model adjutant general as model papers. +He knew it was due to young Field's care and attention, and he knew he +thought all the world of that young gentleman. It was just because he +thought so much of him he was beginning to feel that it was high time to +put a stop to something that was going on. But, it was a delicate +matter; a woman was the matter; and he hadn't the moral courage to go at +it the straightforward way. He "whip sawed" again. Thrumming on the desk +with his lean, bony fingers he began:-- + +"If I let my adjutant out so much, what's to prevent other youngsters +asking similar indulgence?" + +The answer came like the crack of a whip:-- + +"Nothing, sir; and far better would it be for everybody concerned if +they spent more hours in the saddle and fewer at the store." + +This was too much for the one listener in the room. With something like +the sound of a suppressed sneeze, a tall, long-legged captain of cavalry +started up from his chair, an outspread newspaper still full-stretched +between him and the desk of the commander, and, thus hidden as to his +face, sidled sniggering off to the nearest window. Young Field had +fearlessly, if not almost impudently, hit the nail on the head, and +metaphorically rapped the thrumming fingers of his superior officer. +Some commanders would have raged and sent the daring youngster right +about in arrest. Major Webb knew just what Field referred to,--knew that +the fascinations of pool, "pitch" and poker held just about half his +commissioned force at all "off duty" hours of the day or night hanging +about the officers' club room at the post trader's; knew, moreover, that +while the adjutant never wasted a moment over cards or billiards, he, +the post commander, had many a time taken a hand or a cue and wagered +his dollars against those of his devoted associates. They all loved him. +There wasn't "a mean streak in his whole system," said every soldier at +Fort Frayne. He had a capital record as a volunteer--a colonel and, +later, brigade commander in the great war. He had the brevet of +brigadier general of volunteers, but repudiated any title beyond that +of his actual rank in the regulars. He was that _rara avis_--a bachelor +field officer, and a bird to be brought down if feminine witchery could +do it. He was truthful, generous, high-minded, brave--a man who +preferred to be of and with his subordinates rather than above them--to +rule through affection and regard rather than the stern standard of +command. He was gentle and courteous alike to officers and the rank and +file, though he feared no man on the face of the globe. He was awkward, +bungling and overwhelmingly, lavishly, kind and thoughtful in his +dealings with the womenfolk of the garrison, for he stood in awe of the +entire sisterhood. He could ride like a centaur; he couldn't dance worth +a cent. He could snuff a candle with his Colt at twenty paces and +couldn't hit a croquet ball to save his soul. His deep-set gray eyes, +under their tangled thatch of brown, gazed straight into the face of +every man on the Platte, soldier, cowboy, Indian or halfbreed, but fell +abashed if a laundress looked at him. Billy Ray, captain of the sorrel +troop and the best light rider in Wyoming, was the only man he ever +allowed to straddle a beautiful thoroughbred mare he had bought in +Kentucky, but, bad hands or good, there wasn't a riding woman at Frayne +who hadn't backed Lorna time and again, because to a woman the major +simply couldn't say no. + +And though his favorite comrades at the post were captains like Blake +and Billy Ray, married men both whose wives he worshipped, the major's +rugged heart went out especially to Beverly Field, his boy adjutant, a +lad who came to them from West Point only three years before the autumn +this story opens, a young fellow full of high health, pluck and +principle--a tip top soldier, said everybody from the start, until, as +Gregg and other growlers began to declaim, the major completely spoiled +him. Here, three years only out of military leadingstrings, he was a +young cock of the walk, "too dam' independent for a second lieutenant," +said the officers' club element of the command, men like Gregg, Wilkins, +Crane and a few of their following. "The keenest young trooper in the +regiment," said Blake and Ray, who were among its keenest captains, and +never a cloud had sailed across the serene sky of their friendship and +esteem until this glorious September of 188-, when Nanette Flower, a +brilliant, beautiful brunette came a visitor to old Fort Frayne. + +And it was on her account the major would, could he have seen the way, +said no to the adjutant's request to be absent again. On her account and +that of one other, for that request meant another long morning in saddle +with Miss Flower, another long morning in which "the sweetest girl in +the garrison," so said they all, would go about her daily duties with an +aching heart. There was no woman at Fort Frayne who did not know that +Esther Dade thought all the world of Beverly Field. There was only one +man who apparently had no inkling of it--Beverly Field himself. + +She was the only daughter of a veteran officer, a captain of infantry, +who at the age of fifty, after having held a high command in the +volunteers during the civil war, was still meekly doing duty as a +company officer of regulars nearly two decades after. She had been +carefully reared by a most loving and thoughtful mother, even in the +crude old days of the army, when its fighting force was scattered in +small detachments all over the wide frontier, and men, and women, too, +lived on soldier rations, eked out with game, and dwelt in tents or +ramshackle, one-storied huts, "built by the labor of troops." At twelve +she had been placed at school in the far East, while her father enjoyed +a two years' tour on recruiting service, and there, under the care of a +noble woman who taught her girls to be women indeed--not vapid votaries +of pleasure and fashion, Esther spent five useful years, coming back to +her fond father's soldier roof a winsome picture of girlish health and +grace and comeliness--a girl who could ride, walk and run if need be, +who could bake and cook, mend and sew, cut, fashion and make her own +simple wardrobe; who knew algebra, geometry and "trig" quite as well as, +and history, geography and grammar far better than, most of the young +West Pointers; a girl who spoke her own tongue with accuracy and was not +badly versed in French; a girl who performed fairly well on the piano +and guitar, but who sang full-throated, rejoiceful, exulting like the +lark--the soulful music that brought delight to her ageing father, half +crippled by the wounds of the war days, and to the mother who so +devotedly loved and carefully planned for her. Within a month from her +graduation at Madame Piatt's she had become the darling of Fort Frayne, +the pet of many a household, the treasure of her own. With other young +gallants of the garrison, Beverly Field had been prompt to call, prompt +to be her escort when dance or drive, ride or picnic was planned in her +honor, especially the ride, for Mr. Adjutant Field loved the saddle, the +open prairie or the bold, undulating bluffs. But Field was the busiest +man at the post. Other youngsters, troop or company subalterns, had far +more time at their disposal, and begged for rides and dances, strolls +and sports which the post adjutant was generally far too busy to claim. +It was Esther who brought lawn tennis to Frayne and found eager pupils +of both sexes, but Field had been the first to meet and welcome her; had +been for a brief time at the start her most constant cavalier. Then, as +others began to feel the charm of her frank, cordial, joyous manner, and +learned to read the beauty that beamed in her clear, truthful eyes and +winsome, yet not beautiful face, they became assiduous in turn,--two of +them almost distressingly so,--and she could not wound them by refusals. +Then came a fortnight in which her father sat as a member of a +court-martial down at old Fort Laramie, where were the band, +headquarters and four troops of the ----th, and Captain and Mrs. +Freeman, who were there stationed, begged that Mrs. Dade and Esther +should come and visit them during the session of the court. There would +be all manner of army gaieties and a crowd of outside officers, and, as +luck would have it, Mr. Field was ordered thither as a witness in two +important cases. The captain and his good wife went by stage; Esther and +Beverly rode every inch of the way in saddle, camping over night with +their joyous little party at La Bontè. Then came a lovely week at +Laramie, during which Mr. Field had little to do but devote himself to, +and dance with, Esther, and when his final testimony was given and he +returned to his station, and not until then, Esther Dade discovered that +life had little interest or joy without him; but Field rode back +unknowing, and met at Frayne, before Esther Dade's return, a girl who +had come almost unheralded, making the journey over the Medicine Bow +from Rock Springs on the Union Pacific in the comfortable carriage of +old Bill Hay, the post trader, escorted by that redoubtable woman, Mrs. +Bill Hay, and within the week of her arrival Nanette Flower was the +toast of the bachelors' mess, the talk of every household at Fort +Frayne. + +And well she might be. Dark and lustrous were her eyes; black, luxuriant +and lustrous was her hair; dark, rich and lustrous her radiant beauty. +In contour her face was well nigh faultless. It might have been called +beautiful indeed but for the lips, or something about the mouth, that in +repose had not a soft or winsome line, but then it was never apparently +in repose. Smiles, sunshine, animation, rippling laughter, flashing, +even, white teeth--these were what one noted when in talk with Miss +Flower. There was something actually radiant, almost dazzling, about her +face. Her figure, though _petite_, was exquisite, and women marked with +keen appreciation, if not envy, the style and finish of her varied and +various gowns. Six trunks, said Bill Hay's boss teamster, had been +trundled over the range from Rawlins, not to mention a box containing +her little ladyship's beautiful English side-saddle, Melton bridle and +other equine impedimenta. Did Miss Flower like to ride? She adored it, +and Bill Hay had a bay half thoroughbred that could discount the major's +mare 'cross country. All Frayne was out to see her start for her first +ride with Beverly Field, and all Frayne reluctantly agreed that sweet +Essie Dade could never sit a horse over ditch or hurdle with the superb +grace and unconcern displayed by the daring, dashing girl who had so +suddenly become the centre of garrison interest. For the first time in +her life Mrs. Bill Hay knew what it was to hold the undivided attention +of army society, for every woman at Fort Frayne was wild to know all +about the beautiful newcomer, and only one could tell. + +Hay, the trader, had prospered in his long years on the frontier, first +as trader among the Sioux, later as sutler, and finally, when Congress +abolished that title, substituting therefore the euphemism, without +material clog upon the perquisites, as post trader at Fort Frayne. No +one knew how much he was worth, for while apparently a most +open-hearted, whole-souled fellow, Hay was reticence itself when his +fortunes or his family were matters of question or comment. He had long +been married, and Mrs. Hay, when at the post, was a social +sphinx,--kind-hearted, charitable, lavish to the soldiers' wives and +children, and devotion itself to the families of the officers when +sickness and trouble came, as come in the old days they too often did. +It was she who took poor Ned Robinson's young widow and infant all the +way to Cheyenne when the Sioux butchered the luckless little hunting +party down by Laramie Peak. It was she who nursed Captain Forrest's wife +and daughter through ten weeks of typhoid, and, with her own means, sent +them to the seashore, while the husband and father was far up on the +Yellowstone, cut off from all communication in the big campaign of '76. +It was she who built the little chapel and decked and dressed it for +Easter and Christmas, despite the fact that she herself had been +baptized in the Roman Catholic faith. It was she who went at once to +every woman in the garrison whose husband was ordered out on scout or +campaign, proffering aid and comfort, despite the fact long whispered in +the garrisons of the Platte country, that in the old, old days she had +far more friends among the red men than the white. That could well be, +because in those days white men were few and far between. Every one had +heard the story that it was through her the news of the massacre at Fort +Phil Kearny was made known to the post commander, for she could speak +the dialects of both the Arapahoe and the Sioux, and had the sign +language of the Plains veritably at her fingers' ends. There were not +lacking those who declared that Indian blood ran in her veins--that her +mother was an Ogalalla squaw and her father a French Canadian fur +trapper, a story to which her raven black hair and brows, her deep, dark +eyes and somewhat swarthy complexion gave no little color. But, long +years before, Bill Hay had taken her East, where he had relatives, and +where she studied under excellent masters, returning to him summer after +summer with more and more of refinement in manner, and so much of style +and fashion in dress that her annual advent had come to be looked upon +as quite the event of the season, even by women of the social position +of Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Blake, the recognized leaders among the young +matrons of the ----th Cavalry, and by gentle Mrs. Dade, to whom every +one looked up in respect,--almost in reverence. Despite the mystery +about her antecedents there was every reason why Mrs. Hay should be held +in esteem and affection. Bill Hay himself was a diamond in the +rough,--square, sturdy, uncompromising, generous and hospitable; his +great pride and glory was his wife; his one great sorrow that their only +child had died almost in infancy. His solecisms in syntax and society +were many. He was given at times to profanity, and at others, when +madame was away, to draw poker; but officers and men alike proclaimed +him a man of mettle and never hesitated to go to him when in financial +straits, sure of unusurious aid. But, even had this not been the case, +the popularity of his betterhalf would have carried him through, for +there was hardly a woman at Frayne to speak of her except in terms of +genuine respect. Mrs. Hay was truth telling, sympathetic, a peacemaker, +a resolute opponent of gossip and scandal of every kind, a woman who +minded her own business and was only mildly insistent that others should +do likewise. She declined all overtures leading to confidences as to her +past, and demanded recognition only upon the standard of the present, +which was unimpeachable. + +All the same it came something like a shock to society at Frayne that, +when she appeared at the post this beautiful autumn of 188-, nearly +three months later than the usual time, she should be accompanied by +this brilliant and beautiful girl of whom no one of their number had +previously heard, and whom she smilingly, confidently presented as, "My +niece, Miss Flower." + +[Illustration: "THE MAJOR SOUGHT TO BLOCK THAT MORNING'S RIDE IN VAIN."] + +There was a dance the night the Dades got home from Laramie. Nearly all +day long had they driven in the open buckboard over the rough, winding +road along the Platte, and Mrs. Dade was far too tired to think of +going, but Esther was so eager that her father put aside his precious +paper, tucked her under his arm and trudged cheerily away across the +parade toward the bright lights of the hop room. They had a fairly good +string orchestra at Frayne that year, and one of Strauss's most witching +waltzes--"Sounds from the Vienna Woods"--had just been begun as father +and daughter entered. A dozen people, men and women both, saw them and +noted what followed. With bright, almost dilated, eyes, and a sweet, +warm color mantling her smiling face, Esther stood gazing about the +room, nodding blithely as she caught the glance of many a friend, yet +obviously searching for still another. Then of a sudden they saw the +bonny face light up with joy uncontrollable, for Mr. Field came bounding +in at the side door, opening from the veranda of the adjutant's office. +He saw her; smiled joyous greeting as he came swiftly toward her; +then stopped short as a girl in black grenadine dropped the arm of her +cavalier, the officer with whom she was promenading, and without a +moment's hesitation, placed her left hand, fan-bearing, close to the +shoulder knot on his stalwart right arm, her black-gloved right in his +white-kidded left, and instantly they went gliding away together, he +nodding half in whimsical apology, half in merriment, over the black +spangled shoulder, and the roseate light died slowly from the sweet, +smiling face--the smile itself seemed slowly freezing--as the still +dilated eyes followed the graceful movements of the couple, slowly, +harmoniously winding and reversing about the waxen floor. Even at the +Point she had never seen more beautiful dancing. Even when her stanchest +friend, Mrs. Blake, pounced upon her with fond, anxious, welcoming +words, and Mrs. Ray, seeing it all, broke from her partner's encircling +arm, and sped to add her greeting, the child could hardly regain +self-control, and one loving-hearted woman cried herself to sleep that +night for the woe that had come into the soft and tender eyes which had +first beamed with joy at sight of Beverly Field, then filled with sudden +dread immeasurable. + +But the major sought to block that morning ride in vain. The impetuous +will of the younger soldier prevailed, as he might have known it would, +and from the rear gallery of his quarters, with his strong fieldglass, +Major Webb watched the pair fording the Platte far up beyond Pyramid +Butte. "Going over to that damned Sioux village again," he swore +between his set teeth. "That makes the third time she's headed him there +this week," and with strange annoyance at heart he turned away to seek +comfort in council with his stanch henchman, Captain Ray, when the +orderly came bounding up the steps with a telegraphic despatch which the +major opened, read, turned a shade grayer and whistled low. + +"My compliments to Captains Blake and Ray," said he, to the silent young +soldier, standing attention at the doorstep, "and say I should be glad +to see them here at once." + +That night the sentries had just called off half past one when there was +some commotion at the guard-house. A courier had ridden in post haste +from the outlying station of Fort Beecher, far up under the lee of the +Big Horn range. The corporal of the guard took charge of his reeking +horse, while the sergeant led the messenger to the commander's quarters. +The major was already awake and half dressed. "Call the adjutant," was +all he said, on reading the despatch, and the sergeant sped away. In +less than five minutes he was back. + +"I could get no answer to my knock or ring, sir, so I searched the +house. The adjutant isn't there!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ABSENT FROM DUTY + + +For a moment the major stood in silence; then, briefly saying, "Call +Captain Ray," turned again to the dimly lighted hallway of his +commodious quarters, (the women thought it such a shame there should be +no "lady of the house" for the largest and finest of the long line known +as "Officers' Row") while the sergeant of the guard scurried away to the +soldier home of the senior cavalry captain on duty at the post. When the +major again came forth his field glasses were in his hand and he had +hurried down the steps and out into the broad sheen of the moonlight +when he caught sight of the courier seated on the horseblock at the +gate, wearily leaning his head upon his gauntleted hand. Webb stopped +short: + +"Come right in here, my lad," he cried, "I want to speak with you," and, +followed slowly by the soldier, he entered his parlor, and whirled an +easy chair in front of the open fireplace. "Sit right down there now, +and I'll be with you in a minute," he added; bustled into the rear room +and presently reappeared with a decanter and glass; poured out a stiff +tot of Monongahela; "A little water?" he asked, as the trooper's eye +brightened gratefully. A little water was added and off came the right +hand gauntlet. "I drink the major's health and long life to him," said +the soldier, gulping down the fluid without so much as a wink. Then, +true to his training, set down the glass and stood strictly at +attention. + +"You've had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, I'll be bound," said +Webb. "Now, I've got to see some of my officers at once. You make +yourself at home here. You'll find cold beef, bread, cheese, pickles, +milk, if you care for it, and pie right there in the pantry. Take the +lamp in with you and help yourself. If you want another nip, there's the +decanter. You've made splendid time. Did you meet no Indians?" + +"Not one, sir, but I saw smokes at sunset out toward Eagle Butte." + +"Your name--I see you belong to Captain Truscott's troop." + +"Kennedy, sir; and I thank the major." + +"Then I'll leave you in charge until you've had your fill," said the +commander. "Then go over to 'F' Troop's quarters and get a bed. Tell +anybody who comes I've gone to the flagstaff." With that the major +stalked from the room, followed by the Irishman's adoring eyes. A moment +later he stood by the tall white staff at the edge of the northward +bluff, at whose feet the river swept by in musical murmurings. There he +quickly focussed his glass, and gazed away westward up the Platte to +where but the evening before a score of Indian lodges dotted the other +bank, perhaps two miles away. The September moon was at its full and, in +that rare, cloudless atmosphere, flooding the valley with its soft, +silvery light so that close at hand, within the limits of the garrison, +every object could be almost as distinctly seen as in broad day-light, +but, farther away, over the lowlands and the river bottom and the +rolling prairie stretching to the northern horizon, the cottonwoods +along the stream or in the distant swales made only black blotches +against the vague, colorless surface, and the bold bluffs beyond the +reservation limits south of the flashing waters, the sharp, sawlike edge +of the distant mountain range that barred the way to the west, even the +cleancut outlines of Eagle Butte, the landmark of the northward prairie, +visible for fifty miles by day, were now all veiled in some intangible +filament that screened them from the soldier's searching gaze. Later in +the season, on such a night, their crests would gleam with radiance +almost intolerable, the glistening sheen of their spotless crown of +snow. All over this broad expanse of upland prairie and wooded river bed +and boldly undulating bluff line not so much as a spark of fire peeped +through the wing of night to tell the presence of human wayfarer, white, +halfbreed or Indian, even where the Sioux had swarmed, perhaps two +hundred strong, at sunset of the day gone by. + +Close at hand, northernmost of the brown line, was the double set of +quarters occupied by Captains Blake and Ray, the latter, as senior, +having chosen the half nearest the bluff because of the encircling +veranda and the fine, far-extending view. A bright light gleamed now +behind the blinds of the corner room of the second floor, telling that +the captain was up and dressing in answer to the commander's summons, +but all the rest of the dozen houses were black, save where at the +middle of the row a faint glow came from the open doorway at the +commanding officer's. Across the broad level of the parade were the +long, low barracks of the troops, six in number, gable-ending east and +west. Closing the quadrangle on the south were the headquarters +buildings and the assembly room, the offices of the adjutant and +quartermaster, the commissary and quartermaster's storehouses, etc. At +the southwest angle stood the guard-house, where oil lamps, backed by +their reflectors of polished tin, sent brilliant beams of light athwart +the roadway. Beyond these low buildings the black bulk of the Medicine +Bow Mountains, only a dozen miles away, tumbled confusedly against the +sparkling sky. All spoke of peace, security, repose, for even in the +flats under the westward bluff, where lay the wide extended corrals, hay +and wood yards and the stables, not one of the myriad dogs that hung +about the post was lifting up his voice to bay the autumn moon. Even +those easily-started night trumpeters, the big Missouri mules, sprawled +about their roomy, sand-floored stables and drowsed in placid comfort, +wearied with their musical efforts of the earlier hours of the night and +gathering impetus for the sonorous braying with which they should +presently salute the dawn. + +Beyond the guard-house, at the edge of the plateau overlooking the +westward flats, but invisible from the flagstaff bluff, stood the big +wooden edifice known as the store, with its card and billiard room for +the officers on the southern side, another for the enlisted men upon the +northern, the bar and general merchandise establishment compressed +between them. Southward, farther still, surrounded by crude greenhouses +abounding in potted plants and beds of vine and vegetables, was the big +and somewhat pretentious house of the post trader himself, his own +stables and corral being half way down the slope and well away from +those of the garrison. "Out of sight," muttered Webb, "but by no means +out of mind," for it was safe to say the thoughts of more than half the +men and women making up the social element of Fort Frayne had been +centering within the last few days beneath the roof that gave shelter to +that brilliant, fascinating beauty Nanette Flower. + +Ten days a denizen of the fort, it seemed as though she had been there +as many weeks, so completely had she accepted the situation and +possessed herself of the ins and outs of garrison life. The women had +called, of course, and gone away filled with unwilling admiration, for +the girl's gowns and graces were undeniable. The married men, as was the +army way, had called with their wives on the occasion of the first +visit. The bachelors, from Webb down to the junior subaltern, had called +in little squads at first; afterwards, except the major, they sought to +see Miss Flower when other fellows were not present. Even Hartley and +Donovan, the two whose devotions to Esther Dade had been carried to the +verge of oppression, and who were on terms of distant civility only when +compelled to appear together in the presence of women or their other +superiors, had been moved to more than one visit at the Hays', but +Hartley speedily returned to his undesired siege at the quarters of +Captain Dade, while Donovan joined forces with two other youngsters, +Bruce and Putney, because it gave them comfort to bother Field; who, +being the adjutant, and a very busy man, could visit only at certain +hours of the day or evening. Now, it had become apparent to the boys +that despite her general attitude of cordiality their attentions were +not what Mrs. Hay so much desired as those of the major commanding. +Twice had he been invited to dine within the week of Nanette's coming. +Once he accepted. The second time he begged off on plea of a previous +engagement, subsequently made, to go shooting with Blake. It was the +bachelor heart and home of Major Webb to which Mrs. Hay would have laid +vicarious siege, small blame to her, for that indomitable +cross-examiner, Mrs. Wilkins, wife and manager of the veteran ranker now +serving as post quartermaster, had wormed out of Mrs. Hay the admission +that Nanette had no fortune. She was the only daughter of a half +brother, very dear to Mrs. Hay, whom she had lost, she said, long years +before. To do her justice, it was quite apparent that Miss Flower was no +party to the plan, for, though she beamed on Webb as she did on all, she +frankly showed her preference for the younger officers who could dance +as well as ride, and either dancing or riding was her glory. She danced +like a sylph; she seemed to float about the room as though on air; she +rode superbly, and shirked no leap that even Ray and Field took with +lowered hands and close gripping knees. She was joyous, laughing, +radiant with all the officers, and fairly glowed with cordiality for all +the women. But it speedily developed that she would rather dance with +Field than any of the others, probably because he was by far the best +waltzer, and to ride with him, because, Ray excepted, there was none to +excel him in the saddle. Ten days had she been at Frayne and within that +time had become as thoroughly at ease and home as though it had been her +abiding place since babyhood. It was plain to see that big Bill Hay +almost worshipped this lovely _protegée_ of the wife he more than +worshipped. It was plain to see that Webb uneasily held aloof, as though +fearful of singeing his shrivelling wings. It was plain to see that the +hitherto indomitable Mrs. Wilkins was puzzled. It was not so plain to +see that there were two women at the post on whom Miss Flower's charms +made slight impression--Mesdames Blake and Ray--two wise young matrons +who were known to have few secrets from each other and no intimacies--or +rather no confidences--with any other woman at Fort Frayne--Mrs. Dade +possibly excepted. + +But what they thought, their liege lords stood ready to swear to; and it +was to them Webb turned in his perplexity when it became apparent that +his young adjutant was ensnared. It was to Ray he promptly opened his +heart, as that veteran of a dozen Indian campaigns, then drawing his +fourth "fogy," came hastening out to join the commander. + +"Here's confirmation of the telegram. Read that, Ray," said Webb, +handing him the despatch from Fort Beecher. "Then come with me to +Field's. He's missing." + +"Missing!" cried Ray, in consternation, as he hurriedly opened the page. +"In God's name what do you mean?" + +"I mean he isn't in quarters and hasn't been in bed to-night. Now I need +him--and it's two o'clock." + +Even as he spoke the voice of the sentry at the guard-house rang out the +watch call through the still and sparkling night. It was taken up by +Number Two back of the storehouses, and his "All's well" was still +echoing among the foothills, prolonged and powerful, when Number Three, +down at the quartermaster's corral, began his soldier song; and so, +alert, cheery, reassuring, the sentries sent their deep-voiced assurance +on its unbroken round to the waking guardian at the southwest angle, and +as his final "A-a-a-ll's W-e-ell" went rolling away over bluff and +stream and prairie, Ray lifted a grave and anxious face from the fateful +paper. + +"Lame Wolf out? That's bad in itself! He's old Red Cloud's nephew and a +brute at best. Stabber's people there yet?" he suddenly asked, whirling +on his heel and gazing westward. + +"Can't make out even with my glasses. All dark as pitch among the +cottonwoods, but Kennedy, who made the ride, says he saw smokes back of +Eagle Butte just before sunset." + +"Then you can bet they won't be there at dawn--the warriors at least. Of +course the women, the kids and old men will stay if only for a blind. He +had forty fighting men, and Wolf's got at least two hundred. What +started the row?" + +"The arrest of those two young bucks on charge of killing Finn, the +sheep herder, on the Piney last week. I don't believe the Sioux began +it. There's a bad lot among those damned rustlers," said Webb, snapping +the glass into its well-worn case. "But no matter who starts, we have to +finish it. Old Plodder is worried and wants help. Reckon I'll have to +send you, Ray." + +"Ready whenever you say, sir," was the prompt and soldierly reply. Even +marriage had not taken the edge from Ray's keen zest for campaigning. +"Shall I have out my sergeant and cooks at once? We'll need to take +rations." + +"Yes, but wait with me till I wire the chief at Laramie. Come to the +office." So saying the post commander turned and strode away. The +captain glanced at the upper window where the light now dimly burned, +but blind and window were open, and a woman's form appeared. + +"It's all right, Maidie," called the captain, softly. "May have to start +out on scout at daybreak. That's all. Home soon," and with a reassuring +wave of the hand, turned again to his stanch friend and commander. + +"I hate to send you--again," said Webb. "You were out in June, and the +others have had only short scouts since--" + +"Don't bother. What's a cavalryman for? Shall we?--I--can't believe +it--some how," and Ray stopped, glanced inquiringly at the major, and +then nodded toward the doorway of the third house on the row. The ground +floor was occupied by Field as his quarters, the up-stair rooms by +Putney and Ross. + +"Come in," said the major, briefly, and, pushing through the gate they +softly entered the dark hallway and struck a light in the front room. A +wood fire was smouldering on the andirons in the wide brick chimney +place. An open book, face downward, was on the centre table. Two +embroidered slippers lay as though hurriedly kicked off, one under the +sofa beyond the mantelpiece, the other half way across the worn carpet. +Striking another match at the doorway, Ray passed on to the little inner +room,--the bed chamber. On the bed, carelessly thrown, were the young +officer's best and newest forage cap, undress uniform coat and trousers. +He had used them during the evening when calling at the Hays'. On the +floor were the enamelled leather buttoned boots he wore on such +occasions. The bed was otherwise untouched. Other boots and shoes in +orderly row stood against the wall beside the plain, unpainted wardrobe. +The spurred riding boots and the knee-tight breeches were gone. Turning +back to the front room, Ray found the major, his face gray and +disturbed, holding forth to him an open envelope. Ray took it and +glanced at the superscription. "Lieutenant Beverly Field, Fort Frayne," +and returned it without a word. Both knew the strange, angular, slashing +hand-writing at a glance, for both had seen and remarked it before. It +was Nanette Flower's. + +Dropping the envelope on the table--he had found it on the floor--Webb +led the way to the open air. There was then no time to compare views. +There stood the sergeant. + +"Sir," said he, with a snap of the gloved left hand at the brown tube +nestling in the hollow of the shoulder, "Number Five reports that he has +heard galloping hoofbeats up the bench twice in the last half hour, and +thought he saw distant horsemen,--three;--couldn't say whether they were +Indians or cowboys." + +"Very good, sergeant," was the major's brief answer. "Send for the +telegraph operator and my orderly." + +The sergeant turned. + +"One moment," called Ray,--"your pardon, Major--My first sergeant, too, +and--sergeant, have any sentries reported horses taken out from the +stables to-night?" + +"Not one, sir," and, stanch and sturdy, the commander of the guard stood +ready to vouch for his men. + +"That's all!" + +A quick salute, a face to the right about and the sergeant was gone. +Webb turned and looked inquiringly at Ray. + +"I asked, sir," was that officer's brief explanation, "because wherever +Field has gone he wore riding dress." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A NIGHT ENCOUNTER + + +Comforted by abundant food, refreshed and stimulated by more than two or +three enthusiastic toasts to the health of the major the men so loved, +Trooper Kennedy, like a born dragoon and son of the ould sod, bethought +him of the gallant bay that had borne him bravely and with hardly a halt +all the long way from Beecher to Frayne. The field telegraph had indeed +been stretched, but it afforded more fun for the Sioux than aid to the +outlying posts on the Powder and Little Horn, for it was down ten days +out of twelve. Plodder, lieutenant colonel of infantry commanding at +Beecher, had been badly worried by the ugly demonstrations of the +Indians for ten days past. He was forever seeing in mind's eye the +hideous details of the massacre at Fort Phil Kearny, a few miles further +on around the shoulder of the mountains, planned and carried out by Red +Cloud with such dreadful success in '67. Plodder had strong men at his +back, whom even hordes of painted Sioux could never stampede, but they +were few in number, and there were those ever present helpless, +dependent women and children. His call for aid was natural enough, and +his choice of Kennedy, daring, dashing lad who had learned to ride in +Galway, was the best that could be made. No peril could daunt the +light-hearted fellow, already proud wearer of the medal of honor; but, +duty done, it was Kennedy's creed that the soldier merited reward and +relaxation. If he went to bed at "F" Troop's barracks there would be no +more cakes and ale, no more of the major's good grub and rye. If he went +down to look after the gallant steed he loved--saw to it that Kilmaine +was rubbed down, bedded, given abundant hay and later water--sure then, +with clear conscience, he could accept the major's "bid," and call again +on his bedward way and toast the major to his Irish heart's and +stomach's content. Full of pluck and fight and enthusiasm, and only +quarter full, he would insist, of rye, was Kennedy as he strode +whistling down the well-remembered road to the flats, for he, with +Captain Truscott's famous troop, had served some months at Frayne before +launching forth to Indian story land in the shadows of the Big Horn +range. Kennedy, in fact, essayed to sing when once out of earshot of the +guard-house, and singing, he strolled on past the fork of the winding +road where he should have turned to his right, and in the fulness of his +heart went striding southward down the slope, past the once familiar +haunt the store, now dark and deserted, past the big house of the post +trader, past the trader's roomy stables and corral, and so wended his +moonlit way along the Rawlins trail, never noting until he had chanted +over half a mile and most of the songs he knew, that Frayne was well +behind him and the rise to the Medicine Bow in front. Then Kennedy +began to laugh and call himself names, and then, as he turned about to +retrace his steps by a short cut over the bottom, he was presently +surprised, but in no wise disconcerted, to find himself face to face +with a painted Sioux. There by the path side, cropping the dewy grass, +was the trained pony. Here, lounging by the trail, the thick black +braids of his hair interlaced with beads, the quill gorget heaving at +his massive throat; the heavy blanket slung negligently, gracefully +about his stalwart form; his nether limbs and feet in embroidered +buckskin, his long-lashed quirt in hand; here stood, almost confronting +him, as fine a specimen of the warrior of the Plains as it had ever been +Trooper Kennedy's lot to see, and see them he had--many a time and oft. + +In that incomparable tale, "My Lord the Elephant," the great Mulvaney +comes opportunely upon a bottle of whiskey and a goblet of water. "The +first and second dhrink I didn't taste," said he, "bein' dhry, but the +fourth and fifth took hould, an' I began to think scornful of +elephants." At no time stood Kennedy in awe of a Sioux. At this time he +held him only in contempt. + +"How, John," said he, with an Irishman's easy insolence, "Lookin' for a +chance to steal somethin'--is it?" And then Kennedy was both amazed and +enraptured at the prompt reply in the fervent English of the far +frontier. + +"Go to hell, you pock-marked son-of-a-scut! Where'd _you_ steal your +whiskey?" + +For five seconds Kennedy thought he was dreaming. Then, convinced that +he was awake, an Irishman scorned and insulted, he dashed in to the +attack. Both fists shot out from the brawny shoulders; both missed the +agile dodger; then off went the blanket, and with two lean, red, sinewy +arms the Sioux had "locked his foeman round," and the two were straining +and swaying in a magnificent grapple. At arms' length Pat could easily +have had the best of it, for the Indian never boxes; but, in a bear hug +and a wrestle, all chances favored the Sioux. Cursing and straining, +honors even on both for a while, Connaught and wild Wyoming strove for +the mastery. Whiskey is a wonderful starter but a mighty poor stayer of +a fight. Kennedy loosed his grip from time to time to batter wildly with +his clinched fists at such sections of Sioux anatomy as he could reach; +but, at range so close, his blows lacked both swing and steam, and fell +harmless on sinewy back and lean, muscular flanks. Then he tried a +Galway hitch and trip, but his lithe antagonist knew a trick worth ten +of that. Kennedy tried many a time next day to satisfactorily account +for it, but never with success. He found himself speedily on the broad +of his back, gasping for breath with which to keep up his vocal +defiance, staring up into the glaring, vengeful black eyes of his +furious and triumphant foeman. And then in one sudden, awful moment he +realized that the Indian was reaching for his knife. Another instant it +gleamed aloft in the moonlight, and the poor lad shut his eyes against +the swift and deadly blow. Curses changed to one wordless prayer to +heaven for pity and help. He never saw the glittering blade go spinning +through the air. Vaguely, faintly he heard a stern young voice ordering +"Hold there!" then another, a silvery voice, crying something in a +strange tongue, and was conscious that an unseen power had loosed the +fearful grip on his throat; next, that, obedient to that same +power,--one he dare not question,--the Indian was struggling slowly to +his feet, and then for a few seconds Kennedy soared away into cloudland, +knowing naught of what was going on about him. When he came to again, he +heard a confused murmur of talk about him, and grew dimly aware that his +late antagonist was standing over him, panting still and slightly +swaying, and that an officer, a young athlete, was saying rebukeful +words. Well he knew him, as what trooper of the ----th did +not?--Lieutenant Beverly Field; but, seeing the reopened eyes it was the +Indian again who sought to speak. With uplifted hand he turned from the +rescuer to the rescued. + +"You're saved this time, you cur of a Mick," were, expurgated of +unprintable blasphemy, the exact words of the semi-savage lord of the +frontier, "but by the God that made us both I'll get you before another +moon, dash dash you, and when I do I'll cut out your blackguard heart +and eat it." Then bounding on his pony, away he sped at mad gallop, +westward. + +For a moment no further word was spoken. The officer presently helped +the soldier to his feet and stayed him, for the latter's legs seemed +wobbly. Field let his salvage get its breath before asking questions. +Yet he was puzzled, for the man's face was strange to him. "Who are +you?" he asked, at length, "and what on earth are you doing out here +this time of night?" + +"Kennedy, sir. Captain Truscott's troop, at Fort Beecher. I got in with +despatches an hour ago--" + +"What!" cried Field. "Despatches! What did you do--" + +"Gave 'em to the major, sir. Beg pardon; they was lookin' for the +adjutant, sir, an' Sergeant Hogan said he wasn't home." + +Even in the moonlight the Irishman saw the color fade from the young +officer's face. The hand that stayed him dropped nerveless. With utter +consternation in his big blue eyes, Field stood for a moment, stunned +and silent. Then the need of instant action spurred him. "I must go--at +once," he said. "You are all right now--You can get back? You've been +drinking, haven't you?" + +"The major's health, sir--just a sup or two." + +"I've no time now to listen to how you came to be out here. I'll see you +by and by." But still the young officer hesitated. One hand grasped the +rein of his horse. He half turned to mount, then turned again. +"Kennedy," he faltered, "you'd have been a dead man if we--if I--hadn't +reached you at that moment." + +"I know it, sir," burst in Pat, impetuously. "I'll never forget it--" + +"Hush, Kennedy, you _must_ forget--forget that you saw--spoke with +me--forget that you saw or heard--any other soul on earth out here +to-night. Can you promise?" + +"I'll cut my tongue out before I ever spake the word that'll harm the +lieutenant, or the--the--or any one he says, sir. But never will I +forget! It ain't in me, sir." + +"Let it go at that then. Here, shake hands, Kennedy. Now, good-night!" +Another instant and Field was in saddle and speeding away toward the +post where lights were now dancing about the quartermaster's corral, and +firefly lamps were flitting down the slope toward the stables on the +flats. Ray's men were already up and doing. Slowly, stiffly following, +Pat Kennedy rubbed his aching head, with a hand that shook as never did +his resolution. His bewildered brain was puzzling over a weighty +problem. "The lieutenant's safe all right," he muttered, "but what's +gone wid the squaw that was shoutin' Sioux at that murdherin' buck?" + +Meantime all Fort Frayne had seemed to wake to life. No call had sounded +on the trumpet. No voice had been raised, save the invariable call of +the sentries, passing from post to post the half hours of the night; but +the stir at the guard-house, the bustle over at the barracks, the swift +footsteps of sergeants or orderlies on the plank walk or resounding +wooden galleries, speedily roused first one sleeper, then another, and +blinds began to fly open along the second floor fronts, and white-robed +forms to appear at the windows, and inquiring voices, male and female, +hailed the passerby with "What's the matter, sergeant?" and the answer +was all sufficient to rouse the entire garrison. + +"Captain Ray's troop ordered out, sir," or "ma'am," as the case might +be. No need to add the well-worn cause of such night excursions--"Indians." + +The office was brightly lighted, and there, sleepy-eyed and silent, were +gathered many of the officers about their alert commander. Ray was down +at his stables, passing judgment on the mounts. Only fifty were to go, +the best half hundred in the sorrel troop, for it was to be a forced +march. Neither horse nor man could be taken unless in prime condition, +for a break down on part of either on the way meant delay to the entire +command, or death by torture to the hapless trooper left behind. Small +hope was there of a march made unobserved, for Stabber's band of +Ogalallas had been for weeks encamped within plain view. Less hope was +there of Stabber's holding aloof now that his brethren at the Big Horn +had declared for war. He was a recalcitrant of the first magnitude, a +sub-chief who had never missed the warpath when the Sioux were afield, +or the consolation trip to Washington between times. Where Stabber went +his young men followed unquestioning. It was a marvel that Kennedy had +succeeded in getting through. It meant that the Indian runners, or the +Indian smokes and signals, had not at once so covered the country with +scouts that couriers could by no possibility slip between them. But now +the signal fire was gleaming at Eagle Butte, and an answering blaze had +flared from Stabber's camp. Invisible from Fort Frayne, they had both +been seen by shrewd non-commissioned officers, sent scouting up the +Platte by Major Webb within half an hour of the coming of the alarm. + +"Ray will push ahead at once," said Webb, to his silent subordinates. +"You see Colonel Plodder has only two troops up there, and he will need +all his infantry to defend the post. I've wired to Laramie and to +Department Headquarters, and further orders will come before noon. Let +all the cavalry be ready. Then if we push out, Dade, we leave Fort +Frayne to you. They'll hardly venture south of the Platte this time." + +"Is--Mr. Field going with Captain Ray?" presently ventured young Ross, +who knew Ray had but one subaltern for duty at the moment, and whose +soul was burning with eagerness to accompany the first troop to take the +field. + +"No," said the major, shortly. "Captain Ray needs no more." + +"I only asked because Field isn't here, and I thought--maybe--" stumbled +Ross, ingloriously, but the mischief was done. + +"Mr. Field is--busy," answered the major, still more shortly, then +reddened to his bushy brows, for at the doorway, in riding dress, and +with a face the color of parchment, stood the officer in question. It +was a moment that threatened panic, but Webb met the crisis with marked +aplomb. + +"Oh, Field," he cried, "there's another matter. I want two good men to +slip out at once and see how many of Stabber's people start or have +started. It may be daybreak before they can tell. Sergeant Schreiber +would be a tiptop man for one--and little Duffy. You 'tend to it." + +And so, mercifully, he sent the lad away until the crowd should have +dispersed. Only Blake and Ray were with him when, after awhile, Mr. +Field returned and stood silently before them. Well he knew that the +post commander could hardly overlook the absence of his adjutant at such +a time. + +"Have you anything to tell me, Field?" was the major's only query, his +tone full of gentle yet grave reproach. + +"I was restless. I could not sleep, sir. I went out--purposely." + +"You know no horse can be taken from the stables at night except in +presence of the sergeant or corporal of the guard." + +"I took none, sir," was the answer, and now both faces were white. "I +rode one of--Mr. Hay's." + +For one moment there was no sound but the loud ticking of the big office +clock. Then came the question. + +"Who rode the others, Field? The sentries say they heard three." + +There was another moment of silence. Ray stepped on tiptoe to the door +as though he wanted not to hear. Blake looked blankly out of the window. +Then the young soldier spoke. + +"I--cannot tell you, sir." + +For full ten seconds the post commander sat with grave, pallid face, +looking straight into the eyes of his young staff officer. White as his +senior, but with eyes as unflinching, Field returned the gaze. At last +the major's voice was heard again, sad and constrained. + +"Field, Captain Ray starts on a forced march at once for Fort Beecher. +I--wish you to go with him." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SIGN OF THE BAR SHOE + + +Many a time has it happened in the old days of the old army that the +post adjutant has begged to be allowed to go with some detachment sent +after Indians. Rarely has it happened, however, that, without any +request from the detachment commander or of his own, has the post +adjutant been ordered to go. No one could say of Beverly Field that he +had not abundantly availed himself of every opportunity for active +service in the past. During his first two years with the regiment he had +spent more than half the time in saddle and afield, scouting the trails +of war parties or marauding bands, or watching over a peaceable tribe +when on the annual hunt. Twice he had been out with Ray, which meant a +liberal education in plainscraft and frontier duty. Twice twenty times, +probably, had he said he would welcome a chance to go again with Captain +Ray, and now the chance had come, so had the spoken order, and, so far +from receiving it with rejoicing, it was more than apparent that he +heard it with something like dismay. + +But Webb was not the man to either explain or defend an order, even to a +junior for whom he cherished such regard. Field felt instinctively that +it was not because of a wish expressed in the past he was so suddenly +bidden to take the field. Ray's senior subaltern, as has been said, was +absent, being on duty at West Point, but his junior was on hand, and Ray +really did not need, and probably had not applied for, the services of +Mr. Field. It was all the major's doing, and all, reasoned he, because +the major deemed it best that for the time being his young adjutant +should be sent away from the post. Impulse prompted Field to ask wherein +he had offended or failed. Reflection taught him, however, that he would +be wise to ask no questions. It might well be that Webb knew more of +what had happened during the night than he, Beverly Field, would care to +have mentioned. + +"You can be ready, can you not?" asked the major. + +"I am ready now, sir," was the brief, firm reply, but the tone told +unerringly that the lad resented and in heart rebelled at the detail. +"To whom shall I turn over the post fund, sir?" + +"I do not care to have you transfer funds or--anything, Field. This is +but a temporary affair, one that will take you away perhaps a +fortnight." + +"I prefer that it should be permanent, sir," was the young officer's +sudden interruption, and, though his eyes were blazing, he spoke with +effort, his face still white with mingled sense of indignity and +indignation. + +"Gently, Mr. Field," said Webb, with unruffled calm, even while +uplifting a hand in quiet warning. "We will consider that, if need be, +on your return. Meantime, if you desire, I will receipt to you for the +post fund or any other public money." + +"That is the trouble, sir. The best I can do is give you an order for +it. Post treasurers, as a rule, have not had to turn over their funds at +four o'clock in the morning," which statement was true enough, however +injudicious it might be to bruit it. Mild-mannered commanding officers +sometimes amaze their subordinates by most unlooked for and unwelcome +eruptiveness of speech when they feel that an unwarrantable liberty has +been taken. Webb did not take fire. He turned icy. + +"The quartermaster's safe can be opened at any moment, Mr. Field," said +he, the blue gray eyes glittering, dangerously. "I presume your funds +are there." + +"It was because the quartermaster would _not_ open it at any moment that +I took them out and placed them elsewhere," hotly answered Field, and +not until then did Webb remember that there had been quite a fiery talk, +followed by hyperborean estrangement, between his two staff officers, +and now, as the only government safe at the post was in the office of +the quartermaster, and the only other one was Bill Hay's big "Phoenix" +at the store, it dawned upon the major that it was there Mr. Field had +stowed his packages of currency--a violation of orders pure and +simple--and that was why he could not produce the money on the spot. +Webb reflected. If he let Ray start at dawn and held Field back until +the trader was astir, it might be eight o'clock before the youngster +could set forth. By that time Ray would be perhaps a dozen miles to the +northward, and with keen-eyed Indian scouts noting the march of the +troop and keeping vigilant watch for possible stragglers, it might be +sending the lad to certain death, for Plodder had said in so many words +the Sioux about him had declared for war, had butchered three ranchmen +on the Dry Fork, had fired on and driven in his herd guards and wood +choppers, and, what started with Lane Wolf's big band, would spread to +Stabber's little one in less than no time, and what spread to Stabber's +would soon reach a host of the Sioux. Moreover, there was another +reason. It would give Field opportunity for further conference +with--inmates of the trader's household, and the major had his own grave +reasons for seeking to prevent that. + +"Your written order will be sufficient, Mr. Field," said he. "Send me +memorandum of the amounts and I will receipt at once, so that you can go +without further thought of them. And now," with a glance at the clock, +"you have hardly half an hour in which to get ready." + +Raising his hand in mechanical salute, Field faced about; cast one look +at Blake, standing uncomfortably at the window, and then strode angering +away to his quarters, smarting under a sense of unmerited rebuke yet +realizing that, as matters looked, no one was more to blame than +himself. + +Just as the first faint flush of coming day was mantling the pallid +eastern sky, and while the stars still sparkled aloft and the big, +bright moon was sinking to the snow-tipped peaks far away to the +occident, in shadowy column a troop of fifty horse filed slowly from The +Sorrels' big corral and headed straight for the Platte. Swift and +unfordable in front of Frayne in the earlier summer, the river now went +murmuring sleepily over its stony bed, and Ray led boldly down the bank +and plunged girth deep into the foaming waters. Five minutes more and +every man had lined up safely on the northward bank. In low tone the +order was given, starting as Ray ever did, in solid column of fours. In +dead silence the little command moved slowly away, followed by the eyes +of half the garrison on the bluff. Many of these were women and +children, who gazed through a mist of tears. Ray turned in saddle as the +last of his men went by; looked long at the dim light in the upper +window of his home, where, clasping her children to her heart, his +devoted wife knelt watching them, her fond lips moving in ceaseless +prayer. Dimly she could see the tried leader, her soldier husband, +sitting in saddle at the bank. Bravely she answered the flutter of his +handkerchief in farewell. Then all was swallowed up in the shadows of +the distant prairie, and from the nursery adjoining her room there rose +a querulous wail that told that her baby daughter was waking, +indifferent to the need that sent the soldier father to the aid of +distant comrades, threatened by a merciless foe, and conscious only of +her infantile demands and expectations. Not yet ten years wed, that +brave, devoted wife and mother had known but two summers that had not +torn her husband from her side on just such quest and duty, for these +were the days of the building up of the West, resisted to the bitter +end by the red wards of the nation. + +The sun was just peering over the rough, jagged outline of the eastward +buttes, when a quick yet muffled step was heard on the major's veranda +and a picturesque figure stood waiting at the door. Scout, of course, a +stranger would have said at a glance, for from head to foot the man was +clad in beaded buckskin, without sign of soldier garb of any kind. +Soldier, too, would have been the expert testimony the instant the door +opened and the commanding officer appeared. Erect as a Norway pine the +strange figure stood to attention, heels and knees together, shoulders +squared, head and eyes straight to the front, the left hand, fingers +extended, after the precise teachings of the ante-bellum days, the right +hand raised and held at the salute. Strange figure indeed, yet soldierly +to the last degree, despite the oddity of the entire make-up. The +fur-trimmed cap of embroidered buckskin sat jauntily on black and glossy +curls that hung about the brawny neck and shoulders. The buckskin coat, +heavily fringed as to the short cape and the shorter skirt, was thickly +covered with Indian embroidery of bead and porcupine quill; so, too, +were the fringed trousers and leggings; so, too, the moccasins, soled +with thick, yet pliant hide. Keen black eyes shone from beneath heavy +black brows, just sprinkled, as were the thick moustache and imperial, +with gray. The lean jowls were closely shaved. The nose was straight and +fine, the chin square and resolute. The face and hands were tanned by +sun and wind well nigh as dark as many a Sioux, but in that strange +garb there stood revealed one of the famous sergeants of a famous +regiment, the veteran of a quarter century of service with the standard, +wounded time and again, bearing the scars of Stuart's sabre and of +Southern lead, of Indian arrow and bullet both; proud possessor of the +medal of honor that many a senior sought in vain; proud as the Lucifer +from whom he took his Christian name, brave, cool, resolute and ever +reliable--Schreiber, First Sergeant of old "K" Troop for many a year, +faced his post commander with brief and characteristic report:-- + +"Sir, Chief Stabber, with over thirty warriors, left camp about three +o'clock, heading for Eagle Butte." + +"Well done, sergeant! I knew I could count on you," answered Webb, in +hearty commendation. "Now, one thing more. Go to 'F' Troop's quarters +and see how Kennedy is faring. He came in with despatches from Fort +Beecher, and later drank more, I fancy, than was good for him, for which +I assume all responsibility. Keep him out of mischief this morning." + +"I will, sir," said the sergeant, and saluting turned away while Webb +went back to set a dismantled pantry in partial order, against the +appearance of his long-suffering house-keeper, whose comments he dreaded +as he did those of no inspector general in the army. For fifteen years, +and whithersoever Webb was ordered, his bachelor _ménage_ had been +presided over by Mistress Margaret McGann, wife of a former trooper, who +had served as Webb's "striker" for so many a year in the earlier days +that, when discharged for disability, due to wounds, rheumatism and +advancing years, and pensioned, as only Uncle Sam rewards his veterans, +McGann had begged the major to retain him and his buxom better half at +their respective duties, and Webb had meekly, weakly yielded, to the end +that in the fulness of time Dame Margaret had achieved an ascendancy +over the distinguished cavalry officer little short of that she had +exercised over honest Michael since the very day she consented to become +Mistress McGann. A sound sleeper was she, however, and not until morning +police call was she wont to leave her bed. Then, her brief toilet +completed, she would descend to the kitchen and set the major's coffee +on the fire, started by her dutiful spouse an hour earlier. Then she +proceeded to lay the table, and put the rooms in order against the +major's coming, and woe betide him if cigar stubs littered the bachelor +sittingroom or unrinsed glasses and half empty decanters told of even +moderate symposium over night. Returning that eventful morning from his +office at first call for reveillé, after seeing the last of Ray's +gallant troop as it moved away across the dim vista of the northward +prairie, Webb had been concerned to find his decanter of Monongahela +half empty on the pantry table and the _débris_ of a hurried feast on +every side. Kennedy, who had begun in moderation, must have felt the +need of further creature comfort after his bout with the stalwart Sioux, +and had availed himself to the limit of his capacity of the major's +invitation. Webb's first thought was to partially remove the traces of +that single-handed spree; then, refilling the decanter from the big +five-gallon demijohn, kept under lock and key in the cupboard--for +Michael, too, had at long intervals weaknesses of his own--he was +thinking how best to protect Kennedy from the consequences of his, +Webb's, rash invitation when Schreiber's knock was heard. + +Ten minutes more and the sergeant was back again. + +"Sir, I have to report that Trooper Kennedy has not been seen about the +quarters," said he. + +"Then try the stables, sergeant," answered the veteran campaigner, and +thither would Schreiber next have gone, even had he not been sent. And, +sure enough, there was Kennedy, with rueful face and a maudlin romaunt +about a moonlit meeting with a swarm of painted Sioux, over which the +stable guard were making merry and stirring the trooper's soul to wrath +ungovernable. + +"I can prove ut," he howled, to the accompaniment of clinching fists and +bellicose lunges at the laughing tormentors nearest him. "I can whip the +hide off'n the scut that says I didn't. Ask Lootn't Field, bejabers! He +saw it. Ask--Oh, Mother of God! what's this I'm sayin'?"--And there, +with stern, rebuking gaze, stood the man they knew and feared, every +soul of them, as they did no commissioned soldier in the ----th, +Sergeant Schreiber, the redoubtable, and Schreiber had heard the insane +and damaging boast. + +"Come with me, Kennedy," was all he said, and Kennedy snatched his +battered felt headgear down over his eyes and tacked woefully after his +swift-striding master, without ever another word. + +But it was to his own room Schreiber took the unhappy Irishman, not to +the quarters of Company "F." He had heard words that, coupled with +others that fell through the darkness on his keenly listening ears some +two hours earlier, had given him cause for painful thought. "Lie down +here, Kennedy. Pull off your boots," said he, "and if you open your fool +head to any living soul until I give you leave, py Gott--I'll gill you!" +It was Schreiber's way, like Marryatt's famous Boatswain, to begin his +admonitions in exact English, and then, as wrath overcame him, to lapse +into dialect. + +It was but a few minutes after seven when Major Webb, having previously +despatched a messenger to the post trader's to say he had need to see +Mr. Hay as soon as possible, mounted his horse and, followed by Sergeant +Schreiber and an orderly, rode quietly past the guard-house, touching +his hat to the shouted "Turn out the guard--commanding officer" of the +sentry on Number One. Mr. Hay was dressing hurriedly, said the servant, +so Webb bade Schreiber and the orderly ride slowly down to the flats and +await him at the forks of the road. It was but five minutes before Hay +appeared, pulling on his coat as he shot from the door, but even before +he came the major had been carefully, cautiously scanning the blinds of +the second story, even while feigning deep interest in the doings of a +little squad of garrison prisoners--the inevitable inmates of the +guard-house in the days before we had our safeguard in shape of the +soldier's club--the post exchange--and now again in the days that follow +its ill-judged extinction. The paymaster had been at Frayne but five +days earlier. The prison room was full of aching heads, and Hay's +coffers' of hard-earned, ill-spent dollars. Webb sighed at sight of the +crowded ranks of this whimsically named "Company Q," but in no wise +relaxed his vigilance, for the slats of the blind of the corner window +had partially opened. He had had a glimpse of feminine fingers, and +purposely he called Hay well out into the road, then bent down over him: + +"All your horses in and all right, this morning, Hay?" + +"None have been out," said Hay, stoutly, "unless they've gone within the +hour. I never let them have the keys, you know, over night. Pete brought +them to me at eight last evening and got 'em at six this morning, the +usual time." + +"Where does he get them--without waking you?" asked Webb. + +"They hang behind the door in my sleeping room. Pete gets them when he +takes my boots to black at six o'clock." + +"Come over to the stables," said the commanding officer, and, wondering, +Hay followed. + +They found the two hostlers busily at work grooming. In his box stall, +bright as a button, was "Harney," Hay's famous runner, his coat smooth +as satin. Hay went rapidly from stall to stall. Of the six saddlers +owned by him not one gave the faintest sign of having been used over +night, but Webb, riding through the gangway, noted that "Crapaud," the +French halfbreed grooming in the third stall, never lifted his head. +Whatever evidence of night riding that might earlier have existed had +been deftly groomed away. The trader had seen suspicion in the soldier's +eye, and so stood forth, triumphant:-- + +"No, Major Webb," said he, in loud, confident, oracular tone, "no horse +of mine ever gets out without my knowing it, and never at night unless +you or I so order it." + +"No?" queried the major, placidly. "Then how do you account for--this?" + +Among the fresh hoof prints in the yielding sand, with which the police +party had been filling the ruts of the outer roadway, was one never made +by government horse or mule. In half a dozen places within a dozen rods, +plain as a pikestaff, was the print of a bar shoe, worn on the off fore +foot of just one quadruped at the post--Hay's swift running "General +Harney." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A GRAVE DISCOVERY + + +Only an hour was the major away from his post. He came back in time for +guard mounting and the reports of the officers-of-the-day. He had reason +to be on the parade at the "assembly of the details," not so much to +watch the work of the post adjutant _pro tempore_, as the effect of the +sudden and unlooked for change on certain of the customary spectators. +He had swiftly ridden to the camp of the recreant Stabber and purposely +demanded speech with that influential chieftain. There had been the +usual attempt on part of the old men left in charge to hoodwink and to +temporize, but when sharply told that Stabber, with his warriors, had +been seen riding away toward Eagle Butte at three in the morning, the +sages calmly confessed judgment, but declared they had no other purpose +than a hunt for a drove of elk reported seen about the famous Indian +race course in the lower hills of the Big Horn. Circling the camp, +however, Webb had quickly counted the pony tracks across the still dewy +bunchgrass of the bench, and found Schreiber's estimate substantially +correct. Then, stopping at the lodge of Stabbers's uncle, old "Spotted +Horse," where that superannuated but still sagacious chief was squatted +on his blanket and ostentatiously puffing a long Indian pipe, Webb +demanded to know what young men remained in the village. Over a hundred +strong, old men, squaws and children, they thronged about him, silent, +big-eyed and attentive, Schreiber interpreting as best he could, +resorting to the well-known sign language when the crafty Sioux +professed ignorance of the meaning of his words:-- + +"No young men. All gone," was the positive declaration of the venerable +head of the bailiwick, when compelled at last to answer. But Schreiber +had studied the pony herd and knew better. Moreover, not more than six +of their ponies had been led along with the war party that set forth in +the early hours of the moonlit morning. Others, both men and mounts, +unavoidably left behind, would surely be sent forward at the first +possible opportunity, and, much as Webb might wish to turn back to +capture the party, well as he might know that other bands were in revolt +and Stabber gone to help them, he was powerless under his orders to +interfere until by some openly hostile act these laggards of the little +band invited his reprisal. The rule of the road, as prescribed by the +civil authorities, to which the soldier had sworn obedience, being +practically, "Don't defend until you are hit. Don't shoot until you are +shot." + +Webb came cantering back assured that these frowsy, malodorous lodges +concealed, perhaps, half a score of fighting men who were a menace to +the neighborhood and who could be counted on to make it more than +interesting for any couriers that might have to be sent between the fort +and the forces at the front. Calling Schreiber to his side, as, with +long easy stride their trained mounts went loping swiftly homeward, he +gave instructions the veteran heard with kindling eyes. Then, parting +from him at the corrals, the commander rode on and dismounted at his +quarters just as the trumpeters were forming on the broad, grassy level +of the parade. + +Even without a band young Field had managed to make his guard mount a +pretty and attractive ceremony. Frayne was a big post and needed a daily +guard of twenty-four men, with the usual quota of non-commissioned +officers. Cowboys, herders, miners, prospectors, rustlers (those pirates +of the plains) and occasional bands of Indians, Sioux or Arapahoe, were +forever hovering about its borders in search of supplies, solid or +fluid, and rarely averse to the conversion of public property to +personal use. Like many a good citizen of well-ordered municipalities +within the confines of civilization, they held that what belonged to the +government belonged to them, and the fact that some officer would have +to pay for whatsoever they stole, from a horse to a hammer, cut no +figure in their deliberations. Frayne had long been a favorite place for +fitting out depleted stock, animal, vegetable or mineral, and there had +been times when Webb found as many as forty men almost too small a +guard, and so gave it to be understood that sentries whose carbines were +unlawfully discharged at night, without the formality of preliminary +challenge or other intimation of business intentions, would be held +blameless, provided they had something to show for their shot. A +remarkable feature of the winter's depredation had been that Hay's +corral was never molested, although unguarded by the garrison and quite +as much exposed as the most remote of the government shops, shanties or +stables. + +Field mounted his guard, except in cold or stormy weather, in full +uniform, and the daily "march past" in review brought many of the +garrison ladies, most of the children and all of the dogs to the scene. +Some of the households breakfasted just before,--some just after--guard +mounting, but, as a rule, no one sat at table when almost everybody else +was gathered along the westward edge of the broad parade. It was there +the plans for the social day were discussed and determined. Rides, +drives, hunts or picnics away from the post; dances, dinners, croquet or +tennis within the garrison limits. It was the hour when all the girls +were out, looking fair and fresh as daisies, and while the mothers +sedately gossiped along the row of broad verandas, their daughters +blithely chatted in little groups, or, as might often be, paced slowly +with downcast eyes and mantling cheeks at the side of some young gallant +who had no thought for other duty than that of the thrilling moment. And +here they were, well nigh a dozen of them, of all ages from twelve to +twenty, as the major sent his mount to the stables and made quick survey +of the scene, and a moment's glance was sufficient to show that among +them all there was stir and excitement beyond that which would be +caused by so common an incident as the sending forth of a troop on +scout. + +It was the fact that Field had gone and that young Ross was acting in +his place that set them all to speculating on the cause. One of their +number, promenading with Lieutenant Hartley, glanced up at Major Webb as +they passed him by, with such a world of mingled question and reproach +in her soft blue eyes that his heart for the moment smote him. He had +never seen Esther Dade looking so languid or so wan, yet more _of_ her +and _for_ her had he been thinking during the week gone by than of any +other girl in or out of the army. To-day, however, there was another he +eagerly sought to see, and, with something akin to keen disappointment, +noted that she was not among the strollers along the board walk or the +chatting groups about the steps and gateways. Not once during her brief +visit had she as yet missed guard mounting. Now her absence was +significant. In the very eyes of the little party hastening toward +him--three young girls and a brace of subalterns--he read question and +cross-question, and was thankful to see Hay, the trader, trudging up the +walk to join him. So seldom did the old frontiersman enter the +quadrangle that people remarked upon his coming;--remarked still more +when Webb hurried down to meet him. + +"You're right about the horses, major," said Hay, mopping a moist and +troubled face with a big bandana. "My racer and my best single footer, +Dan, were out last night. Dan's saddle cloth was wet and so was +Harney's. Some one outside has got false keys,--I'll put new padlocks on +at once,--but for the life of me I can't think who would play me such a +trick. To _steal_ the horses,--run 'em off to Rawlins or up the +Sweetwater or off to the Hills--I could understand that! but to borrow +them for an hour or two,--why, it beats me hollow!" And Hay in deep +perplexity leaned against the low fence and almost imploringly gazed +into the major's face. They all leaned on Webb. + +"Any idea who they were?" asked the commander. + +"Not the skin of a shadow, 'cept that one man rode shorter stirrups'n I +do. They forgot to set 'em back. They had my California saddle on Dan +and that light Whitman of mine on Harney." + +"Sure it was two men?" queried Webb, looking straight into the trader's +eyes. + +"What else could it be?" demanded Hay, in no little excitement. + +"Well, I thought possibly Miss Flower might have been moved to take a +moonlight ride. No reason why she shouldn't, you know, and not wishing +to disturb you----" + +"Then she would have used her own side-saddle. What's she doing with a +man's? Besides, she'd have told me!" + +"Oh! You've seen her then this morning? I thought perhaps she wasn't +up," hazarded Webb. + +"Up? Why, hang it, she was up at daybreak--up hours ago, my wife says. +Haven't you seen her? She's over here somewhere?" + +No, Webb had not seen her, and together the two started in search, first +to the flagstaff, and there at the point of bluff beyond the +Rays',--there she stood, gazing up the Platte toward the Indian village +through a pair of signal glasses that weighed heavily in her daintily +gloved hands. Captain Tracy, a bachelor assistant surgeon, stood +faithfully by her side, listening to her lively chatter, with ears that +absorbed and eyes that worshipped. + +"Come away," said Webb. "I have an order on you for Field's currency in +your safe. When are you going to try to get your cash to bank?" And Webb +keenly eyed his man as he asked the question. + +"To-morrow or next day sure,--even if I have to go part way with the +stage myself. When do you want this money?" said Hay, tapping the +envelope Webb had given him. + +"Well, now, if agreeable to you. I prefer to keep such funds at the +quartermaster's. Oh--Good morning, Mrs. Ray!" he cheerily called, +lifting his cap, at sight of a young matron at an upper window. "Can you +see them still?" he added, for the elder of the two boys was peering +through a long telescope, perched on its brass tripod upon a little +shelf projecting from the sill. Many a time had the "Rays' spyglass" +been the last to discern some departing troop as it crossed the low +divide ten miles away to the north. Many a time had the first +announcement of "courier coming" reached headquarters through Master +Sandy, the first born of their olive branches. There were unshed tears +in the gentle voice that answered. There was wordless anxiety in the +sweet, pallid face that smiled so bravely through its sorrow. "The troop +passed out of sight quarter of an hour ago, major," said Mrs. Ray. "But +Sandy could see the flankers on their left until within the last five +minutes." + +"_Way_ out on their left, major!" interposed that young gentleman, big +with importance. "If old Stabber tries any of his tricks with _that_ +troop he'll--he'll get his belly full!" and Master Sandy plainly +intimated both in tone and manner, not to mention the vernacular of the +soldier, that Stabber might take liberties with any other troop or +company at the post, but would best beware of Daddy's. And yet, not +three months agone he had stoutly taken up the cudgels for the Frayne +garrison, as a whole, against the field, the wordy battle with the son +and heir of the colonel commanding at Laramie culminating in a combat +only terminated by the joint efforts of the stable sergeant and sentry, +for both youngsters were game as their sires. What Sandy Ray was now +praying to see was an attack by Stabber's band upon the isolated troop, +but Stabber, it may be said, knew a trick worth ten of that. There was +no sense in pitching into the sorrel troop on even terms when by waiting +another day, perhaps, and the answer of Lame Wolf to the appeal of his +speedy messenger, he might outnumber and overwhelm them with five to +one. + +"We should be hearing from Omaha and Laramie by ten o'clock, Mrs. Ray," +said the major, reassuringly, "and I will send you word at once. And, of +course, Corporal Ray," he continued, and now with martial formality +addressing the lad at the telescope, "I can rely upon you to report at +once in case you see anything suspicious toward the Big Horn." + +"Yes, sir," answered the boy, straightening up to attention. Then, +scrupulously exchanging salutes, the old soldier and the young parted +company, and the major returned to receive the reports of the old and +new officers of the day. These gentlemen were still with him, Captain +Chew, of the Infantry, and the senior first lieutenant for duty with the +----th, when Hay came hurrying up the board walk from the direction of +the store. For reasons of his own, Webb had sent his orderly to the +guard-house to say to the officers in question that he would await them +at his quarters instead of the little building known as the adjutant's +office, in which were the offices of the commander, the record room in +which were placed the desks of the sergeant-major and his three clerks, +and the sleeping rooms of the special duty soldiers. It had happened +more than once in the past that garrison stories of matters not supposed +to be known outside the office had been traced back to that desk room, +and now Webb's questions of his old officer of the day, and his +instructions to the new were not things he cared to have bruited about +the post. He was listening intently to the captain's report of the +sentries' observations during the night gone by when Hay reached the +gate and stopped, not wishing to intrude at such a moment. + +"Come in, Mr. Hay," said the commander, cordially. "This all will +interest you," and, thus bidden, the trader joined the soldiers three on +the veranda, and some of the young people of the garrison, setting up +their croquet arches on the parade, looked curiously toward the group, +and wondered what should keep the old officer-of-the-day so long. +Sauntering down the walk, smiling radiantly upon the occupants of the +various verandas that she passed, then beaming between times into the +face of her smitten escort, her black eyes and white teeth flashing in +the rare sunshine, Nanette Flower was gradually nearing the major's +quarters. She was barely twenty yards away when, in obedience to some +word of the major, Mr. Hay held forth two white packages that, even at +the distance, could be recognized, so far as the outer covering was +concerned, as official envelopes. She was too far away, perhaps, to hear +what was said. + +"It seems," began Webb, to his officers, as he mechanically opened the +first packet, "that Field took fire at Wilkins's growls about the bother +of keeping his funds, so the youngster stowed his money with Hay. He +insisted on turning over everything before he left, so I receipted to +him. Let's see," he continued, glancing at the memorandum in his hand. +"Three hundred and seventy-two dollars and eighty-five cents post fund, +and four hundred belonging to various enlisted men. I may as well count +it in your presence." + +By this time the long, lean fingers had ripped open the package marked +four hundred, and were extracting the contents,--a sheet of official +paper with figures and memoranda, and then a flat package, apparently, +of currency. Topmost was a five dollar treasury note; bottom-most +another of the same denomination. Between them, deftly cut, trimmed and +sized, were blank slips of paper to the number of perhaps thirty and the +value of not one cent. With paling faces the officers watched the +trembling fingers slash open the second, its flap, as was that of the +first envelope, securely gummed,--not sealed. A nickel or two and a few +dimes slid out before the packet came. It was of like consistency with +the first--and of about the same value. Webb lifted up his eyes and +looked straight into the amazed,--almost livid, face of the trader. + +"My God! Major Webb," cried Hay, aghast and bewildered. "Don't look at +me like that! No man on earth has ever accused me of a crime. This means +that not only my stable but my safe has been robbed,--and there is a +traitor within my gates." + +Dr. Tracy, absorbed in contemplation of Miss Flower's radiant face, and +in the effort to make his own words eloquent, had no ears for those of +others. He never heeded the trader's excited outburst. He only saw her +suddenly flinch, suddenly pale, then sway. His ready arm was round her +in a twinkling. In a twinkling she twisted free from the undesired +clasp. + +"Just--my foot turned!--a pebble!" she gasped. + +But when, all assiduity, Tracy would have seated her on the horseblock +and examined the delicate ankle, she refused straightway, and with +almost savage emphasis, and with rigid lips from which all loveliness +had fled, bade him lead on home, where, despite protest and appeal, +personal and professional, she dismissed him curtly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FIRST SIGHT OF THE FOE + + +Ray's gallant half hundred, as has been said, took the route for the +north at break of day. Before them spread the open prairie, apparently +level and unbroken for full five miles to the front and either flank, +the distant slopes and ridges bounding the level expanse growing more +distinct with every moment, and presently lighting up in exulting +radiance in response to the rosy blushes of the eastward sky. Scorning +the dusty stage road, the troop commander pointed to a distant height +just visible against the northward horizon, bade the leading guide march +straight on that; then gave the order "Right by Twos," that he might the +more readily note the gait and condition of every horse and the bearing +and equipment of his rider. There was still time to weed out weaklings +of either class should any such there be. Riding slowly along the left +flank, one after another, he carefully scanned every man and mount in +his little detachment, then, at quicker pace, passed around to the +eastward side of the column, and as critically, carefully studied them +from that point of view. A light of quiet satisfaction shone in his +fine, dark eyes as he finished, for, next to his wife and children, +that troop was Ray's supreme delight. The preliminary look-over by +lantern light had been all sufficient. This later inspection on the move +revealed not a steed amiss, not an item of equipment either misplaced or +lacking. "Steady as planets," barring the irrepressible tendency of some +young, high-spirited horse to dance a bit until quieted by the monotony +of the succeeding miles, at quick, light-hoofed walk, the sorrels +tripped easily along in precise, yet companionable couples. "One yard +from head to croup," said the drill book of the day, and, but for that, +the riders might have dropped their reins upon the pommel as practically +unnecessary. But, for the first hour or so, at least, the tendency +toward the rear of column was ever to crowd upon the file leaders, a +proceeding resented, not infrequently, in less disciplined commands than +Ray's, by well-delivered kicks, or at least such signs of equine +disapprobation as switching tail or set-back ears. But Ray's troop +horses moved like so many machines, so constant and systematic had been +their drill; and Ray's men rode in the perfection of uniform, so far as +armament and equipment were concerned. Each greatcoat, precisely rolled, +was strapped with its encircling poncho at the pommel. Each blanket, as +snugly packed, with the sidelines festooned upon the top, was strapped +at the cantle. Lariat and picket pin, coiled and secured, hung from the +near side of the pommel. The canteen, suspended from its snap hook, hung +at the off side. Saddle-bags, with extra horse shoes, nails, socks, +underwear, brushes and comb, extra packages of carbine and revolver +cartridges and minor impedimenta, equally distributed as to weight, +swung from the cantle and underneath the blanket roll. From the broad, +black leather carbine sling, over each trooper's left shoulder, the +hard-shooting brown barrelled little Springfield hung suspended, its +muzzle thrust, as was the fashion of the day, into the crude socket +imposed so long upon our frontier fighters by officials who had never +seen the West, save, as did a certain writer of renown, from a car +window, thereby limiting their horizon. Ray despised that socket as he +did the Shoemaker bit, but believed, with President Grant, that the best +means to end obnoxious laws was their rigorous enforcement. Each man's +revolver, a trusty brown Colt, hung in its holster at the right hip. +Each man was girt with ammunition belt of webbing, the device of an +old-time Yankee cavalryman that has been copied round the world, the +dull-hued copper cartridges bristling from every loop. Each man wore, as +was prescribed, the heavy, cumbrous cavalry boot of the day and +generation, but had stowed in his saddle-bags light moccasins and +leggings with which to replace them when, farther afield, their +clear-headed commander should give the word. Each man, too, wore the +gauntlets of Indian-tanned buckskin, a special pattern that Ray had been +permitted to use experimentally. Each man was clad in dark blue flannel +shirt and blouse, the latter soon probably to be stored with the big, +weighty boots in Truscott's saddle room at Beecher, with, probably too, +many of the light blue riding breeches, saddle-pieced with canvas--the +uniform at the start destined, in the case of veteran troopers, at +least, to be shed in favor of brown duck hunting trousers, or even, +among certain extremists, fringed, beaded and embroidered buckskin, than +which the present chronicler knows no more uncomfortable garb when +soaked by pelting rains or immersion in some icy mountain stream. Even +the brown campaign hats, uniformly "creased," as the fifty left the +ford, would soon be knocked out of all semblance to the prescribed +shape, and made at once comfortable and serviceable. Add to these items +the well-filled haversack and battered tin quart cup, (for on a forced +march of two or three days Captain Ray would have no pack mules,) and +the personal equipment of his men was complete. As for the mounts, each +sorrel tripped easily along under the sextuple folds of the saddle +blanket, and the black-skinned McClellan saddle tree, with its broad +horsehair cincha and hooded wooden stirrups, minus the useless skirts +and sweat leathers. Neither breast strap, crupper nor martingale +hampered the free movements of the sturdy, stocky little weight +carriers. The black, single-reined curb bridle, fastened as to the +throat latch by a light buckle, was slipped on over the headstall of the +so-called watering bridle, whose toggled and detachable snaffle bit was +generally "toted" from start to finish of a field scout in the saddle +bags,--a twist of the flexible lariat, Indian fashion, between the +complaisant jaws of his pet, being the troop's ready substitute. Add to +this that, full, free and unmutilated, in glossy waves the beautiful +manes and tails tossed in the upland breeze (for the heresies of +Anglomania never took root in the American cavalry) and you have Ray's +famous troop as it looked, fresh started from old Fort Frayne this +glorious autumn morning of 188-, and with a nod of approbation, and "It +couldn't be better, sergeant," to his devoted right hand man, the +veteran senior non-commissioned officer of the troop, Ray rang out the +command "At ease," and placed himself beside the silent young lieutenant +at the head of column. + +[Illustration: RAY'S TROOP.] + +As has been said, Ray's senior subaltern was on detached service. His +junior, Mr. Clayton, had joined but the year before, and this threw Mr. +Field in command of the leading platoon and to the side of the leading +guide. Now, as the senior officer took the head of column and Mr. +Clayton fell back to the rear, the silence of the first mile of march +was broken and, though sitting erect in saddle and forbidden to lounge +or "slouch," the troop began its morning interchange of chaff and +comment. Every mother's son of them rejoiced to be once more afield with +a chance of stirring work ahead. + +"It's time to throw out our advance, Field," said Ray, in kindly, +cordial tone, as he scanned the low divide still some miles ahead and +reined in beside the stern-faced young soldier. "Send Sergeant Scott +forward with three men and the same number on each flank--corporals in +charge." + +He had more than liked Webb's adjutant. He had been his stanchest +friend and supporter among the troop and company commanders, and was +eager to befriend him now. He had expressed no wish to have him sent on +the hurried move, but well he knew the post commander's reasons and +approved his course. Still, now that Field was being removed, for the +time at least, from the possibility of an entangling alliance that might +prove disastrous, in every way in his power Ray meant to show the +mortified, indeed sorely angered, officer that his personal regard for +him had suffered no change whatever. If he could succeed in winning +Field's confidence it might well be that he could bring him to see that +there were good and sufficient grounds for the post commander's +action--that for Field's own good, in fact, it was a most desirable +move. The soul of loyalty and square dealing himself, Ray had never for +a moment dreamed that anything other than a foolish escapade had +occurred--a ride by moonlight, perhaps, demanded of her devotee by a +thoughtless, thoroughbred coquette, whose influence over the young +fellow was beginning to mar his usefulness, if not indeed his future +prospects. Just what to think of Nanette Flower Ray really did not know. +Marion, his beloved better half, was his unquestioned authority in all +such matters, and it was an uncommon tenet of that young matron never to +condemn until she had cause. Instinctively she shrank from what she had +seen of Miss Flower, even though her woman's eye rejoiced in the +elegance of Miss Flower's abundant toilets; and, conscious of her +intuitive aversion, she would utter no word that might later prove +unjust. Oddly enough, that instinctive aversion was shared by her +closest friend and neighbor, Mrs. Blake; but, as yet, the extent of +their condemnation had found vent only in the half whimsical, half +petulant expression on part of the younger lady--Blake's beautiful wife, +"I wish her name weren't--so near like mine," for "Nan" had been her pet +name almost from babyhood. Vaguely conscious were they both, these lords +of creation, Messrs. Blake and Ray, that the ladies of their love did +not approve of Miss Flower, but Ray had ridden forth without ever asking +or knowing why, and so, unknowing, was ill prepared to grapple with the +problem set before him. It is easier to stem a torrent with a shingle +than convince a lover that his idol is a shrew. + +Without a word of reply, Field reined out of column, glanced along the +double file of his platoon, nodded a signal "Fall out" to Sergeant +Scott, and the men nearest him at the front, merely said "Advance +guard," and then proceeded to choose his corporals and men for flankers. +No need to tell Scott what to do! He had been leading scouts in Arizona +long ere Field had even dreamed of West Point. In five minutes, riding +at easy lope, carbines advanced, three little parties of four troopers +each were spreading far out to the front and flank, guarding the little +column against the possibility of sudden assault from hidden foe. Here +upon the level prairie one would think such precaution needless, but +every acre of the surface was seamed and gullied by twisting little +water courses, dry as a chip at the moment, and some of them so deep as +to afford cover even for the biggest pony of the wild warriors of the +plains. Then, to the front, the barrier ridges, streaked with deep +winding ravines, were now billowing against the northward sky, and once +among those tangled land waves no chances could be taken now that it was +known that the Sioux had declared for war, and that Stabber's band was +out to join their red brethren in the oft recurring outbreak. Until +their lands were criss-crossed by the railways and their mountain haunts +re-echoed to the scream of the iron horse, next to nothing would start +an Indian war: it took so long to reach the scene with troops in +sufficient numbers to command their respect. + +And at this moment the situation was grave in the extreme. There had +been bad blood and frequent collision between the cattlemen, herders, +"hustlers,"--especially hustlers,--and the hunting parties of the Sioux +and the Northern Cheyenne, who clung to the Big Horn Range and the +superb surrounding country with almost passionate love and with jealous +tenacity. There had been aggression on both sides, then bloodshed, then +attempts on part of frontier sheriffs to arrest accused or suspected red +men, and equally determined and banded effort to prevent arrest of +accused and identified whites. By due process of law, as administered in +the days whereof we write, the Indian was pretty sure to get the worst +of every difference, and therefore, preferred, not unnaturally, his own +time-honored methods of settlement. In accordance therewith, had they +scalped the sheriff's posse that had shot two of their young braves who +had availed themselves of a purposely given chance to escape, and then +in their undiscriminating zeal, the Sioux had opened fire from ambush on +Plodder's hunting parties and the choppers at the wood camp, who +defended themselves as best they could, to the end that more men, red +and white, were killed. The Indians rallied in force and closed in about +Fort Beecher, driving the survivors to shelter within its guarded lines, +and then, when Plodder needed every man of his force to keep the foe at +respectful distance, so that his bullets could not reach the quarters +occupied by the women and children at the post, there reached him by +night a runner from the stage station far over to the southeast, on a +dry fork of the Powder, saying that the north and south bound stages had +taken refuge there, with only ten men, all told, to stand off some fifty +warriors, and therefore imploring assistance. Not daring to send a +troop, Plodder called for volunteers to bear despatches to Major Webb, +at Frayne, and Pat Kennedy, with half a dozen brave lads, had promptly +stepped forward. Kennedy had managed to slip through the encircling +Sioux by night, and to reach Fort Frayne after a daring and almost +desperate ride. Then Ray was ordered forth, first to raise the siege at +the stage station, then, either to hold that important relay ranch or go +on to reinforce Plodder as his judgment and the situation might dictate. + +He knew enough of the stout adobe walls of the corral on the Dry Fork, +and of the grit of the few defenders, to feel reasonably sure that, +with ammunition, provisions and water in plenty, they could easily hold +out a week if need be against the Sioux, so long as they fought on the +defensive and the Indians were not strongly reinforced. He reasoned that +Stabber and his people were probably gone to strengthen the attack, and +that having an hour's start at least, and riding faster, they would get +there somewhat ahead of him. But one of his own old sergeants, a veteran +of twenty years in the cavalry, was now stationmaster on the Dry Fork, +and all the Sioux from the Platte to Paradise couldn't stampede old Jim +Kelly. Many a forced march had Ray made in the past, and well he knew +that the surest way to bring his horses into action, strong and sound at +the finish, was to move "slow and steady" at the start, to move at the +walk until the horses were calm and quiet, was his rule. Then on this +bright September day would come the alternating trot and lope, with +brief halts to reset saddles; then, later still, the call upon his +willing men and mounts for sustained effort, and by sunset he and they +could count on riding in, triumphant, to the rescue, even though Stabber +himself should seek to bar the way. + +And that Stabber meant to watch the road, if not to block it, became +evident before the head of column began the gradual ascent of Moccasin +Ridge, from whose sharp crest the little band could take their last +look, for the time, at least, at the distant walls of Frayne. Somewhere +toward seven-thirty Corporal Connors' foremost man, far out on the left +flank, riding suddenly over a low divide, caught sight of a bonneted +warrior bending flat over his excited pony and lashing that nimble, +fleet-footed creature to mad gallop in the effort to reach the cover of +the projecting point of bluff across the shallow ravine that cut in +toward the foothills. Stone, the trooper, lifted his campaign hat on +high once, and then lowered his arm to the horizontal, hat in hand, +pointing in the direction the darting savage was seen, and thus, without +a syllable having been spoken at the front, word was passed in to Ray +that one Indian had been sighted far out to the northwest. + +"They may try to hold us among the breaks of the Mini Pusa," said he, to +his still unreconciled second in command. Field had been civil, +respectful, but utterly uncommunicative in his replies to the captain's +repeated cordialities. Any attempt to even remotely refer to the causes +that led to his being ordered out with the detachment had been met with +chilling silence. Now, however, the foe had been seen and could be +counted on to resist if his rallied force much exceeded that of the +troop, or to annoy it by long-range fire if too weak to risk other +encounter. The command halted one moment at the crest to take one long, +lingering look at the now far-distant post beyond the Platte; then, +swinging again into saddle, moved briskly down into the long, wide +hollow between them and the next divide, well nigh three miles across, +and as they reached the low ground and traversed its little draining +gully, a muttered exclamation "Look there!" from the lips of the first +sergeant, called their attention again to the far left front. Stone, +the trooper who had reported the first Indian, had turned his horse over +to the second man, as had the corporal on that flank, and together they +were crouching up along the eastward face of a billowing hillock, while, +straight to the front Sergeant Scott, obedient to a signal from his left +hand man, was speeding diagonally along the rise to the north, for all +three advance troopers had halted and two were cautiously dismounting. +Ray watched one moment, with kindling eyes, then turned to his young +chief of platoons: + +"Take your men, Field, and be ready to support. There's something behind +that second ridge!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BLOOD WILL TELL + + +As Webb had predicted, even before nine o'clock, came prompt, spirited +response from Laramie, where the colonel had ordered the four troops to +prepare for instant march, and had bidden the infantry to be ready for +any duty the general might order. From Omaha,--department +headquarters,--almost on the heels of the Laramie wire came cheery word +from their gallant chief: "Coming to join you noon train to-day. +Cheyenne 1:30 to-morrow. Your action in sending Ray's troop approved. +Hold others in readiness to move at a moment's notice. Wire further news +North Platte, Sidney or Cheyenne to meet me." + +So the note of preparation was joyous throughout the barracks on the +eastward side and mournful among the married quarters elsewhere. But +even through the blinding tears with which so many loving women wrought, +packing the field and mess kits of soldier husbands whose duties kept +them with their men at barracks or stables, there were some, at least, +who were quick to see that matters of unusual moment called certain of +the major's stanchest henchmen to the office, and that grave and earnest +consultation was being held, from which men came with sombre faces and +close-sealed lips. First to note these indications was the indomitable +helpmate of old Wilkins, the post quartermaster. She had no dread on his +account, for rheumatism and routine duties, as the official in charge of +Uncle Sam's huge stack of stores and supplies, exempted her liege from +duty in the field; and, even while lending a helping hand where some +young wife and mother seemed dazed and broken by the sudden call to +arms, she kept eyes and ears alert as ever, and was speedily confiding +to first one household, then another, her conviction that there was a +big sensation bundled up in the bosom of the post commander and his +cronies, and she knew, she said, it was something about Field. +Everybody, of course, was aware by eight o'clock that Field had gone +with Ray, and while no officer presumed to ask if it was because Ray, or +Field, had applied for the detail, no woman would have been restrained +therefrom by any fear of Webb. Well he realized this fact and, dodging +the first that sought to waylay him on the walk, he had later intrenched +himself, as it were, in his office, where Dade, Blake and the old post +surgeon had sat with him in solemn conclave while Bill Hay brought his +clerk, bar-keeper, store-keeper, Pete, the general utility man, and even +"Crapaud," the halfbreed, to swear in succession they had no idea who +could have tampered with either the safe or the stables. Closely had +they been cross-examined; and, going away in turn, they told of the +nature of the cross-examination; yet to no one of their number had been +made known what had occurred to cause such close questioning. Hay had +been forbidden to speak of it, even to his household. The +officers-of-the-day were sworn to secrecy. Neither Wilkins nor the +acting adjutant was closeted with the council, and neither, therefore, +could do more than guess at the facts. Yet that somebody knew, in part +at least, the trend of suspicion, was at once apparent to Webb and his +councilors when, about nine o'clock, he took Blake and Dade to see those +significant "bar shoe" hoof prints. Every one of them had disappeared. + +"By Jove!" said Webb, "I know _now_ I should have set a sentry with +orders to let no man walk or ride about here. See! He's used his foot to +smear this--and this--and here again!" + +There in a dozen places were signs old Indian trailers read as they +would read an open book. Places where, pivoting on the heel, a heavy +foot had crushed right and left into the yielding soil of the roadway, +making concentric, circular grooves and ridges of sandy earth, where, +earlier in the morning Dan's and Harney's dainty hoof prints were the +only new impressions. For nearly fifty yards had this obliterating +process been carried on, and in a dozen spots, until the road dipped +over the rounding edge and, hard and firm now, went winding down to the +flats. Here Webb, with Dade and Hay, returned, while Blake meandered on, +musing over what he had been told. "It's a government heel, not a +cowboy's," had Hay said, hopefully, of the print of that pivoting lump +of leather. + +"That gives no clue to the wearer," answered Blake. "Our men often sell +their new boots, or give their old ones, to these hangers-on about the +post. So far as I'm concerned, the care with which the print has been +erased is proof to me that the major saw just what he said. Somebody +about Hay's place was mighty anxious to cover his tracks." + +But a dozen "somebodies" besides the stablemen hung there at all hours +of the day, infesting the broad veranda, the barroom and stores, +striving to barter the skin of coyote, skunk or beaver, or, when they +had nothing to sell, pleading for an unearned drink. Half a dozen of +these furtive, beetle-browed, swarthy sons of the prairie lounged there +now, as the elder officers and the trader returned, while Blake went on +his way, exploring. With downcast eyes he followed the road to and +across a sandy watercourse in the low ground, and there, in two or three +places found the fresh imprint of that same bar shoe, just as described +by Webb. Then with long, swift strides he came stalking up the hill +again, passing the watchful eyes about the corral without a stop, and +only checking speed as he neared the homestead of the Hays, where, once +again, he became engrossed in studying the road and the hard pathways at +the side. Something that he saw, or fancied that he saw, perhaps a dozen +yards from the trader's gate, induced him to stop, scrutinize, turn, +and, with searching eyes, to cross diagonally the road in the direction +of the stables, then again to retrace his steps and return to the +eastward side. Just as he concluded his search, and once more went +briskly on his way, a blithe voice hailed him from an upper window, and +the radiant face and gleaming white teeth of Nanette Flower appeared +between the opening blinds. One might have said he expected both the +sight and question. + +"Lost anything, Captain Blake?" + +"Nothing but--a little time, Miss Flower," was the prompt reply as, +without a pause, the tall captain, raising his forage-cap, pushed +swiftly on. "But I've found something," muttered he to himself, between +his set teeth, and within five minutes more was again closeted with the +post commander. + +"You saw it?" asked Webb. + +"Yes. Three or four places--down in the arroyo. More than that--Where's +Hay?" he broke off suddenly, for voices were sounding in the adjoining +room. + +"Here, with Dade and the doctor." + +"Then--" But Blake got no further. Breathless and eager, little Sandy +Ray came bounding through the hallway into the presence of the officers. +He could hardly gasp his news: + +"Major, you told me to keep watch and let you know. There's a courier +coming--hard! Mother saw him--too, through the--spyglass. She says +they--see him, too at Stabber's--and she's afraid----" + +"Right!" cried Webb. "Quick, Blake; rush out half a dozen men to meet +him. Those devils may indeed cut him off. Thank you, my little man," he +added, bending down and patting the dark curly head, as Blake went +bounding away. "Thank you, Sandy. I'll come at once to the bluff. We'll +save him. Never you fear." + +In less than no time, one might say, all Fort Frayne seemed hurrying to +the northward bluff. The sight of tall Captain Blake bounding like a +greyhound toward his troop barracks, and shouting for his first +sergeant,--of Major Webb almost running across the parade toward the +flagstaff,--of Sandy rushing back to his post at the telescope,--of the +adjutant and officer of the day tearing away toward the stables, where +many of the men were now at work, were signs that told unerringly of +something stirring, probably across the Platte. As luck would have it, +in anticipation of orders to move, the troop horses had not been sent +out to graze, and were still in the sunshiny corrals, and long before +the news was fully voiced through officers' row, Blake and six of his +men were in saddle and darting away for the ford, carbines advanced the +instant they struck the opposite bank. + +From the bluff Webb had shouted his instructions. "We could see him a +moment ago," for half a dozen field glasses were already brought to +bear, "six miles out,--far east of the road. Feel well out to your left +to head off any of Stabber's people. Three of them have been seen +galloping out already." + +"Aye, aye, sir," came the answering shout, as Blake whirled and tore +away after his men. There had been a time in his distant past when the +navy, not the army, was his ambition, and he still retained some of the +ways of the sea. Just as Webb feared, some few of Stabber's young +warriors had been left behind, and their eagle-eyed lookout had sighted +the far-distant courier almost as soon as Sandy's famous telescope. Now +they were hastening to head him off. + +But he seemed to have totally vanished. Level as appeared the northward +prairie from the commanding height on which stood the throng of eager +watchers, it was in reality a low, rolling surface like some lazily +heaving sea that had become suddenly solidified. Long, broad, shallow +dips or basins lay between broad, wide, far-extending, yet slight, +upheavals. Through the shallows turned and twisted dozens of dry +arroyos, all gradually trending toward the Platte,--the drainage system +of the frontier. Five miles out began the ascent to the taller divides +and ridges that gradually, and with many an intervening dip, rose to the +watershed between the Platte and the score of tiny tributaries that +united to form the South Cheyenne. It was over Moccasin, or Ten Mile, +Ridge, as it was often called, and close to the now abandoned stage +road, Ray's daring little command had disappeared from view toward eight +o'clock. It was at least two, possibly three, miles east of the +stage-road that the solitary courier had first been sighted, and when +later seen by the major and certain others of the swift gathering +spectators, he was heading for Frayne, though still far east of the +highroad. + +And now Mrs. Ray, on the north piazza, with Webb by her side and Nannie +Blake, Mrs. Dade and Esther in close attendance, was briefly telling the +major what she had seen up stream. One glance through Sandy's glass had +told her the little fellow had not watched in vain. + +Then, with the ready binocular, she had turned to the Indian encampment +up the Platte, and almost instantly saw signs of commotion,--squaws and +children running about, ponies running away and Indian boys pursuing. +Then, one after another, three Indians,--warriors, presumably,--had +lashed away northward and she had sent Sandy on the run to tell the +major, even while keeping watch on this threatening three until they +shot behind a long, low ridge that stretched southward from the +foothills. Beyond doubt they were off in hopes of bagging that solitary +horseman, speeding with warning of some kind for the shelter of Fort +Frayne. + +By this time there must have been nearly two hundred men, women and +children lining the crest of the bluff, and speaking in low, tense +voices when they spoke at all, and straining their eyes for the next +sight of the coming courier or the swift dash of the intercepting Sioux. +Well out now, and riding at the gallop, Blake and his half dozen, widely +separating so as to cover much of the ground, were still in view, and +Dade and his officers breathed more freely. "See what a distance those +beggars of Stabber's will have to ride," said the veteran captain to the +little group about him. "They dare not cross that ridge short of three +miles out. It's my belief they'll see Blake and never cross at all." + +Then up rose a sudden shout. "There he is!" "There he comes!" "See!" +"See!" and fifty hands pointed eagerly northeastward where a little +black dot had suddenly popped into view out of some friendly, winding +watercourse, four miles still away, at least count, and far to the right +and front of Blake's easternmost trooper. Every glass was instantly +brought to bear upon the swiftly coming rider, Sandy's shrill young +voice ringing out from the upper window. "It isn't one of papa's men. +His horse is a gray!" Who then could it be? and what could it mean, this +coming of a strange courier from a direction so far to the east of the +travelled road? Another moment and up rose another shout. +"Look!"--"There they are!" "Sioux for certain!" And from behind a little +knob or knoll on the meridian ridge three other black dots had swept +into view and were shooting eastward down the gradual slope. Another +moment and they were swallowed up behind still another low divide, but +in that moment they had seen and been seen by the westernmost of Blake's +men, and now, one after another as the signals swept from the left, the +seven swerved. Their line of direction had been west of north. Now, +riding like mad, they veered to the northeast, and a grand race was on +between the hidden three and the would-be rescuers;--all heading for +that part of the low-rolling prairie where the lone courier might next +be expected to come into view;--friends and foes alike, unconscious of +the fact that, following one of those crooked arroyos with its stiff and +precipitous banks, he had been turned from his true course full three +quarters of a mile, and now, with a longer run, but a clear field ahead, +was steering straight for Frayne. + +Thus the interest of the on-lookers at the bluff became divided. Women +with straining eyes gazed at the lonely courier, and then fearfully +scanned the ridge line between him and the northward sky; praying with +white lips for his safety; dreading with sinking hearts that at any +moment those savage riders should come darting over the divide and +swooping down upon their helpless prey. Men, with eyes that snapped and +fists that clinched, or fingers that seemed twitching with mad desire to +clasp pistol butt or sabre hilt, or loud barking carbine, ran in sheer +nervous frenzy up and down the bluffs, staring only at Blake's +far-distant riders, swinging their hats and waving them on, praying only +for another sight of the Sioux in front of the envied seven, and craving +with all their soldier hearts to share in the fight almost sure to +follow. On the Rays' piazza, with pallid face and quivering lips, Esther +Dade clung to her mother's side. Mrs. Ray had encircled with her arm the +slender waist of Nannie Blake, whose eyes never for an instant quit +their gaze after the swift-speeding dots across the distant prairie. All +her world was there in one tall, vehement horseman. Other troopers, +mounting at the stables, had spurred away under Captain Gregg, and were +splashing through the ford. Other denizens of Fort Frayne, hearing of +the excitement, came hurrying to the bluff, hangers-on from the trader's +store and corral, the shopman himself, even the bar-keeper in his white +jacket and apron; two or three panting, low-muttering halfbreeds, their +eyes aflame, their teeth gleaming in their excitement; then Hay himself, +and with him,--her dark face almost livid, her hair disordered and lips +rigid and almost purple, with deep lines at the corners of her +mouth,--Nanette Flower. Who that saw could ever forget her as she forced +her way through the crowd and stood at the very brink, saying never a +word, but swiftly focussing her ready glasses? Hardly had she reached +the spot when wild, sudden, exultant, a cheer burst fiercely from the +lips of the throng. "Look!" "Look!" "By God, they've got 'em!" yelled +man after man, in mad excitement. Three black dots had suddenly swept +into view, well to the right of Blake's men, and came whirling down +grade straight for the lone courier on the gray. Theirs had been the +short side, ours the long diagonal of the race. Theirs was the race, +perhaps, but not the prize, for he had turned up far from the expected +point. Still they had him, if only,--if only those infernal troopers +failed to see them. There was their hope! Plainly in view of the high +bluff at the fort, they were yet hidden by a wave of the prairie from +sight of the interceptors, still heading for the ridge the warriors had +just left behind. Only for a second or two, however. A yell of fierce +rejoicing went up from the crowd on the bluff as the easternmost of +Blake's black specks was seen suddenly to check, then to launch out +again, no longer to the north, but straight to his right, followed +almost immediately by every one of the seven. Then, too, swerved the +would-be slayers, in long, graceful circles, away from the wrath to +come. And, while the unconscious courier still rode, steadily loping +toward the desired refuge, away for the breaks and ravines of the +Sleeping Bear lashed the thwarted Sioux,--away in hopeless stern chase +spurred the pursuers, and while women sobbed and laughed and screamed, +and men danced and shouted and swore with delight, one dark face, livid, +fearsome, turned back from the bluff, and Dr. Tracy, hastening to the +side of his enchantress, caught, in amaze, these words, almost hissed +between set and grinding teeth. + +"Seven to three--Shame!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MORE STRANGE DISCOVERIES + + +But Frayne was far from done with excitement for the day. For a while +all eyes seemed centred on the chase, now scattered miles toward the +east, and, save for two of the number left behind, blown, spent and +hopelessly out of the race, soon lost to view among the distant swales +and ravines. Then everyone turned to welcome the coming harbinger, to +congratulate him on his escape, to demand the reason for his daring +essay. Gregg and his men were first to reach him, and while one of them +was seen through the levelled glasses to dismount and give the courier +his fresh horse, thereby showing that the gray was well nigh exhausted, +the whole party turned slowly toward the post. Then one of their number +suddenly darted forth from the group and came spurring at top speed +straight for the ford. + +"That means news of importance," said Webb, at the instant. "And Gregg +and all of his squad are coming in,--not following Blake. That means he +and they are more needed elsewhere. Come on, Mr. Ross. We'll go down and +meet that fellow. Orderly, have my horse sent to the ford." So, followed +by three or four of the younger officers,--the married men being +restrained, as a rule, by protesting voices, close at hand,--the +commanding officer went slipping and sliding down a narrow, winding +pathway, a mere goat track, many of the soldiers following at respectful +distance, while all the rest of the gathered throng remained at the +crest, eagerly, almost breathlessly awaiting the result. They saw the +trooper come speeding in across the flats from the northeast; saw as he +reached the "bench" that he was spurring hard; heard, even at the +distance, the swift batter of hoofs upon the resounding sod; could +almost hear the fierce panting of the racing steed; saw horse and rider +come plunging down the bank and into the stream, and shoving breast deep +through the foaming waters; then issue, dripping, on the hither shore, +where, turning loose his horse, the soldier leaped from saddle and +saluted his commander. But only those about the major heard the stirring +message: + +"Captain Gregg's compliments, sir. It's Rudge from the Dry Fork. +Sergeant Kelly feared that Kennedy hadn't got through, for most of Lame +Wolf's people pulled away from the Fork yesterday morning, coming this +way, and the sergeant thought it was to unite with Stabber to surround +any small command that might be sent ahead from here. Rudge was ordered +to make a wide sweep to the east, so as to get around them, and that's +what took him so long. He left not two hours after Kennedy." + +[Illustration: "THE SOLDIER LEAPED FROM HIS SADDLE."] + +In spite of his years of frontier service and training in self control, +Webb felt, and others saw, that his face was paling. Ray, with only +fifty men at his back, was now out of sight--out of reach--of the post, +and probably face to face with, if not already surrounded by, the +combined forces of the Sioux. Not a second did he hesitate. Among the +swarm that had followed him was a young trumpeter of "K" Troop, reckless +of the fact that he should be at barracks, packing his kit. As luck +would have it, there at his back hung the brazen clarion, held by its +yellow braid and cord. "Boots and Saddles, Kerry, Quick!" ordered the +major, and as the ringing notes re-echoed from bluff and building wall +and came laughing back from the distant crags at the south, the little +throng at the bank and the crowd at the point of the bluff had scattered +like startled coveys,--the men full run for the barracks and stables, +never stopping to "reason why." + +Nearly half an hour later, gray-haired Captain Dade stood at the point +of bluff near the flagstaff, Esther, pale and tearful, by his side, +waving adieu and Godspeed to Webb, who had halted in saddle on reaching +the opposite bank and was watching his little column through the +ford,--three stanch troops, each about sixty strong, reinforced by half +a dozen of Ray's men left behind in the forward rush at dawn, but +scorning disqualification of any kind now that danger menaced their +beloved captain and their comrades of the sorrel troop. In all the +regiment no man was loved by the rank and file as was Billy Ray. +Brilliant soldiers, gifted officers, sterling men were many of his +comrades, but ever since he first joined the ----th on the heels of the +civil war, more than any one of its commissioned list, Ray had been +identified with every stirring scout and campaign, fight or incident in +the regimental history. Truscott, Blake, Hunter and Gregg among the +junior captains had all had their tours of detached duty--instructing at +West Point, recruiting in the big Eastern cities, serving as +aide-de-camp to some general officer, but of Ray it could be said he had +hardly been east of the Missouri from the day he joined until his +wedding day, and only rarely and briefly since that time. More than any +officer had he been prominent in scout after scout--Arizona, Mexico, +Texas, the Indian Territory, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, the +Dakotas, Montana, even parts of Idaho and Utah he knew as he used to +know the roads and runways of the blue grass region of his native state. +From the British line to the Gulfs of Mexico and California he had +studied the West. The regiment was his home, his intense pride, and its +men had been his comrades and brothers. The veterans trusted and swore +by, the younger troopers looked up to and well nigh worshipped him, and +now, as the story that the Sioux had probably surrounded the sorrel +troop went like wild fire through the garrison, even the sick in +hospital begged to be allowed to go, and one poor lad, frantic through +fever and enforced confinement, broke from the hold of the half-hearted +attendant; tore over to "K" Troop barracks, demanding his "kit" of +Sergeant Schreiber, and, finding the quarters deserted, the men all gone +to stables, dared to burst into that magnate's own room in search of his +arms and clothing, and thereby roused a heavily sleeping soldier, who +damned him savagely until, through wild raving, he gathered that some +grave danger menaced Captain Ray. Even his befuddled senses could +fathom that! And while guards and nurses bore the patient, shrieking and +struggling, back to hospital, Kennedy soused his hot head in the cooling +waters of their frontier lavatory and was off like a shot to the +stables. + +It was long before he found his horse, for the guard had taken Kilmaine +to "F" Troop's stables, and Kennedy had been housed by "K." It was +longer still before he could persuade the guard that he "had a right," +as he put it, to ride after the major. Not until Captain Dade had been +consulted would they let him go. Not, indeed, until in person Kennedy +had pleaded his cause with that cool-headed commander. Dade noted the +flushed and swollen face, but reasoned that nothing would more speedily +shake the whiskey from his system than a long gallop in that glorious +air and sunshine. "Major Webb is following the trail of Captain Ray," +said he. "You follow the major's. You can't miss him, and there are no +more Indians now to interpose. You should catch him by noon--then give +him this." + +"This" was a copy of a late despatch just in from Laramie, saying that +the revolt had reached the Sioux at the agencies and reservations on the +White Earth, and would demand the attention of every man at the post. No +reinforcement, therefore, could be looked for from that quarter until +the general came. It was no surprise to Dade. It could be none to Webb, +for old Red Cloud had ever been an enemy, even when bribed and petted +and fed and coddled in his village on the Wakpa Schicha. His nephew led +the bolt afield. No wonder the old war chief backed him with abundant +food, ammunition and eager warriors sent "from home." + +But it was after eleven when Kennedy drove his still wearied horse +through the Platte and, far to the north, saw the dun dust cloud that +told where Webb's little column was trotting hard to the support of the +sorrels. His head was aching and he missed the morning draught of +soldier coffee. He had eaten nothing since his cold lunch at the +major's, and would have been wise had he gone to Mistress McGann and +begged a cup of the fragrant Java with which she had stimulated her +docile master ere he rode forth, but the one idea uppermost in Kennedy's +muddled brain was that the sorrels were trapped by the Sioux and every +trooper was needed to save them. At three in the morning he felt equal +to fighting the whole Sioux nation, with all its dozen tribes and +dialects. At 3:30 he had been whipped to a stand by just one of their +number, and, "Mother av Moses," one that spoke English as well, or as +ill, as any man in the ----th. + +Sore in soul and body was Kennedy, and sore and stiff was his gallant +bay, Kilmaine, when these comrades of over three years' service shook +the spray of the Platte from their legs and started doggedly northward +on the trail. Northward they went for full three miles, Kilmaine sulky +and protesting. The dust cloud was only partially visible now, hidden by +the ridge a few miles ahead, when, over that very ridge, probably four +miles away to the right front, Kennedy saw coming at speed a single +rider, and reined to the northeast to meet him. Blake and his men had +gone far in that direction. Two of their number, with horses too slow +for a chase after nimble ponies, had, as we have seen, drifted back, and +joined, unprepared though they were for the field, the rear of Webb's +column. But now came another, not aiming for Webb, but heading for +Frayne. It meant news from the chase that might be important. It would +take him but little from the direct line to the north, why not meet him +and hear? Kennedy reined to the right, riding slowly now and seeking the +higher level from which he could command the better view. + +At last they neared each other, the little Irish veteran, sore-headed +and in evil mood, and a big, wild-eyed, scare-faced trooper new to the +frontier, spurring homeward with panic in every feature, but rejoicing +at sight of a comrade soldier. + +"Git back; git back!" he began to shout, as soon as he got within +hailing distance. "There's a million Indians just over the ridge. +They've got the captain----" + +"What captain?" yelled Kennedy, all ablaze at the instant. "Spake up, ye +shiverin' loon!" + +"Blake! He got way ahead of us----" + +"Then it's to him you should be runnin', not home, ye cur! Turn about +now! Turn about or I'll----" And in a fury Pat had seized the other's +rein, and, spurring savagely at Kilmaine,--both horses instantly waking, +as though responsive to the wrath and fervor of their little master,--he +fairly whirled the big trooper around and, despite fearsome protests, +bore him onward toward the ridge, swift questioning as they rode. How +came they to send a raw rookie on such a quest? Why, the rookie gasped +in explanation that he was on stable guard, and the captain took the +first six men in sight. How happened it that the captain got so far +ahead of him? There was no keepin' up with the captain. He was on his +big, raw-boned race horse, chasin' three Indians that was firin' and had +hit Meisner, but there was still three of the troop to follow him, and +the captain ordered "come ahead," until all of a sudden, as they filed +round a little knoll, the three Indians they'd been chasin' turned about +and let 'em have it, and down went another horse, and Corporal Feeney +was killed sure, and he, the poor young rookie, saw Indians in every +direction, "comin' straight at 'em," and what else could he do but +gallop for home--and help? All this, told with much gasping on his part, +and heard with much blasphemy by Kennedy, brought the strangely assorted +pair at swift gallop over the springy turf back along the line of that +panicky, yet most natural retreat. Twice would the big fellow have +broken away and again spurred for home, but the little game cock held +him savagely to his work and so, together, at last they neared the +curtaining ridge. "Now, damn you!" howled Kennedy, "whip out your +carbine and play you're a man till we see what's in front! an' if ye +play false, the first shot from this barker," with a slap at the butt of +his Springfield, "goes through your heart." + +And this was what they saw as, together, they rounded the hillock and +came in view of the low ground beyond. + +Half way down the long, gradual slope, in a shallow little dip, possibly +an old buffalo wallow, two or three horses were sprawled, and a tiny +tongue of flame and blue smoke spitting from over the broad, brown backs +told that someone, at least, was on the alert and defensive. Out on the +prairie, three hundred yards beyond, a spotted Indian pony, heels up, +was rolling on the turf, evidently sorely wounded. Behind this rolling +parapet crouched a feathered warrior, and farther still away, sweeping +and circling on their mettlesome steeds, three more savage braves were +darting at speed. Already they had sighted the coming reinforcements, +and while two seemed frantically signalling toward the northwest, the +third whirled his horse and sped madly away in that direction. + +"Millions, be damned!" yelled Kennedy. "There's only three. Come on, ye +scut!" And down they went, full tilt at the Sioux, yet heading to cover +and reach the beleaguered party in the hollow. Someone of the besieged +waved a hat on high. Two more carbines barked their defiance at the +feathered foe, and then came a pretty exhibit of savage daring and +devotion. Disdainful of the coming troopers and of the swift fire now +blazing at them from the pit, the two mounted warriors lashed their +ponies to mad gallop and bore down straight for their imperilled +brother, crouching behind the stricken "pinto." Never swerving, never +halting, hardly checking speed, but bending low over and behind their +chargers' necks, the two young braves swept onward and with wild whoop +of triumph, challenge and hatred, gathered up and slung behind the rider +of the heavier pony the agile and bedizened form on the turf; then +circled away, defiant, taunting, gleeful, yes and even more:--With +raging eyes, Kennedy sprang from saddle and, kneeling, drove shot after +shot at the scurrying pair. Two of the three troopers at the hollow +followed suit. Even the big, blubbering lad so lately crazed with fear +unslung his weapon and fired thrice into empty space, and a shout of +wrath and renewed challenge to "come back and fight it out" rang out +after the Sioux, for to the amaze of the lately besieged, to the +impotent fury of the Irishman, in unmistakable, yet mostly unquotable, +English, the crippled warrior was yelling mingled threat and +imprecation. + +"Who was it, Kennedy?--and where did you ever see him before?" a moment +later, demanded Captain Blake, almost before he could grasp the +Irishman's hands and shower his thanks, and even while stanching the +flow of blood from a furrow along his sun-burnt cheek. "What's that he +said about eating your heart?" + +And Kennedy, his head cleared now through the rapture of battle, minded +him of his promise to Field, and lied like a hero. "Sure, how should I +know him, sorr? They're all of the same spit." + +"But, he called you by name. I heard him plainly. So did Meisner, here," +protested Blake. "Hello, what have you there, corporal?" he added, as +young Feeney, the "surely killed," came running back, bearing in his +hand a gaily ornamented pouch of buckskin, with long fringes and heavy +crusting of brilliant beads. + +"Picked it up by that pony yonder, sir," answered the corporal, with a +salute. "Beg pardon, sir, but will the captain take my horse? His is hit +too bad to carry him." + +Two, indeed, of Blake's horses were crippled, and it was high time to be +going. Mechanically he took the pouch and tied it to his waist belt. +"Thank God no _man_ is hurt!" he said. "But--now back to Frayne! Watch +those ridges and be ready if a feather shows, and spread out a +little--Don't ride in a bunch." + +But there was bigger game miles to the west, demanding all the attention +of the gathered Sioux. There were none to spare to send so far, and +though three warriors,--one of them raging and clamoring for further +attempt despite his wounds,--hovered about the retiring party, Blake and +his fellows within another hour were in sight of the sheltering walls of +Frayne; and, after a last, long-range swapping of shots, with Blake and +Meisner footing it most of the way, led their crippled mounts in safety +toward that Rubicon of the West--the swift flowing Platte. They were +still three miles out when Blake found leisure to examine the contents +of that beaded pouch, and the first thing drawn from its depths was +about the last a Christian would think to find in the wallet of a +Sioux--a dainty little billet, scented with wood violet,--an envelope of +delicate texture, containing a missive on paper to match, and the +envelope was addressed in a strange, angular, characteristic hand that +Blake recognized at once, to a man of whom, by that name at least, he +had never heard before: + + "MR. RALPH MOREAU, + "_En Ville._" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BAD NEWS FROM THE FRONT + + +It might well be imagined that a man returning from such a morning's +work as had been Blake's could be excused from duty the rest of the day. +He and his little party had had a spirited running fight of several +hours with an evasive and most exasperating trio of warriors, better +mounted for swift work than were the troopers. He had managed eventually +to bring down one of the Indians who lingered a little too long within +short range of the carbines, but it was the pony, not the rider, that +they killed. Meanwhile other Indians had appeared on distant divides, +and one feathered brave had galloped down to meet his comrades, and fire +a few shots at the pursuing pale faces. But at no time, until near their +supports and far from the fort, had the Sioux halted for a hand to hand +fight, and Blake's long experience on the frontier had stood him in good +stead. He saw they were playing for one of two results;--either to lure +him and his fellows in the heat of pursuit far round to the northwest, +where were the united hundreds of Lame Wolf and Stabber stalking that +bigger game, or else to tempt Blake himself so far ahead of his fellows +as to enable them to suddenly whirl about, cut him off, and, three on +one, finish him then and there; then speed away in frenzied delight, +possessors of a long-coveted scalp. + +They well knew Blake,--almost as well as they did Ray. Many a year he +had fought them through the summer and fed them through the winter. +They, their squaws and pappooses, had fattened on his bounty when the +snows were deep and deer were gone, and their abundant rations had been +feasted or gambled away. Many of their number liked him well, but now +they were at the war game again, and, business is business with the +aborigines. Blake was a "big chief," and he who could wear at his belt +the scalp of so prominent a pale face leader would be envied among his +people. "Long Legs," as they called him, however, was no fool. Brave and +zealous as he was, Blake was not rash. He well knew that unless he and +his few men kept together they would simply play into the hands of the +Indians. It would have been easy for him, with his big racer, to +outstrip his little party and close with the Sioux. Only one of the +troopers had a horse that could keep pace with Pyramus, but nothing he +could gain by such a proceeding would warrant the desperate risk. +Matchless as we have reason to believe our men, we cannot so believe our +mounts. Unmatched would better describe them. Meisner's horse might have +run with the captain's, until crippled by the bullets of the Sioux, but +Bent's and Flannigan's were heavy and slow, and so it resulted that the +pursuit, though determined, was not so dangerous to the enemy but that +they were able to keenly enjoy it, until the swift coming of Kennedy +and his captive comrade turned the odds against them, for then two of +Blake's horses had given out through wounds and weakness, and they had +the pursuers indeed "in a hole." + +That relief came none too soon. Blake and his fellows had been brought +to a stand; but now the Sioux sped away out of range; the crippled party +limped slowly back to the shelter of Frayne, reaching the post long +hours after their spirited start, only to find the women and children, +at least, in an agony of dread and excitement, and even Dade and his +devoted men looking grave and disturbed. Unless all indications failed, +Ray and his people must have been having the fight of their lives. Two +couriers had galloped back from Moccasin Ridge to say that Major Webb's +scouts could faintly hear the sound of rapid firing far ahead, and that, +through the glass, at least a dozen dead horses or ponies could be seen +scattered over the long slope to the Elk Tooth range, miles further on. +Webb had pushed forward to Ray's support, and Blake, calling for fresh +horses for himself and two of his men, bade the latter get food and +field kits and be ready to follow him. Then he hastened to join his +devoted young wife, waiting with Mrs. Ray upon the piazza. Dade, who had +met him at the ford, had still much to tell and even more to hear; but +at sight of those two pale, anxious faces, lifted his cap and called out +cheerily, "I hand him over to you, Mrs. Blake, and will see him later," +then turned and went to his own doorway, and took Esther's slender form +in his strong arms and kissed the white brow and strove to think of +something reassuring to say, and never thought to ask Blake what he had +in that fine Indian tobacco pouch swinging there at his belt, for which +neglect the tall captain was more than grateful. It was a woman's +letter, as we know, and that, he argued, should be dealt with only in a +woman's way. + +Sorely puzzled as Blake had been by the discovery, he had been able on +the long homeward march,--walking until in sight of Frayne and safety, +then galloping ahead on the corporal's horse,--to think it out, as he +said, in several ways. Miss Flower had frequently ridden up the valley +and visited the Indian village across the Platte. Miss Flower might +easily have dropped that note, and some squaw, picking it up, had +surrendered it to the first red man who demanded it, such being the +domestic discipline of the savage. The Indian kept it, as he would any +other treasure trove for which he had no use, in hopes of reward for its +return, said Blake. It was queer, of course, that the Indian in whose +pouch it was found should have been so fluent a speaker of English, yet +many a Sioux knew enough of our tongue to swear volubly and talk ten +words of vengeance to come. There were several ways, as Blake reasoned, +by which that letter might have got into the hands of the enemy. But at +any rate, with everything said, it was a woman's letter. He had no right +to read it. He would first confide in his wife, and, if she said so, in +Mrs. Ray. Then what they decided should decide him. + +But now came a new problem. Despite the long morning of peril and chase +and excitement, there was still much more ahead. His men were in saddle; +his troop was afield; the foe was in force on the road to the north; the +battle, mayhap, was on at the very moment, and Frayne and home was no +place for him when duty called at the distant front. Only, there was +Nan, silent, tremulous, to be sure, and with such a world of piteous +dread and pleading in her beautiful eyes. It was hard to have to tell +her he must go again and at once, hard to have to bid her help him in +his hurried preparations, when she longed to throw herself in his arms +and be comforted. He tried to smile as he entered the gate, and thereby +cracked the brittle, sun-dried court plaster with which a sergeant had +patched his cheek at the stables. The would-be glad-some grin started +the blood again, and it trickled down and splashed on his breast where +poor Nan longed to pillow her bonny head, and the sight of it, despite +her years of frontier training, made her sick and faint. He caught her +in his left arm, laughing gayly, and drew her to the other side. "Got +the mate to that scoop of Billy's," he cried, holding forth his other +hand to Mrs. Ray. "'Tisn't so deep, perhaps, but 'twill serve, 'twill +do, and I'll crow over him to-night. Come in with us, Mrs. Ray. I--I've +something to show you." + +"One minute," said that wise young matron. "Let me tell the children +where to find me. Sandy and Billy are on post at the telescope. They +wouldn't leave it even for luncheon." With that she vanished, and +husband and wife were alone. + +"You must go, Gerald," she sobbed--"I know it, but--isn't there _some_ +way?--Won't Captain Dade send more men with you?" + +"If he did, Nan, they'd only hamper me with horses that drag behind. Be +brave, little woman. Webb has swept the way clear by this time! Come, I +need your help." + +And the door closed on the soldier and his young wife. They never saw +that Nanette Flower, in saddle, was riding swiftly up the row, and, for +the first time since her coming to Frayne, without an escort. Dade +reappeared upon his front gallery in time to greet her, but Esther, +after one quick glance, had darted again within. Dade saw unerringly +that Miss Flower was in no placid frame of mind. Her cheeks were pale; +her mouth had that livid look that robbed her face of all beauty; but +her eyes were full and flashing with excitement. + +"What news, captain?" she hailed, and the joyous, silvery ring had gone +from her voice. "They tell me Captain Blake is back--two horses +crippled, two men hit, including himself." + +"His own share is a scratch he wouldn't think of mentioning outside the +family, Miss Flower," answered Dade, with grim civility. He had his +reasons for disapproving of the young woman; yet they were not such as +warranted him in showing her the least discourtesy. He walked to his +gate and met her at the curb beyond and stood stroking the arching neck +of her spirited horse--"Harney" again. + +"Did they--were there any Indians--killed?" she asked, with anxiety +scarcely veiled. + +"Oh, they downed one of them," answered the captain, eying her closely +the while and speaking with much precision, "a fellow who cursed them +freely in fluent English." Yes, she was surely turning paler.--"A bold, +bad customer, from all accounts. Blake thought he must be of Lame Wolf's +fellows, because he--seemed to know Kennedy so well and to hate him. +Kennedy has only just come down from Fort Beecher, where Wolf's people +have been at mischief." + +"But what became of him? What did they do with him?" interrupted the +girl, her lips quivering in spite of herself. + +"Oh,--left him, I suppose," answered the veteran, with deliberate +design. "What else could they do? There was no time for ceremony. His +fellow savages, you know, can attend to that." + +For a moment she sat there rigid, her black eyes staring straight into +the imperturbable face of the old soldier. No one had ever accused Dade +of cruelty or unkindness to man or woman, especially to woman; yet here +he stood before this suffering girl and, with obvious intent, pictured +to her mind's eye a warrior stricken and left unburied or uncared for on +the field. Whatever his reasons, he stabbed and meant to stab, and for +just one moment she seemed almost to droop and reel in saddle; then, +with splendid rally, straightened up again, her eyes flashing, her lip +curling in scorn, and with one brief, emphatic phrase ended the +interview and, whirling Harney about, smote him sharply with her whip, +and darted away:-- + +"True!" said she. "Civilized warfare!" + +"If that girl isn't more than half savage," said Dade, to himself, as +Harney tore away out of the garrison on the road to the ford, "I am more +than half Sioux. Oh, for news of Ray!" + +Ray indeed! It was now nearly four o'clock. Telegrams had been coming +and going over the Laramie wire. "The Chief," as they called their +general, with only one of his staff in attendance, had reached Cheyenne +on time, and, quitting the train, declining dinner at the hotel and +having but a word or two with the "Platform Club,"--the little bevy of +officers from Fort Russell whose custom it was to see the westbound +train through almost every day--had started straightway for Laramie +behind the swiftest team owned by the quartermaster's department, while +another, in relay, awaited him at the Chugwater nearly fifty miles out. +Driving steadily through the starlit night, he should reach the old +frontier fort by dawn at the latest, and what news would Dade have to +send him there? Not a word had he uttered to either the officers who +respectfully greeted, or reporters who eagerly importuned, him as to the +situation at Frayne; but men who had served with him in Arizona and on +the Yellowstone many a year before, knew well that grave tidings had +reached him. Dade had, in fact, supplemented Webb's parting despatch +with another saying that Blake's little party, returning, had just been +sighted through the telescope nine miles out, with two men afoot. But +not until the general reached Lodge Pole Creek did the message meet him, +saying that Webb's advance guard could hear the distant attack on Ray. +Not until he reached the Chugwater in the early night could he hope to +hear the result. + +It was nightfall when the awful suspense of the garrison at Frayne was +even measurably lifted. Blake, with three troopers at his back, had then +been gone an hour, and was lost in the gloaming before Dr. Tracy's +orderly, with a face that plainly told the nervous tension of his two +hours' ride, left his reeking, heaving horse at the stables and climbed +the steep path to the flagstaff, the shortest way to the quarters of the +commanding officer. Despite the gathering darkness, he had been seen by +a dozen eager watchers and was deluged with questions by trembling, +tearful women and by grave, anxious men. + +"There's been a fight; that's all I know," he said. "I was with the pack +mules and the ambulances and didn't get to see it. All I saw was dead +ponies way out beyond Ten Mile Ridge. Where's the major?--I mean the +captain?" No! the orderly didn't know who was killed or wounded, or that +anybody was killed and wounded. All he knew was that Dr. Tracy came +galloping back and ordered the ambulances to scoot for the front and him +to spur every bit of the way back to Frayne with the note for Captain +Dade. + +All this was told as he eagerly pushed his way along the board walk; +soldiers' wives hanging on his words and almost on him; officers' wives +and daughters calling from the galleries or running to the gates, and +Dade heard the hubbub almost as quickly as did Esther, who hurried to +the door. By the light of the hall lamp the commander read the pencilled +superscription of the gummed envelope and the word "Immediate" at the +corner. The same light fell on a dozen anxious, pleading faces beyond +the steps. His hand shook in spite of himself, and he knew he could not +open and read it in their presence. "One moment," he said, his heart +going out to them in sympathy as well as dread. "You shall hear in one +moment," and turned aside into the little army parlor. + +But he could not turn from his wife and child. They followed and stood +studying his pale face as he read the fateful words that told so little, +yet so much:-- + + Reached Ray just in time. Sharp affair. Dr. Waller will have to + come at once, as Tracy goes on with us to rescue stage people at + Dry Fork. Better send infantry escort and all hospital attendants + that can be possibly spared; also chaplain. Sergeants Burroughs and + Wing, Corporal Foot and Troopers Denny, Flood, Kerrigan and + Preusser killed. Many wounded--Lieutenant Field seriously. + + WEBB. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"I'LL NEVER GO BACK" + + +A sharp affair indeed was that of this September day!--a fight long +talked of on the frontier if soon forgotten in "the States." Obedient to +his orders to push to the relief of the imperilled party on the Dry +Fork, Ray had made good time to Moccasin Ridge, even though saving +horses and men for the test of the later hours. Well he knew his march +would be watched by some of Stabber's band, but little did he dream at +starting that Indian strategy would take the unusual form of dropping +what promised to be a sure thing, leaving the people at the stage +station to the guardianship of less than a dozen braves, and launching +out with a big band to aid a little one in attack on one lone detachment +that might not come at all. But Lame Wolf reasoned that the people +penned at the stage station were in no condition to attempt escape. They +were safe whenever he chose to return to them, and Lame Wolf knew this +of Stabber--that he had long been a hanger-on about the military +reservations, that he had made a study of the methods of the white +chiefs, that he was able to almost accurately predict what their course +would be in such event as this, and that Stabber had recently received +accessions whose boast it was that they had information at first hand of +the white chief's plans and intentions. Stabber had sent swift runners +to Lame Wolf urging him to bring his warriors to aid him in surrounding +the first troops sent forth from Frayne. Stabber had noted, year after +year, that it was the almost invariable policy of our leaders to order a +small force at the start, and then, when that was crushed, to follow it +with the big one that should have been sent in the first place. +Kennedy's successful coming was known to Stabber quite as soon as it was +to Webb. It may well be that Stabber let him through, feeling confident +what the result would be, and then, despite a certain jealousy, not +confined entirely to savage rival leaders, Lame Wolf had confidence in +Stabber's judgment. Ray had expected long range flank fire, and possibly +occasional resistance in front; but, assured of Stabber's paucity in +numbers and believing Lame Wolf too busy to send Stabber substantial +aid, he thought a sharp lesson or two would clear his front of such +Indians as sought to check him, and so rode serenely forward, rejoicing +in his mission and in his game and devoted little command. + +"Something beyond that second ridge," he had said to Field, in sending +him forward with the bulk of the platoon, and Field, who had been silent +and brooding, woke at the summons and, all animation at the scent of +danger, spurred swiftly ahead to join the advance and see for himself +what manner of hindrance awaited them, leaving the baker's dozen of his +platoon to trot steadily on under lead of its sergeant, while Ray, with +his trumpeter, followed mid way between his advance and Clayton's +platoon, intact, moving quietly at the walk and held in reserve. + +Ordinarily Ray would himself have ridden to the far front and personally +investigated the conditions, but he was anxious that Field should +understand he held the full confidence of his temporary commander. He +wished Field to realize that now he had opportunity for honorable +distinction, and a chance to show what was in him and, having sent him +forward, Ray meant to rely on his reports and be ready to back, if +possible, his dispositions. Nothing so quickly demolishes prejudice in +garrison as prowess in the field. Not infrequently has an officer gone +forth under a cloud and returned under a crown. It is so much easier to +be a hero in a single fight than a model soldier through an entire +season--at least it was so in the old days. + +But the moment Mr. Field dismounted and, leaving his horse with the +others along the slope, had gone crouching to the crest, he levelled his +glasses for one look, then turned excitedly and began rapid signals to +his followers. Presently a young trooper came charging down, making +straight for Ray. "The lieutenant's compliments," said he, "but there's +a dozen Sioux in sight, and he wishes to know shall he charge." + +A dozen Sioux in sight! That was unusual. Ordinarily the Indian keeps in +hiding, lurking behind sheltering crests and ridges in the open country, +or the trees and underbrush where such cover is possible. A dozen in +sight? + +"How far ahead, Murray?" asked the captain, as he shook free his rein +and started forward at the gallop. "Did you see them yourself?" + +"Yes, sir. Most of 'em were bunched by the roadside, jabbing with their +lances at something or other. Two or three were closer in. They must ha' +been watching us, for they only quit the ridge just before we came up. +Then they skedaddled." The vernacular of the civil war days, long since +forgotten except about the few Veteran Soldiers' Homes in the East, was +still in use at times in regiments like the ----th, which had served the +four years through with the Army of the Potomac. Old sergeants give the +tone to younger soldiers in all the customs of the service. The captain +and the two men now with him had caught up with Field's swift trotting +support by this time, and the eyes of the men kindled instantly at sight +of their leader speeding easily by, cool, confident and as thoroughly at +home as though it were the most ordinary skirmish drill. Those who have +never tried it, do not quite realize what it means to ride in closed +ranks and compact column, silent and unswerving, straight forward over +open fields toward some equally silent crest, that gives no sign of +hostile occupancy, and yet may suddenly blaze with vengeful fires and +spit its hissing lead into the faces of the advancing force. Even here +where the ridge was already gained by two or three of the advance, +proving, therefore, that the enemy could not be in possession, men saw +by the excitement manifest in the signals of the lieutenant, and indeed +of Sergeant Scott, who had spent fifteen years in the ranks, that +Indians must be close at hand. The crest was barely five hundred yards +in front of the section, and they were still "bunched," a splendid mark +if the foe saw fit by sudden dash to regain the ridge and pour in rapid +fire from their magazine rifles. Every ward of the nation, as a rule, +had his Winchester or Henry,--about a six to one advantage to the red +men over the sworn soldier of the government in a short range fight. The +lieutenant was a brave lad and all that, and could be relied on to "do +his share in a shindy," as the sergeant put it, but when it came to +handling the troop to the best advantage, giving them full swing when +they met the foe on even terms and a fair field, but holding them clear +of possible ambuscade, then "Captain Billy is the boss in the business," +was the estimate of his men, and every heart beat higher at sight of +him. He would know just what to do for them, and knowing, would do it. + +Even as he went loping by Ray had half turned, with something like a +smile in his dark eyes and a nod of his curly head to the sergeant +commanding, and a gesture of the gauntleted hand,--a horizontal sweep to +right and left, twice repeated,--had given the veteran his cue, and with +another moment Winsor had the dozen in line at open, yet narrow, +intervals, with carbines advanced and ready for business. They saw their +captain ride swiftly up the gentle slope until close to the crest, then +off he sprang, tossed his reins to the trumpeter and went hurrying +afoot to join the lieutenant. They saw him kneeling as though to level +his glasses and look fixedly forward; saw Field run back to his horse +and mount in a twinkling; saw him whirl about as though coming to place +himself at their head, yet rein in at once--his charger's fore feet +ploughing the turf at some word from their leader. Field was eager to +charge, but Ray had seen for himself and for his men, and Ray said, no. +Another moment and all at the front were again in saddle--Field back +with the advance, Ray coolly seated astride his pet sorrel,--scouting a +second ridge, far to the north, with his glasses, and sending, as +before, Scott and his three troopers straight on to the front, and +signalling to the flankers to continue the move. Ten seconds' study of +the position in the long, wide, shallow depression before him had +fathomed the scheme of the savage. The little knot of Indians, +jabbering, yelping, prodding and circling about some unseen object on +the turf, feigning ignorance of the soldiers' coming, was at the +old-time trick to get the foremost troopers to charge and chase, to draw +them on in all the dash and excitement of the moment, far ahead--three +miles, perhaps--of the main body, and so enable all the lurking band +behind that second curtain, the farther ridge, to come swooping down to +surround, overwhelm and butcher the luckless few, then be off to safe +distance long before the mass of the troop could possibly reach the +scene. + +"No you don't, Stabber!" laughed Ray, as Field, not a little chagrined, +and the dozen at his back, came trotting within hearing distance. "That +dodge was bald-headed when I was a baby. Look, Field," he continued. +"They were jabbing at nothing there on the prairie. That was a fake +captive they were stabbing to death. See them all scooting away now. +They'll rally beyond that next ridge, and we'll do a little fooling of +our own." + +And so, with occasional peep at feathered warriors on the far left +flank, and frequent hoverings of small parties on the distant front, +Ray's nervy half hundred pushed steadily on. Two experiments had +satisfied the Sioux that the captain himself was in command and they had +long since recognized the sorrels. They knew of old Ray was not to be +caught by time-worn tricks. They had failed to pick off the advance, or +the officers, as the troop approached the second ridge. Lame Wolf's big +band was coming fast, but only a dozen of his warriors, sent lashing +forward, had as yet reached Stabber. The latter was too weak in numbers +to think of fighting on even terms, and as Ray seemed determined to come +ahead, why not let him? Word was sent to Wolf not to risk showing south +of the Elk Tooth spur. There in the breaks and ravines would be a famous +place to lie in ambush, leaving to Stabber the duty of drawing the +soldiers into the net. So there in the breaks they waited while Ray's +long skirmish line easily manoeuvred the red sharp-shooters out of their +lair on the middle divide. Then, reforming column, the little command +bore straight away for the Elk. + +But all these diversions took time. Twenty miles to the north of Frayne +stretched the bold divide between the Elk Fork, dry as a dead tooth much +of the year, and the sandy bottom of the Box Elder. Here and there +along the ridge were sudden, moundlike upheavals that gave it a +picturesque, castellated effect, for, unlike the general run of the +country, the Elk Tooth seemed to have a backbone of rock that shot forth +southeastward from the southern limit of the beautiful Big Horn range; +and, in two or three places, during some prehistoric convulsion of +nature, it had crushed itself out of shape and forced upward a mass of +gleaming rock that even in the course of centuries had not been +overgrown with grass. "Elk teeth" the Indians had called these odd +projections, and one of them, the middle one of the three most +prominent, was a landmark seen for many a mile except to the south and +west. Eagle Butte was the only point south of the Big Horn and in the +valley of the Platte from which it could be seen, and famous were these +two points in the old days of the frontier for the beacon fires that +burned or the mirror signals that flashed on their summits when the war +parties of the Sioux were afield. + +It was the sight of puffs of smoke sailing skyward from the crest of the +middle tooth that caught Ray's attention the moment he reached the +second ridge. A moment more had been devoted to recalling some of his +eager men who, from the extreme right of the swinging skirmish line, had +broken away in pursuit of certain intentional laggards. Then a dozen of +the Indians, finding themselves no longer followed, gathered at +comparatively safe distance across the prairie, and, while in eager +consultation, found time for taunting, challenging and occasionally +firing at the distant and angering troopers, whom Sergeant Scott had +sharply ordered back, and Ray, after calm survey of these fellows +through his glass, had then levelled it at the trio of buttes along the +distant ridge and turned to Field, sitting silent and disappointed by +his side. + +"There, Field," said the captain. "Take this glass and look at those +signal smokes--Stabber has more men now at his call than he had when he +started, and more yet are coming. They were just praying you would +charge with a handful of men. They would have let you through, then +closed around and cut you off. Do you see, boy?" + +Field touched his hat brim. "You know them best, sir," was the brief +answer. "What I wanted was a chance at those fellows hanging about our +front and calling us names." + +"You'll get it, I'm thinking, before we're an hour older. They know +whither we're bound and mean to delay us all they can. Ah, Clayton," he +added, as the junior lieutenant rode up to join them, while his platoon +dismounted to reset saddles behind the screen of the skirmish line. "Men +look full of fight, don't they? There, if anywhere, is where we'll get +it. I've just been showing Field those signal smokes. Mount and follow +when we're half way down to that clump of cottonwoods yonder. We must +reach those people at the stage station to-night, and I may have to give +these beggars a lesson first. Watch for my signal and come ahead lively +if I turn toward you and swing my hat. All ready, Field. Shove ahead." + +And this was the last conference between the three officers that +eventful morning. As once again the advance guard pushed cautiously +forward toward the banks of the arroyo in the bottom, Ray turned to +Field. "Skirmish work suits you better than office duty, Field. You look +far livelier than you did yesterday. Don't you begin to see that the +major was right in sending you out with us?" And the dark eyes of the +trained and experienced soldier shone kindly into the face of the +younger man. + +"I'm glad to be with you, Captain Ray," was the prompt answer. "It +isn't--my being sent, but the _way_ I was sent, or the--cause for which +I was sent that stings me. I thought then, and I think now, that if you +had been post commander it wouldn't have been done. I don't know yet +what charge has been laid at my door----" + +"There was no time to talk of reasons, Field," interposed Ray, though +his keen eyes were fixed on the distant ridge ahead, beyond which the +last of the Indians had now disappeared. The outermost troopers, with +Sergeant Scott, were within a few hundred yards of the little clump of +cottonwoods that marked the site of a water hole. To the right and left +of it curved and twisted the dry water course between its low, jagged, +precipitous banks. Behind the advance, full four hundred yards, rode the +skirmish line from the first platoon, a dozen strong. Far out to the +east and west the flankers moved steadily northward, keenly watching the +slopes beyond them and scanning the crooked line of the arroyo ahead. +Not a sign at the moment could be seen of the painted foe, yet every man +in the troop well knew they swarmed by dozens behind the buttes and +ridges ahead. Ray and Field, riding easily along in rear of the line, +with only the trumpeter within earshot, relaxed in no measure the +vigilance demanded by the situation, yet each was deeply concerned in +the subject of the talk. + +"There was no time. We had to start at once," continued Ray. "Wait until +you are back at the old desk, Field, and you'll find the major is, and +was, your stanch friend in this matter--" + +"I'll never go back to it, captain!" broke in Field, impetuously. "If +ordered to resume duty as adjutant, come what may, I shall refuse." + +But before Ray could interpose again there came sudden and stirring +interruption. From a point far down the "swale," from behind the low +bank of the stream bed, three rifle shots rang out on the crisp morning +air. The horse of the leading flanker, away out to the right, reared and +plunged violently, the rider seeming vainly to strive to check him. +Almost instantly three mounted warriors were seen tearing madly away +northeastward out of the gully, their feathers streaming in the wind. +Field spurred away to join his men. Ray whirled about in saddle, and +swung his broad-brimmed scouting hat high above his head, in signal to +Clayton; then shouted to Field. "Forward to the cottonwoods. Gallop!" he +cried. "We need them first of all!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A FIGHT WITH A FURY + + +The noonday sun was staring hotly down, an hour later, on a stirring +picture of frontier warfare, with that clump of cottonwoods as the +central feature. Well for Ray's half hundred, that brilliant autumn +morning, that their leader had had so many a year of Indian campaigning! +He now seemed to know by instinct every scheme of his savage foe and to +act accordingly. Ever since the command had come in sight of the Elk +Tooth the conviction had been growing on Ray that Stabber must have +received many accessions and was counting on the speedy coming of +others. The signal smokes across the wide valley; the frequent essays to +tempt his advance guard to charge and chase; the boldness with which the +Indians showed on front and flank; the daring pertinacity with which +they clung to the stream bed for the sake of a few shots at the foremost +troopers, relying, evidently, on the array of their comrades beyond the +ridge to overwhelm any force that gave close pursuit; the fact that +other Indians opened on the advance guard and the left flankers, and +that a dozen, at least, tore away out of the sandy arroyo the moment +they saw the line start at the gallop;--all these had tended to convince +the captain that, now at last, when he was miles from home and succor, +the Sioux stood ready in abundant force to give him desperate battle. + +To dart on in chase of the three warriors would simply result in the +scattering of his own people and their being individually cut off and +stricken down by circling swarms of their red foes. To gather his men +and attempt to force the passage of the Elk Tooth ridge meant certain +destruction of the whole command. The Sioux would be only to glad to +scurry away from their front and let them through, and then in big +circle whirl all about him, pouring in a concentric fire that would be +sure to hit some, at least, exposed as they would be on the open +prairie, while their return shots, radiating wildly at the swift-darting +warriors, would be almost as sure to miss. He would soon be weighted +down with wounded, refusing to leave them to be butchered; unable, +therefore, to move in any direction, and so compelled to keep up a +shelterless, hopeless fight until, one by one, he and his gallant +fellows fell, pierced by Indian lead, and sacrificed to the scalping +knife as were Custer's three hundred a decade before. + +No, Ray knew too much of frontier strategy to be so caught. There stood +the little grove of dingy green, a prairie fortress, if one knew how to +use it. There in the sand of the stream bed, by digging, were they sure +to find water for the wounded, if wounded there had to be. There by the +aid of a few hastily thrown intrenchments he could have a little plains +fort and be ready to repel even an attack in force. Horses could be +herded in the depths of the sandy shallows. Men could be distributed in +big circle through the trees and along the bank; and, with abundant +rations in their haversacks and water to be had for the digging, they +could hold out like heroes until relief should come from the south. + +Obviously, therefore, the cottonwood grove was the place, and thither at +thundering charge Field led the foremost line, while Ray waved on the +second, all hands cheering with glee at sight of the Sioux darting +wildly away up the northward slope. Ten men in line, far extended, were +sent right forward half way across the flats, ordered to drive the +Indians from the bottom and cripple as many as possible; but, if menaced +by superior numbers, to fall back at the gallop, keeping well away from +the front of the grove, so that the fire of its garrison might not be +"masked." The ten had darted after the scurrying warriors, full half way +to the beginning of the slope, and then, just as Ray had predicted, down +came a cloud of brilliant foemen, seeking to swallow the little ten +alive. Instantly their sergeant leader whirled them about and, pointing +the way, led them in wide circle, horses well in hand, back to the dry +wash, then down into its sandy depths. Here every trooper sprang from +saddle, and with the rein looped on the left arm, and from the shelter +of the straight, stiff banks, opened sharp fire on their pursuers, just +as Clayton's platoon, dismounting at the grove, sprang to the nearest +cover and joined in the fierce clamor of carbines. Racing down the +slope at top speed as were the Sioux, they could not all at once check +the way of their nimble mounts, and the ardor of the chase had carried +them far down to the flats before the fierce crackle began. Then it was +thrilling to watch them, veering, circling, sweeping to right or left, +ever at furious gallop, throwing their lithe, painted bodies behind +their chargers' necks, clinging with one leg and arm, barely showing so +much as an eyelid, yet yelping and screeching like so many coyotes, not +one of their number coming within four hundred yards of the slender +fighting line in the stream bed; some of them, indeed, disdaining to +stoop, riding defiantly along the front, firing wildly as they rode, yet +surely and gradually guiding their ponies back to the higher ground, +back out of harm's way; and, in five minutes from the time they had +flashed into view, coming charging over the mile away ridge, not a red +warrior was left on the low ground,--only three or four luckless ponies, +kicking in their last struggles or stiffening on the turf, while their +riders, wounded or unhurt, had been picked up and spirited away with the +marvellous skill only known to these warriors of the plains. + +Then Ray and his men had time to breathe and shout laughing comment and +congratulation. Not one, as yet, was hit or hurt. They were secure for +the time in a strong position, and had signally whipped off the first +assault of the Sioux. + +Loudly, excitedly, angrily these latter were now conferring again far +up the slope to the north. At least an hundred in one concourse, they +were having hot discussion over the untoward result of the dash. Others, +obedient to orders from the chief, were circling far out to east and +west and crossing the valley above and below the position of the +defence. Others, still, were galloping back to the ridge, where, against +the sky line, strong bodies of warriors could be plainly seen, moving +excitedly to and fro. Two little groups slowly making their way to the +crest gave no little comfort to the boys in blue. Some, at least, of the +charging force had been made to feel the bite of the cavalry weapon, and +were being borne to the rear. + +But no time was to be wasted. Already from far up the stream bed two or +three Indians were hazarding long-range shots at the grove, and Ray +ordered all horses into a bend of the "wash," where the side lines were +whipped from the blanket straps and the excited sorrels securely +hoppled. Then, here, there and in a score of places along the bank and +again at the edge of the cottonwoods, men had been assigned their +stations and bidden to find cover for themselves without delay. Many +burrowed in the soft and yielding soil, throwing the earth forward in +front of them. Others utilized fallen trees or branches. Some two or +three piled saddles and blanket rolls into a low barricade, and all, +while crouching about their work, watched the feathered warriors as they +steadily completed their big circle far out on the prairie. Bullets came +whistling now fast and frequently, nipping off leaves and twigs and +causing many a fellow to duck instinctively and to look about him, +ashamed of his dodge, yet sure of the fact that time had been in the +days of the most hardened veteran of the troop when he, too, knew what +it was to shrink from the whistle of hostile lead. It would be but a +moment or two, they all understood, before the foe would decide on the +next move; then every man would be needed. + +Meantime, having stationed Field on the north front, with orders to note +every movement of the Sioux, and having assigned Clayton to the minor +duty of watching the south front and the flanks, Ray was moving cheerily +among his men, speeding from cover to cover, suggesting here, helping +there, alert, even joyous in manner. "We couldn't have a better roost, +lads," he said. "We can stand off double their number easy. We can hold +out a week if need be, but you bet the major will be reaching out after +us before we're two days older. Don't waste your shots. Coax them close +in. Don't fire at a galloping Indian beyond three hundred yards. It's +waste of powder and lead." + +Cheerily, joyously they answered him, these his comrades, his soldier +children, men who had fought with him, many of their number, in a dozen +fields, and men who would stand by him, their dark-eyed little captain, +to the last. Even the youngest trooper of the fifty seemed inspired by +the easy, laughing confidence of the lighter hearts among their number, +or the grim, matter of fact pugnacity of the older campaigners. It was +significant, too, that the Indians seemed so divided in mind as to the +next move. There was loud wrangling and much disputation going on in +that savage council to the north. Stabber's braves and Lame Wolf's +followers seemed bitterly at odds, for old hands in the fast-growing +rifle pits pointed out on one side as many as half a dozen of the +former's warriors whom they recognized and knew by sight, while Ray, +studying the shifting concourse through his glasses, could easily see +Stabber himself raging among them in violent altercation with a tall, +superbly built and bedizened young brave, a sub-chief, apparently, who +for his part, seemed giving Stabber as good as he got. Lame Wolf was not +in sight at all. He might still be far from the scene, and this tall +warrior be acting as his representative. But whoever or whatever he was +he had hearty following. More than three-fourths of the wrangling +warriors in the group seemed backing him. Ray, after a few words to +Sergeant Winsor, crawled over beside his silent and absorbed young +second in command, and, bringing his glasses to bear, gazed across a low +parapet of sand long and fixedly at the turbulent throng a thousand +yards away. + +"It's easy to make out Stabber," he presently spoke. "One can almost +hear that foghorn voice of his. But who the mischief is that red villain +opposing him? I've seen every one of their chiefs in the last five +years. All are men of forty or more. This fellow can't be a big chief. +He looks long years younger than most of 'em, old Lame Wolf, for +instance, yet he's cheeking Stabber as if he owned the whole outfit." +Another long stare, then again--"Who the mischief can he be?" + +No answer at his side, and Ray, with the lenses still at his eyes, took +no note for the moment that Field remained so silent. Out at the front +the excitement increased. Out through the veil of surging warriors, the +loud-voiced, impetuous brave twice burst his way, and seemed at one and +the same time, in his superb poise and gesturings, to be urging the +entire body to join him in instant assault on the troops, and hurling +taunt and anathema on the besieged. Whoever he was, he was in a +veritable fury. As many as half of the Indians seemed utterly carried +away by his fiery words, and with much shouting and gesticulation and +brandishing of gun and lance, were yelling approbation of his views and +urging Stabber's people to join them. More furious language followed and +much dashing about of excited ponies. + +"Have you ever seen that fellow before?" demanded Ray, of brown-eyed +Sergeant Winsor, who had spent a lifetime on the plains, but Winsor was +plainly puzzled. + +"I can't say for the life of me, sir," was the answer. "I don't know him +at all--and yet--" + +"Whoever he is, by Jove," said Ray, "he's a bigger man this day than +Stabber, for he's winning the fight. Now, if he only leads the dash as +he does the debate, we can pick him off. Who are our best shots on this +front?" and eagerly he scanned the few faces near him. "Webber's tiptop +and good for anything under five hundred yards when he isn't excited, +and Stoltz, he's a keen, cool one. No! not you, Hogan," laughed the +commander, as a freckled faced veteran popped his head up over a nearby +parapet of sand, and grinned his desire to be included. + +"I've never seen the time you could hit what you aimed at. Slip out of +that hole and find Webber and tell him to come here--and you take his +burrow." Whereupon Hogan, grinning rueful acquiescence in his +commander's criticism, slid backwards into the stream bed and, followed +by the chaff of the three or four comrades near enough to catch the +words, went crouching from post to post in search of the desired +marksman. + +"You used to be pretty sure with the carbine in the Tonto Basin when we +were after Apaches, sergeant," continued Ray, again peering through the +glasses. "I'm mistaken in this fellow if he doesn't ride well within +range, and we must make an example of him. I want four first class shots +to single him out." + +"The lieutenant can beat the best I ever did, sir," said Winsor, with a +lift of the hand toward the hat brim, as though in apology, for Field, +silent throughout the brief conference, had half risen on his hands and +knees and was edging over to the left, apparently seeking to reach the +shelter of a little hummock close to the bank. + +"Why, surely, Field," was the quick reply, as Ray turned toward his +junior. "That will make it complete." + +[Illustration: "WITH ONE MAGNIFICENT RED ARM UPLIFTED."] + +But a frantic burst of yells and war whoops out at the front put sudden +stop to the words. The throng of warriors that had pressed so close +about Stabber and the opposing orator seemed all in an instant to split +asunder, and with trailing war bonnet and followed by only two or three +of his braves, the former lashed his way westward and swept angrily out +of the ruck and went circling away toward the crest, while, with loud +acclamation, brandishing shield and lance and rifle in superb barbaric +tableau, the warriors lined up in front of the victorious young leader +who, sitting high in his stirrups, with one magnificent red arm +uplifted, began shouting in the sonorous tongue of the Sioux some urgent +instructions. Down from the distant crest came other braves as though to +meet and ask Stabber explanation of his strange quitting the field. Down +came a dozen others, young braves mad for battle, eager to join the +ranks of this new leader, and Ray, who had turned on Field once more, +fixed his glasses on that stalwart, nearly stark naked, brilliantly +painted form, foremost of the Indian array and now at last in full and +unimpeded view. + +"By the gods of war!" he cried. "I never saw that scoundrel before, but +if it isn't that renegade Red Fox--Why, here, Field! Take my glass and +look. You were with the commissioners' escort last year at the Black +Hills council. You must have seen him and heard him speak. Isn't this +Red Fox himself?" + +And to Ray's surprise the young officer's eyes were averted, his face +pale and troubled, and the answer was a mere mumble--"I didn't meet +Fox--there, captain." + +He never seemed to see the glass held out to him until Ray almost thrust +it into his hand and then persisted with his inquiry. + +"Look at him anyhow. You may have seen him somewhere. Isn't that Red +Fox?" + +And now Ray was gazing straight at Field's half hidden face. Field, the +soul of frankness hitherto, the lad who was never known to flinch from +the eyes of any man, but to answer such challenge with his own,--brave, +fearless, sometimes even defiant. Now he kept the big binocular fixed on +the distant hostile array, but his face was white, his hand unsteady and +his answer, when it came, was in a voice that Ray heard in mingled pain +and wonderment. Could it be that the lad was unnerved by the sight? In +any event, he seemed utterly unlike himself. + +"I--cannot say, sir. It was dark--or night at all events,--the only time +I ever heard him." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ORDEAL BY FIRE + + +That action had been resolved upon, and prompt action, was now apparent. +Stabber, fighting chief though he had been in the past, had had his +reason for opposing the plans of this new and vehement leader; but +public sentiment, stirred by vehement oratory, had overruled him, and he +had bolted the field convention in a fury. Lame Wolf, a younger chief +than Stabber, had yet more power among the Ogalallas, being Red Cloud's +favorite nephew, and among the Indians at least, his acknowledged +representative. Whenever called to account, however, for that nephew's +deeds, the wary old statesman promptly disavowed them. It was in search +of Lame Wolf, reasoned Ray, that Stabber had sped away, possibly hoping +to induce him to call off his followers. It was probably the deeper +strategy of Stabber to oppose no obstacle to Ray's advance until the +little troop was beyond the Elk Tooth ridge, where, on utterly +shelterless ground, the Indian would have every advantage. He knew Ray +of old; knew well that, left to himself, the captain would push on in +the effort to rescue the stage people and he and his command might +practically be at the mercy of the Sioux, if only the Sioux would +listen and be patient. Stabber knew that to attack the troopers now +entrenching at the cottonwoods meant a desperate fight in which the +Indians, even if ultimately triumphant, must lose many a valued brave, +and that is not the thoroughbred Indian's view of good generalship. +Stabber was old, wily and wise. The new chief, whoever he might be, +seemed possessed of a mad lust for instant battle, coupled with a +possible fear that, unless the golden moment were seized, Ray might be +reinforced and could then defy them all. Indeed there were veteran +campaigners among the troopers who noted how often the tall red chief +pointed in sweeping gesture back to Moccasin Ridge--troopers who even at +the distance caught and interpreted a few of his words. "That's it, +sir," said Winsor, confidently to Ray. "He says 'more soldiers coming,' +and--I believe he knows." + +At all events he had so convinced his fellows and, even before Stabber +reached the middle tooth--where sat a little knot of mounted Indians, +signalling apparently to others still some distance to the north,--with +a chorus of exultant yells, the long, gaudy, glittering line of braves +suddenly scattered and, lashing away to right and left, dozens of them +darted at top speed to join those already disposed about that big +circle, while others still, the main body, probably seventy strong, +after some barbaric show of circus evolutions about their leader, once +more reined up for some final injunctions from his lips. Then, with a +magnificent gesture of the hand, he waved them on and, accompanied by +only two young riders, rode swiftly away to a little swell of the +prairie just out of range of the carbines, and there took his station to +supervise the attack. + +"Damn him!" growled old Winsor. "He's no charger like Crazy Horse. He's +a Sitting Bull breed of general--like some we had in Virginia," he +added, between his set teeth, but Ray heard and grinned in silent +appreciation. "Set your sights and give 'em their first volley as they +reach that scorched line," he called to the men along the northward +front, and pointed to a stretch of prairie where the dry grass had +lately been burned away. "Five hundred yards will do it. Then aim low +when they rush closer in." + +"Look at the middle tooth, captain," came the sudden hail from his left. +"Mirror flashes! See!" It was Field who spoke, and life and vim had +returned to his voice and color to his face. He was pointing eagerly +toward the highest of the knobs, where, all on a sudden, dazzling little +beams of light shot forth toward the Indians in the lowlands, tipping +the war bonnet and lance of many a brave with dancing fire. Whatever +their purport, the signals seemed ignored by the Sioux, for presently +two riders came sweeping down the long slope, straight for the point +where sat Red Fox, as, for want of other name, we must for the present +call him--who, for his part, shading his eyes with his hand, sat gazing +toward the westward side of his warrior circle, evidently awaiting some +demonstration there before giving signal for action elsewhere. Obedient +to his first instructions, the main body had spread out in long, +irregular skirmish rank, their mettlesome ponies capering and dancing in +their eagerness. Chanting in chorus some shrill, weird song, the line +was now slowly, steadily advancing, still too far away to warrant the +wasting of a shot, yet unmistakably seeking to close as much as possible +before bursting in with the final charge. + +[Illustration: "SOME FEW OF THEIR NUMBER BORNE AWAY BY THEIR COMRADES."] + +And still the red leader sat at gaze, oblivious for the moment of +everything around him, ignoring the coming of orders possibly from Lame +Wolf himself. Suddenly the silver armlets once more gleamed on high. +Then, clapping the palm of his right hand to his mouth, Red Fox gave +voice to a ringing war whoop, fierce, savage and exultant, and, almost +at the instant, like the boom and rumble that follows some vivid +lightning flash, the prairie woke and trembled to the thunder of near a +thousand hoofs. From every point of the compass--from every side, +yelling like fiends of some orthodox hell, down they came--the wild +warriors of the frontier in furious rush upon the silent and almost +peaceful covert of this little band of brothers in the dusty garb of +blue. One, two, three hundred yards they came, centering on the leafy +clump of cottonwoods, riding at tearing gallop, erect, defiant, daring +at the start, and giving full voice to their wild war cry. Then bending +forward, then crouching low, then flattening out like hunted squirrel, +for as the foremost in the dash came thundering on within good carbine +range, all on a sudden the watch dogs of the little plains fort began to +bark. Tiny jets of flame and smoke shot from the level of the +prairie, from over dingy mounds of sand, from behind the trunks of +stunted trees, from low parapet of log or leather. Then the entire grove +seemed veiling itself in a drifting film of blue, the whole charging +circle to crown itself with a dun cloud of dust that swept eastward over +the prairie, driven by the stiff, unhampered breeze. The welkin rang +with savage yell, with answering cheer, with the sputter and crackle of +rifle and revolver, the loud bellow of Springfield, and then, still +yelping, the feathered riders veered and circled, ever at magnificent +speed, each man for himself, apparently, yet all guided and controlled +by some unseen, yet acknowledged, power; and, in five minutes, save +where some hapless pony lay quivering and kicking on the turf, the low +ground close at hand was swept clean of horse or man. The wild attack +had been made in vain. The Sioux were scampering back, convinced, but +not discomfited. Some few of their number, borne away stunned and +bleeding by comrade hands from underneath their stricken chargers,--some +three or four, perhaps, who had dared too much,--were now closing their +eyes on the last fight of their savage lives. + +To Ray and to many of his men it was all an old story. Stabber would +never have counselled or permitted attack on seasoned troopers, fighting +behind even improvised shelter. Something, perhaps, had occurred to +blind his younger rival to the peril of such assault, and now, as three +or four little parties were seen slowly drifting away toward the ridge, +burdened by some helpless form, other couriers came thundering down at +Red Fox, and wild excitement prevailed among the Elk Teeth. More signals +were flashing. More Indians came popping into view, their feathered +bonnets streaming in the rising wind, and about the prairie wave, where +the savage general had established field headquarters, a furious +conference was going on. Stabber had again interposed, and with grim but +hopeful eyes, Ray and his fellows watched and noted. Every lull in the +fight was so much gain for them. + +"Twelve fifty-two," said the dark-eyed commander, swinging his watch +into the pocket of his hunting shirt, and sliding backward into the +stream bed. "All serene so far. Watch things on this front, Field, while +I make the rounds and see how we came out." + +"All serene so far" it was! Not a man hurt. Two of the sorrels had been +hit by flying bullets and much amazed and stung thereat, but neither was +crippled. Bidding their guards to dig for water that might soon be +needed, Ray once more made his way to the northward side and rejoined +Field and Winsor. + +In an almost cloudless sky of steely blue the sun had just passed the +meridian and was streaming hotly down on the stirring picture. Northward +the ridge line and the long, gradual slope seemed alive with swarms of +Indian warriors, many of them darting about in wild commotion. About the +little eminence where Stabber and the Fox had again locked horns in +violent altercation, as many as a hundred braves had gathered. About the +middle knob, from whose summit mirror flashes shot from time to time, +was still another concourse, listening, apparently, to the admonitions +of a leader but recently arrived, a chieftain mounted on an American +horse, almost black, and Ray studied the pair long and curiously through +his glasses. "Lame Wolf, probably," said he, but the distance was too +great to enable him to be certain. What puzzled him more than anything +was the apparent division of authority, the unusual display of discord +among the Sioux. These were all, doubtless, of the Ogalalla tribe, Red +Cloud's own people, yet here were they wrangling like ward "heelers" and +wasting precious time. Whatever his antecedents this new comer had been +a powerful sower of strife and sedition, for, instead of following +implicitly the counsels of one leader, the Indians were divided now +between three. + +True to its practice, the prairie wind was sweeping stronger and +stronger with every moment, as the sun-warmed strata over the wide, +billowing surface sought higher levels, and the denser, cooler current +from the west came rushing down. And now all sounds of the debate were +whisked away toward the breaks of the South Shyenne,[*] and it was no +longer possible for old Sioux campaigners to catch a word of the +discussion. The leaves of the cottonwoods whistled in the rising gale, +and every time a pony crossed the stream bed and clambered the steep +banks out to the west, little clouds of dun-colored dust came sailing +toward the grove, scattered and spent, however, far from the lair of the +defence. + +[* Oddly enough, that method of spelling the river's name became +official.] + +But, while the discussion seemed endless among the Indians on the +northward side, never for a moment was the vigilance of the circle +relaxed. South, east and west the slopes and lowlands were dotted with +restless horsemen, and from young Clayton came the word that through his +glass he could make out three or four warriors far away toward the +Moccasin Ridge. "That's good," said Ray. "It means they, too, are +looking for a column coming out from Frayne. But where on earth did all +these rascals come from? There must be four hundred now in sight." + +Well might he ask and marvel! Stabber's little village had never more +than fifty warriors. Lame Wolf's band was counted at less than two +hundred and forty fighting men, and these, so said the agents of the +omniscient Bureau, were all the Ogalallas away from the shelter of the +reservation when the trouble started. No more should be allowed to go, +was the confident promise, yet a fortnight nearly had elapsed since the +frontier fun began. News of battle sweeps with marvellous speed through +Indian haunted lands, and here were warriors by the score, come to +strengthen the hands of kindred in the field, and, more were coming. The +mirror signals plainly told them that. Yet it was now well nigh one +o'clock and not another hostile move was made. Fox then was being held +by stronger hands. It meant that Lame Wolf had listened to reason,--and +Stabber, and would permit no fresh attack until his numbers should be so +increased that resistance would practically be vain. It meant even +more--that the Indian leader in chief command felt sure no force was +yet within helping distance of the corralled troopers. He could, +therefore, take his time. + +But this was a theory Ray would not whisper to his men. He knew Webb. He +knew Webb would soon read the signs from the north and be coming to his +relief, and Ray was right. Even as he reasoned there came a message from +across the grove. Lieutenant Clayton said the Indians he had seen away +to the south were racing back. "Thank God!" was the murmured answer no +man heard. "Now, lads, be ready!" was the ringing word that roused the +little troop, like bugle call "To Arms." And even as eager faces lifted +over the low parapets to scan the distant foe, fresh signals came +flashing down from the northward ridge, fresh bands of warriors came +darting to join the martial throng about the still wrangling chieftains, +and then, all on a sudden, with mighty yelling and shrill commotion, +that savage council burst asunder, and, riding at speed, a dozen braves +went lashing away to the westward side, while with fierce brandishing of +arms and shields and much curveting and prancing of excited ponies, the +wild battle lines were formed again. The Sioux were coming for the +second trial. + +"Meet them as before! Make every shot tell!" were the orders passed from +man to man and heard and noted amidst the whistling of the wind and the +sounds of scurry and commotion at the front. Then, silent and crouching +low, the soldiers shoved the brown barrels of their carbines forth again +and waited. And then the grim silence of the little fortress was +broken, as, with startling, sudden force there went up a shout from the +westward side:-- + +"My God, boys, they're setting fire to the prairie!" + +Ray sprang to his feet and gazed. Away out to the west and southwest, +whence came the strong breeze blowing from the Sweetwater Hills, half a +dozen dark, agile forms, bending low, were scudding afoot over the +sward, and everywhere they moved there sprang up in their tracks little +sheets of lambent flame, little clouds of bluish, blinding smoke, and +almost in less time than it takes to tell it, a low wall of fire, +started in a dozen places, reaching far across the low ground, fencing +the valley from stream bed to the southward slopes, crowned by its +swift-sailing crest of hot, stifling fume, came lapping and seething and +sweeping across the level, licking up the dry buffalo grass like so much +tow, mounting higher and fiercer with every second, and bearing down +upon the little grove and its almost helpless defenders in fearful +force, in resistless fury--a charge no bullet could stop, an enemy no +human valor could hope to daunt or down. + +"Quick, men!" yelled Ray. "Out with you, you on the west front! Stay you +here, you others! Watch the Sioux! They'll be on us in an instant!" And +away he sped from the shelter of the bank, out from the thick of the +cottonwoods, out to the open prairie, straight toward the coming torrent +of flame still, thank God, full seven hundred yards away, but leaping +toward them with awful strides. Out with him rushed Field, and out from +Clayton's front sped half a dozen old hands, every man fumbling for his +match box; out until they had reached a line with their captain, already +sprawled upon the turf, and there, full an hundred yards from the grove, +they spread in rude skirmish line and, reckless of the mad chorus of +yells that came sweeping down the wind, reckless of the clamor of the +coming charge, reckless of the whistling lead that almost instantly +began nipping and biting the turf about them, here, there and +everywhere, they, too, had started little fires; they, too had run their +line of flame across the windward front; they, too, had launched a wall +of flame sailing toward the grove, and then, back through blinding smoke +they ran for their saddle blankets, just as the sharp sputter of shots +burst forth on the northward side, and the Sioux, with magnificent dash, +came thundering within range. + +Then followed a thrilling battle for life--two red enemies now enrolled +against the blue. "Fight fire with fire" is the old rule of the prairie. +Ray had promptly met the on-coming sweep of the torrent by starting a +smaller blaze that should at least clear the surface close at hand, and, +by eating off the fuel, stop, possibly, the progress of the greater +flame. + +But the minor blaze had also to be stopped lest it come snapping and +devouring within the grove. It is no easy matter to check a prairie fire +against a prairie gale when every human aid is summoned. It is desperate +work to try to check one when to the fires of nature are added the +furious blaze of hostile arms, every rifle sighted by savage, vengeful +foe. "Check it, lads, ten yards out!" shouted Ray, to his gallant +fellows, now lost in the smoke, while he again rushed across the front +to meet the charging Sioux. With his brave young face all grime, Field +was already at work, guiding, urging, aiding his little band. "Both +hands! Both hands!" he cried, as, wielding his folded blanket, he smote +the fringe of flame. "Stamp it out! Great God! Wing, are you hit?" + +For answer the sergeant by his side went plunging down, face foremost, +and little Trooper Denny, rushing to aid his young officer in the effort +to raise the stricken man, as suddenly loosed his hold and, together +again, these two sworn comrades of many a campaign lay side by side, as +they had lain in camp and bivouac all over the wide frontier, and poor +Denny could only gasp a loyal word of warning to his officer. "Get back, +sir; for God's sake, get back!" ere the life blood came gushing from his +mouth. Bending low, Field grabbed the faithful fellow in his strong arms +and, calling to the nearmost men to look to Wing, bore his helpless +burden back through stifling smoke clouds; laid him on the turf at the +foot of a cottonwood, then ran again to the perilous work of fighting +the flame, stumbling midway over another prostrate form. "Both hands! +Both hands!" he yelled as again his blanket whirled in air; and so, by +dint of desperate work, the inner line of flame at last was stayed, but +every man of the gallant little squad of fire fighters had paid the +penalty of his devotion and felt the sting of hissing lead--Field the +last of all. Westward now, well nigh an hundred yards in width, a broad, +black, smoking patch stretched across the pathway of the swift-coming +wall of smoke and flame, a safeguard to the beleaguered command worth +all the soldier sacrifice it cost. In grand and furious sweep, the +scourge of the prairie sent its destroying line across the wide level to +the south of the sheltering grove, but in the blood and sweat of heroic +men the threatening flames of the windward side had sputtered out. The +little garrison was safe from one, at least, of its dread and merciless +foes, though five of its best and bravest lay dead or dying, and others +still sore stricken, in the midst of the smoking grove. + +"Field, old boy," said Ray, with brimming eyes, as he knelt and clasped +the hand of the bleeding lad, while the Sioux fell back in wrath and +dismay from the low-aimed, vengeful fire of the fighting line. "This +means the Medal of Honor for you, if word of mine can fetch it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WOUNDED--BODY AND SOUL + + +To say the Sioux were furious at the failure of their second attempt +would be putting it far too mildly. The fierce charge from the northward +side, made under cover of the blinding smoke sent drifting by the gale +across the level flats, had been pushed so close to the grove that two +red braves and half a dozen ponies had met their death within sixty +paces of the rifle pits. There lay the bodies now, and the Indians dare +not attempt to reach them. The dread, wind-driven flame of the prairie +fire, planned by the Sioux to burn out the defence, to serve as their +ally, had been turned to their grave detriment. + +Ray and his devoted men had stopped the sweep of so much of the +conflagration as threatened their little stronghold, but, ranging +unhampered elsewhere, the seething wall rolled on toward the east, +spreading gradually toward its flanks, and so, not only consuming vast +acres of bunch grass, but checking the attack that should have been made +from the entire southern half of the Indian circle. Later, leaping the +sandy stream bed a little to the west of the cottonwoods, it spread in +wild career over a huge tract along the left bank, and now, reuniting +with the southern wing some distance down the valley, was roaring away +to the bluffs of the Mini Pusa, leaving death and desolation in its +track. Miles to the east the war parties from the reservation, riding to +join Lame Wolf, sighted the black curtain of smoke, swift sailing over +the prairie, and changed their course accordingly. Not so many miles +away to the south Webb's skirmishers, driving before them three or four +Sioux scouts from the northward slope of the Moccasin Ridge, set spurs +to their horses and took the gallop, the main body following on. + +With their eyelids blistered by heat and smoke, Ray's silent, determined +little band could see nothing of the coming force, yet knew relief was +nigh; for, close at hand, both east and west, large bodies of the enemy +could be seen swift riding away to the north. + +They had hoped, as "Fox" had planned and promised, to burn out and +overwhelm the little troop at the grove before the column from Frayne +could possibly reach the spot. They had even anticipated the probable +effort of the command to check the flames, and had told off some fifty +braves to open concentric fire on any party that should rush into the +open with that object in view. They had thought to send in such a storm +of lead, even from long range, that it should daunt and drive back those +who had dared the attempt. They had stormed indeed, but could neither +daunt nor drive back. Ray's men had braved death itself in the desperate +essay, and, even in dying, had won the day. + +But their losses had been cruel. Three killed outright; three dying and +eight more or less severely wounded had reduced their fighting strength +to nearly thirty. The guards of the sorrels, herded in the stream bed, +had all they could do to control the poor, frightened creatures, many of +them hit, several of them felled, by the plunging fire from the far +hillsides. Even though driven back, the Sioux never meant to give up the +battle. On every side, leaving their ponies at safe distance, by dozens +the warriors crawled forward, snake-like, to the edge of the burned and +blackened surface, and from there poured in a rapid and most harassing +fire, compelling the defence to lie flat or burrow further, and wounding +many horses. The half hour that followed the repulse of their grand +assault had been sorely trying to the troop, for the wounded needed aid, +more men were hit, and there was no chance whatever to hit back. Moving +from point to point, Ray carried cheer and courage on every side, yet +was so constantly exposed as to cause his men fresh anxiety. Even as he +was bending over Field a bullet had nipped the right shoulderstrap, and +later another had torn through the crown of his campaign hat. In all the +years of their frontier fighting they had never known a hotter fire; but +Ray's voice rang out through the drifting vapor with the same old cheer +and confidence. "They can't charge again till the ground cools off," he +cried. "By that time they'll have their hands full. See how they're +scudding away at the southward even now. Just keep covered and you're +all right." And, barring a growl or two from favored old hands who +sought to make the captain take his own medicine and himself keep +covered, the answer was full of cheer. + +And so they waited through the hot smoke and sunshine of the autumn +afternoon, and, even while comforting the wounded with assurance of +coming relief, kept vigilant watch on every hostile move, and at last, +toward three o'clock, the sharp fire about them slackened away, the +smouldering roots of the bunch grass had burned themselves out. The +smoke drifted away from the prairie, and, as the landscape cleared to +the south and west, a cheer of delight went up from the cottonwoods, for +the slopes three miles away were dotted here and there and everywhere +with circling, scurrying war ponies--they and their wild riders steadily +falling back before a long rank of disciplined horsemen, the extended +skirmish line of Webb's squadron, backed by supports at regular +intervals, and all heading straight on for the broad lowlands of the +Elk. + +"Send six of your men over to the south front, sergeant," were Ray's +orders to Winsor, as he hurried over to join Clayton again. "They may +try one final charge from that side, and give us a chance to empty a few +more saddles." Creeping and crouching through the timber the chosen men +obeyed, and were assigned to stations under Clayton's eye. The +precaution was wise indeed, for, just as the captain foresaw, a rally in +force began far out over the southward slopes, the Indians gathering in +great numbers about some chieftain midway between the coming force and +the still beleaguered defenders of the grove. Then, brandishing lance +and shield and rifle, as before, they began spreading out across the +prairie, heading now for the cottonwoods, while others still faced and +fired on the far blue skirmish line. The fierce wind, sweeping across +the direction of the attack, deadened all sound of hoof or war chant, +but there was no mistaking the signs, no doubt of the intent, when, in a +little moment more, the earth began to tremble beneath the dancing pony +feet, telling, almost with the swiftness of sight, that the grand +advance had again begun. But other eyes were watching too. Other +soldiers, keen campaigners as these at the Elk, were there afield, and +almost at the moment the wild barbaric horde burst yelling into their +eager gallop, and before the dust cloud hid the distant slopes beyond, +the exultant shout went up from the captain's lips, as he threw down his +glass and grabbed his carbine. "It's all right, men! The major's coming +at their heels. Now let 'em have it!" + +In former days there had been scenes of wild rejoicing, sometimes of +deep emotion, when relief came to some Indian-besieged detachment of the +old regiment. Once, far to the south in the wild, romantic park country +of Colorado, a strong detachment had been corralled for days by an +overwhelming force of Utes. Their commander,--a dozen of their best +men,--all the horses killed and many troopers sorely wounded. They had +been rescued at last by their skilled and gallant colonel, after a long +and most scientific march by both night and day. Another time, still +farther in their past, and yet within a dozen years, away down the broad +valley of the very stream of which this little Elk was a tributary, the +Cheyennes had hemmed in and sorely hammered two depleted troops that +owed their ultimate rescue to the daring of the very officer who so +coolly, confidently headed the defence this day--to a night ride through +the Indian lines that nearly cost him his brave young life, but that +brought Captain Truscott with a fresh and powerful troop sweeping in to +their succor with the dawn. Then there had been men who strained other +men to their hearts and who shed tears like women, for gallant comrades +had bitten the dust in the desperate fighting of the day before, and +hope itself had almost gone--with the ammunition of the beleaguered +command. + +Now, with heavier losses than had befallen Wayne in '76, Ray's command +beheld with almost tranquil hearts the coming of the fierce array in +final charge. Behind them, not two miles, to be sure, rode in swift, +well-ordered pursuit the long line of comrade troopers. But there had +been intervening years of campaign experiences that dulled to a degree +the earlier enthusiasms of the soldier, and taught at least the +assumption of professional composure that was the secret wonder of the +suckling trooper, and that became his chief ambition to acquire. It is +one thing to charge home at a hard-fighting command when friends and +comrades back the effort and cheer the charging line. It is another to +charge home conscious that other chargers are coming at one's heels. +Magnificent as a spectacle, therefore, this closing dash of Lame Wolf's +warriors was but a meek reminder of their earlier attack. Long before +they came within four hundred yards of the leafy stronghold,--the +moment, indeed, the brown Springfields began their spiteful bark,--to +right and left the warriors veered, far out on either flank. Screeching +and yelling as was their savage way, they tore madly by, flattened out +against their ponies' necks and, those who could use their arms at all, +pumping wild shots that whistled harmless over the heads of the +defenders and bit the blackened prairie many a rod beyond. Only jeers +rewarded the stirring spectacle,--jeers and a few low-aimed, sputtering +volleys that brought other luckless ponies to their knees and sprawled a +few red riders. But in less than five minutes from the warning cry that +hailed their coming, Lame Wolf and his hosts were lining Elk Tooth ridge +and watching with burning hate and vengeful eyes the swift, steady +advance of Webb's long blue fighting line, and the utter unconcern of +the defence. Even before the relieving squadron was within carbine range +certain of Ray's men had scrambled out upon the northward bank and, +pushing forward upon the prairie, were possessing themselves of the arms +and ornaments of the two dead warriors whom the Sioux had strived in +vain to reach and bear within their lines. Ray and Clayton at the moment +were strolling placidly forth upon the southward "bench" to receive and +welcome the little knot of comrades sent galloping in advance to greet +them. There was perhaps just a suspicion of exaggerated nonchalance +about their gait and bearing--a regimental weakness, possibly--and no +other officer save Lieutenant Field happened to be within earshot when +Winsor's voice on the other front was heard in hoarse command: + +"Come back there, you fellows! Back or you're goners!" + +The sight had proved too much for some of the Sioux. Down again at +furious speed came a scattered cloud of young braves, following the lead +of the tall, magnificent chief who had been the hero of the earlier +attack,--down into the low ground, never swerving or checking pace, +straight for the grove, the three or four inquisitive blue-coats in the +meantime scurrying for shelter; and the yell that went up at sight of +the Indian dash and the quick reopening of the sputtering fire brought +Ray, running once again to the northward edge of the timber, wondering +what could be amiss. Field was lying on his blanket, just under the +bank, as the captain darted by, and grinned his gratification as he +heard the brief, assuring words: "Webb's here--all hands with him." An +instant later a bullet whizzed through the roots of the old cottonwood +above his head, and from far out afield, deadened by the rush of the +wind, a dull crackle of shots told that something had recalled the Sioux +to the attack, and for three minutes there was a lively fusillade all +along the northward side. Then it slowly died away, and other voices, +close at hand,--someone speaking his name,--called the lad's attention. +He was weak from loss of blood, and just a little dazed and flighty. He +had meant three hours agone that when next he encountered his post +commander his manner should plainly show that senior that even a second +lieutenant had rights a major was bound to respect. But, only mistily +now, he saw bending over him the keen, soldierly features,--the kind, +winsome gray eyes, filled with such a world of concern and +sympathy,--and heard the deep, earnest tones of the voice he knew so +well, calling again his name and mingling cordial praise and anxious +inquiry, and all the rancor seemed to float away with the smoke of the +last carbine shots. He could only faintly return the pressure of that +firm, muscular hand, only feebly smile his thanks and reassurance, and +then he, too, seemed floating away somewhere into space, and he could +not manage to connect what Webb had been saying with the next words that +fastened on his truant senses. It must have been hours later, too, for +darkness had settled on the valley. A little fire was burning under the +shelter of the bank. A little group of soldiers were chatting in low +tone, close at hand. Among them, his arm in a sling, stood a stocky +little chap whose face, seen in the flickering light, was familiar to +him. So was the eager brogue in which that little chap was speaking. A +steward was remonstrating, and only vaguely at first, Field grasped the +meaning of his words:-- + +"The captain said you were not to try to follow, Kennedy, at least not +until Dr. Waller saw you. Wait till he gets here. He can't be three +miles back now." + +"To hell wid ye!" was the vehement answer. "D'ye think I'd be +maundherin' here wid the whole command gone on afther thim bloody Sioux. +I've made my mark on wan o' thim, an' he's the buck I'm afther." + +"He's made his mark on _you_, Kennedy," broke in a soldier voice. "You +mad fool, trying to tackle a chief like that--even if he was hit, for he +had his whole gang behind him." + +"Sure he dared me out, an'--what's this he called me? a d----d whiskey +thafe!--me that niver----" + +"Oh, shut up, Kennedy," laughed a brother Irishman. "You were full as a +goat at 'K' Troop's stables--Where'd ye get the whiskey if----" + +"I'll lay you, Lanigan, when I get two hands agin, though I misdoubt wan +would do it. It's me horse I want now and lave to go on wid the capt'n. +Ready now, sir," he added, with sudden change of tone and manner, for a +tall, slender form came striding into the fire light, and Field knew +Blake at the instant, and would have called but for the first word from +the captain's lips. + +"_Your_ heart's safe, Kennedy. I wish your head was. Your past master in +blasphemy out there won't eat it, at all events." + +"Did ye get him, sorr,--afther all?" + +"_I_ didn't. His English spoiled my aim. 'Twas Winsor shot him. Now, +you're to stay here, you and Kilmaine. The doctor may bring despatches, +and you follow us with the first to come." An orderly had led forth a +saddled horse, and Blake's foot was already in the stirrup. "They say +it was Red Fox himself, Kennedy," he added. "Where on earth did you meet +him before?" + +"Shure, _I_ niver knew him, sorr," was the quick reply, as Blake's long, +lean leg swung over the big charger's back and the rider settled in +saddle. + +"But he knew _you_ perfectly well. He dared you by name, when we closed +on them--you and Mr. Field." + +And when an hour later the veteran surgeon came and knelt by the side of +the young officer reported seriously wounded, and took his hand and felt +his pulse, there was something in the situation that seemed to call for +immediate action. "We'll get you back to Frayne to-morrow, Field," said +Waller, with kind intent. "Don't--worry now." + +"Don't do that, doctor," feebly, surprisingly moaned the fevered lad. +"Don't take me back to Frayne!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A VANISHED HEROINE + + +Within forty-eight hours of the coming of Trooper Kennedy with his +"rush" despatches to Fort Frayne, the actors in our little drama had +become widely separated. Webb and his sturdy squadron, including Ray and +such of his troop as still had mounts and no serious wounds, were +marching straight on for the Dry Fork of the Powder. They were two +hundred fighting men; and, although the Sioux had now three times that +many, they had learned too much of the shooting powers of these seasoned +troopers, and deemed it wise to avoid close contact. The Indian fights +well, man for man, when fairly cornered, but at other times he is no +true sportsman. He asks for odds of ten to one, as when he wiped out +Custer on the "Greasy Grass," or Fetteman at Fort Phil Kearny,--as when +he tackled the Gray Fox,--General Crook--on the Rosebud, and Sibley's +little party among the pines of the Big Horn. Ray's plucky followers had +shot viciously and emptied far too many saddles for Indian equanimity. +It might be well in any event to let Webb's squadron through and wait +for further accessions from the agencies at the southeast, or the big, +turbulent bands of Uncapapas and Minneconjous at Standing Rock, or the +Cheyennes along the Yellowstone. + +So back went Lame Wolf and his braves, bearing Stabber with them, +flitting northward again toward the glorious country beyond the +"Chakadee," and on went Webb, with Blake, Gregg, Ray and their juniors, +with Tracy to take care of such as might be wounded on the way; and, +later still, the old post surgeon reached the Elk with guards and +hospital attendants, and on the morrow row began his homeward march with +the dead and wounded,--a sad and solemn little procession. Only twenty +miles he had to go, but it took long hours, so few were the ambulances, +so rough the crossings of the ravines; and, not until near nightfall was +the last of the wounded,--Lieutenant Field,--borne in the arms of +pitying soldiers into the old post hospital, too far gone with fever, +exhaustion and some strong mental excitement to know or care that his +strange plea had been, perforce, disregarded;--to know or care later +that the general himself, the commander they loved and trusted, was +bending over him at dawn the following day. Ordering forward all +available troops from the line of the railway, "the Chief" had stopped +at Laramie only long enough for brief conference with the post +commander; then, bidding him come on with all his cavalry, had pushed +ahead for Frayne. It couldn't be a long campaign, perhaps, with winter +close at hand, but it would be a lively one. Of that the chief felt well +assured. + +Now, there was something uncanny about this outbreak on the part of the +Sioux, and the general was puzzled. Up to September the Indians had been +busy with the annual hunt. They were fat, well-fed, prosperous,--had got +from the government pretty much everything that they could ask with any +show of reason and, so they said, had been promised more. The rows +between the limited few of their young men and some bullies among the +"rustlers" had been no more frequent nor serious than on previous +summers, when matters had been settled without resort to arms; but this +year the very devil seemed to have got into the situation. Something, or +probably somebody, said the general, had been stirring the Indians up, +exciting--exhorting possibly, and almost the first thing the general did +as he climbed stiffly out of his stout Concord wagon, in the paling +starlight of the early morning, was to turn to Dade, now commanding the +post, and to say he should like, as soon as possible, to see Bill Hay. +Meantime he wished to go in and look at the wounded. + +It was not yet five o'clock, but Dr. Waller was up and devoting himself +to the needs of his patients, and Dade had coffee ready for the general +and his single aide-de-camp, but not a sip would the general take until +he had seen the stricken troopers. He knew Field by reputation, well and +favorably. He had intimately known Field's father in the old days, in +the old army, when they served together on the then wild Pacific shores +"where rolls the Oregon." The great civil war had divided them, for +Field had cast his soldier fortune with his seceding State, but all that +was a thing of the past. Here was the son, a loyal soldier of the flag +the father had again sworn allegiance to when he took his seat in the +House of Representatives. The general thought highly of Field, and was +sore troubled at his serious condition. He knew what despatches would be +coming from the far South when the telegraph line began the busy +clicking of the morning. He was troubled to find the lad in high fever +and to hear that he had been out of his head. He was more than troubled +at the concern, and something like confusion, in the old doctor's face. + +"You don't think him dangerously wounded, do you?" he asked. + +"Not dangerously, general," was the reply. "It's--well, he seems to have +something on his mind." And more than this the doctor would not say. It +was not for him to tell the chief what Webb had confided ere he left the +post--that most of the currency for which Field was accountable was so +much waste paper. Field lay muttering and tossing in restless misery, +unconscious most of the time, and sleeping only when under the influence +of a strong narcotic. Dade, with sadness and constraint apparent in his +manner, hung back and did not enter the bare hospital room where, with +only a steward in attendance, the young soldier lay. The doctor had gone +with the general to the bedside, but the captain remained out of earshot +at the door. + +First call for reveillé was just sounding on the infantry bugles as the +trio came forth. "I have sent for Hay already, general," Dade was +saying, as they stood on the wooden veranda overlooking the valley of +the murmuring river; "but will you not come now and have coffee? He can +join us over at my quarters." + +Already, however, the orderly was hurrying back. They met him when not +half way over to the line of officers' quarters. The few men for duty in +the two companies of infantry, left to guard the post, were gathering in +little groups in front of their barracks, awaiting the sounding of the +assembly. They knew the chief at a glance, and were curiously watching +him as he went thoughtfully pacing across the parade by the side of the +temporary commander. They saw the orderly coming almost at a run from +the direction of the guard-house, saw him halt and salute, evidently +making some report, but they could not guess what made him so suddenly +start and run at speed toward the southward bluff, the direction of the +trader's corral and stables, while Captain Dade whirled about and +signalled Sergeant Crabb, of the cavalry, left behind in charge of the +few custodians of the troop barracks. Crabb, too, threw dignity to the +winds, and ran at the beck of his superior officer. + +"Have you two men who can ride hard a dozen miles or so--and carry out +their orders?" was the captain's sharp demand. + +"Certainly, sir," answered Crabb, professionally resentful that such +question should be asked of men of the ----th Cavalry. + +"Send two to report to me at once, mounted. Never mind breakfast." + +And by this time, apparently, the chief, the post commander and possibly +even the aide-de-camp had forgotten about the waiting coffee. They still +stood there where they had halted in the centre of the parade. The +doctor, coming from hospital, was signalled to and speedily joined them. +The bugle sounded, the men mechanically formed ranks and answered to +their names, all the while watching from the corner of their eyes the +group of officers, now increased by two infantry subalterns, Lieutenants +Bruce and Duncan, who raised their caps to the preoccupied general, such +salutation being then a fashion, not a regulation of the service, and +stood silently awaiting instructions, for something of consequence was +surely at hand. Then the orderly again appeared, returning from his +mission, out of breath and speaking with difficulty. + +"Craps--I mean the Frenchman, sir, says it was after four, perhaps half +past, when they started, Pete drivin'. He didn't see who was in it. +'Twas the covered buckboard he took, sir--the best one." + +And then, little by little, it transpired that Hay, the post trader whom +the general had need to see, had taken his departure by way of the +Rawlins road, and without so much as a whisper of his purpose to any +one. + +"I knew he had thought of going. He told Major Webb so," said Dade, +presently. "But that was before the outbreak assumed proportions. He had +given up all idea of it yesterday and so told me." + +"Has anything happened to--start him since then?" demanded the bearded +general, after a moment's thought. + +Dade and the doctor looked into each other's eyes, and the latter turned +away. It was not his affair. + +"W-ell, something has happened, general," was Dade's slow, constrained +reply. "If you will step this way--I'll see you later, gentlemen--" this +to his subalterns--"I'll explain as far as I can." + +And while Dr. Waller fell back and walked beside the aide-de-camp, +gladly leaving to the post commander the burden of a trying explanation, +the general, slowly pacing by the captain's side, gave ear to his story. + +"Hay cleaned up quite a lot of money," began the veteran, "and had +intended starting it to Cheyenne when this Indian trouble broke out. The +courier reached us during the night, as you know, and the major ordered +Ray to start at dawn and Field to go with him." + +"Why, I thought Field was post adjutant!" interposed the general. + +"He was, but--well--I beg you to let Major Webb give you his own +reasons, general," faltered Dade, sorely embarrassed. "He decided that +Field should go----" + +"He _asked_ to go, I suppose--It runs in the blood," said the general, +quickly, with a keen look from his blue-gray eyes. + +"I think not, sir; but you will see Webb within a few days and he will +tell you all about it. What I know is this, that Field was ordered to go +and that he gave the major an order on Hay for two packages containing +the money for which he was accountable. Field and Wilkins had had a +falling out, and, instead of putting the cash in the quartermaster's +safe, Field kept it at Hay's. At guard mounting Hay brought the package +to the major, who opened both in presence of the officers of the day. +Each package was supposed to contain three or four hundred dollars. +Neither contained twenty. Some paper slips inserted between five dollar +bills made up the packages. Field was then far to the north and past +conferring with. Hay was amazed and distressed--said that someone must +have duplicate keys of his safe as well as of his stables." + +"Why the stables?" asked the chief, pausing at the gate and studying the +troubled face of the honored soldier he so well knew and so fully +trusted. He was thinking, too, how this was not the first occasion that +the loss of public money had been hidden for the time in just that +way--slips inserted between good currency. + +"Because it transpires that some of his horses were out that very night +without his consent or ken. No one for a moment, to my knowledge, has +connected Field with the loss of the money. Hay thought, however, it +threw suspicion on _him_, and was mightily upset." + +"Then his sudden departure at this time, without a word to anybody +looks--odd," said the general, thoughtfully. "But _he_ had no need of +money. He's one of the wealthiest men in Wyoming. And she--his +wife,--needs nothing. He gives her all she can possibly want." By this +time they were at the door. A lamp still burned dimly in the hallway, +and Dade blew it out, as he ushered the general into the cosily lighted +dining-room. + +"You'll excuse Mrs. Dade and Esther, I hope, sir. They are not yet +up--quite overcome by anxiety and excitement,--there's been a lot about +Frayne the last two days.--Take this chair, General. Coffee will be +served at once. No, sir, as you say, the Hays have no need of money--he +and his wife, that is." + +"But you suspect--whom?" asked the general, the blue-gray eyes intent on +the troubled face before him, for Dade's very hesitancy told of some +untold theory. The doctor and the aide had taken seats at the other end +of the table and dutifully engaged in low-toned conversation. + +"That is a hard question for me to answer, General," was the answer. "I +have no right to suspect anybody. We had no time to complete the +investigation. There are many hangers-on, you know, about Hay's store, +and indeed, his house. Then his household, too, has been increased, as +perhaps you did not know. Mrs. Hay's niece--a very brilliant young +woman--is visiting them, and she and Field rode frequently together." + +The general's face was a study. The keen eyes were reading Dade as a +skilled physician would interpret the symptoms of a complicated case. +"How old--and what is she like, Dade?" he asked. + +"The women can answer that better than I, sir. They say she must be +twenty-four;--Mrs. Hay says nineteen--She is very dark and very +handsome--at times. Most of our young men seem to think so, at least. +She certainly rides and dances admirably, and Mr. Field was constantly +her partner." + +The general began to see light. "Field was constantly with her, was he? +Riding just by themselves or with others when they went out?" he asked. + +"By themselves, sir. I doubt if any other of our equestriennes would +care to ride at her pace. She rather outstrips them all. The major told +me they seemed to go--well, every time he saw them, at least,--up to +Stabber's village, and that was something he disapproved of, though I +dare say she was simply curious to see an Indian village, as an Eastern +girl might be." + +"Possibly," said the general. "And what did you tell me--she is Mrs. +Hay's niece? I don't remember _his_ having any niece when they were at +Laramie in '66, though I knew something of Mrs. Hay, who was then but a +short time married. She spoke Sioux and _patois_ French better than +English in those days. What is the young lady's name?" + +"Miss Flower, sir. Nanette Flower." + +The chief dropped his head on his hand and reflected. "It's a good +twenty years, and I've been knocking about all over the West since then, +but, I'd like to see Mrs. Hay and that young woman, Dade, whether we +overhaul Bill or not. I must go on to Beecher at once." + +"You will wait for the cavalry from Laramie, will you not, sir?" asked +the captain, anxiously. + +"I can't. I'll get a bath and breakfast and forty winks later; then see +Mrs. Hay and Bill, if he is back. They ought to catch him before he +reaches Sage Creek. There are your couriers now," he added, at the sound +of spurred heels on the front piazza. + +The captain stepped forth into the hallway. A trooper stood at the front +door, his hand lifted in salute. Another, in saddle, and holding the +reins of his comrade's horse, was at the gate. A rustle of feminine +drapery swept downward from the upper floor, and Dade glanced up, half +dreading to see Esther's face. But it was his wife who peered over the +balustrade. "I shall be down in ten minutes," she said, in low tone. +"Esther is sleeping at last. How did--he--seem this morning?" + +"Sleeping, too, but only fitfully. Dr. Waller is here," and then Dade +would have ended the talk. He did not wish to speak further of Field or +his condition. But she called again, low-toned, yet dominant, as is many +a wife in and out of the army. + +"Surely you are not letting the general start with only two men!" + +"No, he goes by and by." And again Dade would have escaped to the +piazza, but once again she held him. + +"Then where are you sending these?" + +"After Mr. Hay. He--made an early start--not knowing perhaps, the +general was coming." + +"Start!" she cried, all excitement now. "Start!--Start for where?" and +the dressing sacque in aspen-like agitations came in full view at the +head of the stairs. + +"Rawlins, I suppose. I don't know what it means." + +"But _I_ do!" exclaimed his better half, in emotion uncontrollable. "_I_ +do! It means that she has _made_ him,--that _she_ has gone, too--I mean +Nanette Flower!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A WOMAN'S PLOT + + +Woman's intuition often far outstrips the slower mental process of the +other sex. The mother who has to see a beloved daughter's silent +suffering, well knowing another girl to be, however indirectly, the +cause of it, sees all manner of other iniquities in that other girl. +Kind, charitable and gentle was Mrs. Dade, a wise mother, too, as well +as most loving, but she could look with neither kindness nor charity on +Miss Flower. She had held her peace; allowed no word of censure or +criticism to escape her when the women were discussing that young lady; +but all the more vehement was her distrust, because thus pent up and +repressed. With the swiftness of feminine thought, for no man had yet +suspected, she fathomed the secret of the trader's sudden going; and, +carried away by the excitement of the moment and the belief that none +but her husband could hear, she had made that startling announcement. +And her intuition was unerring. Nanette Flower was indeed gone. + +Yet for nearly an hour she stood alone in her conviction. Her husband +quickly cautioned silence, and, going forth, gave instructions to the +couriers that sent them speeding for the Rawlins road. But at seven +o'clock Mrs. Hay herself appeared and asked to see the general, who was +taking at the moment his accustomed bracer, tonic and stimulant,--the +only kind he was ever known to use--a cold bath. So it was to Mrs. Dade, +in all apparent frankness and sincerity, the trader's wife began her +tale. + +Everyone at Frayne well knew that her anxiety as to the outcome of the +battle on the Elk had well nigh equalled that of the wives and +sweethearts within the garrison. While her niece, after the first day's +excitement, kept to her room, the aunt went flitting from house to +house, full of sympathy and suggestion, but obviously more deeply +concerned than they had ever seen her. Now, she seemed worried beyond +words at thought of her husband's having to go at just this time. It was +mainly on Nanette's account, she said. Only last night, with the mail +from Laramie, had come a letter posted in San Francisco the week before, +telling Miss Flower that her dearest friend and roommate for four years +at school, who had been on an extended bridal tour, would pass through +Rawlins, eastward bound, on Friday's train, and begging Nanette to meet +her and go as far at least as Cheyenne. Her husband, it seems, had been +hurriedly recalled to New York, and there was no help for it. Nanette +had expected to join her, and go all the way East in late October or +early November; had given her promise, in fact, for she was vastly +excited by the news, and despite headache and lassitude that had +oppressed her for two days past, she declared she must go, and Uncle +Will must take her. So, with only a small trunk, hastily packed, of her +belongings, and an iron-bound chest of the trader's, the two had started +before dawn in Uncle Bill's stout buckboard, behind his famous four mule +team, with Pete to drive, and two sturdy ranchmen as outriders, hoping +to reach the Medicine Bow by late afternoon, and rest at Brenner's +Ranch. + +Confidentially, Mrs. Hay told Mrs. Dade that her husband was glad of the +excuse to take the route up the Platte instead of the old, rough trail +southeastward over the mountains to Rock Creek, for he had a large sum +in currency to get to the bank, and there were desperados along the +mountain route who well knew he would have to send that money in, and +were surely on lookout to waylay him--or it. Ever since pay-day two or +three rough characters had been hanging about the store, and Hay +suspected they were watching his movements, with the intention of +getting word to their comrades in crime the moment he started, and it +was almost as much to steal a march on them, as to oblige Nanette, he so +willingly left before it was light. The Rawlins road followed the Platte +Valley all the way to Brenner's, and, once there, he would feel safe, +whereas the Rock Creek trail wound through gulch, ravine and forest most +of the distance, affording many a chance for ambuscade. Of course, said +Mrs. Hay, if her husband had for a moment supposed the general would +wish to see him, he would not have gone, adding, with just a little +touch of proper, wifelike spirit, that on the general's previous visits +he had never seemed to care whether he saw Mr. Hay or not. + +All this did Mrs. Dade accept with courteous yet guarded interest. They +were seated in the little army parlor, talking in low tone; for, with +unfailing tact, Mrs. Hay had asked for Esther, and expressed her +sympathy on hearing of her being unnerved by the excitement through +which they had passed. Well she knew that Field's serious condition had +not a little to do with poor Esther's prostration, but that was +knowledge never to be hinted at. Dade himself she did not wish to meet +just now. He was too direct a questioner, and had said and looked things +about Nanette that made her dread him. She knew that, however austere +and commanding he might be when acting under his own convictions, he was +abnormally susceptible to uxorial views, and the way to win the +captain's sympathies or avert his censure, was to secure the kindly +interest of his wife. Mrs. Hay knew that he had sent couriers off by the +Rawlins road--a significant thing in itself--and that couriers had come +in from the north with further news from Webb. She knew he had gone to +the office, and would probably remain there until summoned for +breakfast, and now was her time, for there was something further to be +spoken of, and while gentle and civil, Mrs. Dade had not been receptive. +It was evident to the trader's wife that her lord and master had made a +mistake in leaving when he did. He knew the general was on the way. He +knew there was that money business to be cleared up, yet she knew there +were reasons why she _wanted_ him away,--reasons hardest of all to +plausibly explain. There were reasons, indeed, why she was glad Nanette +was gone. All Fort Frayne was devoted to Esther Dade and, however +unjustly, most of Fort Frayne,--men, women and children,--attributed +Field's defection, as they chose to call it, to Nanette--Nanette who had +set at naught her aunt's most ardent wishes, in even noticing Field at +all. Money, education, everything she could give had been lavished on +that girl, and now, instead of casting her net for that well-to-do and +distinguished bachelor, the major, thereby assuring for herself the +proud position of first lady of Fort Frayne, the wife of the commanding +officer, Nanette had been deliberately throwing herself away at a +beardless, moneyless second lieutenant, because he danced and rode well. +Mrs. Hay did not blame Mrs. Dade at that moment for hating the girl, if +hate she did. She could have shaken her, hard and well, herself, yet was +utterly nonplussed to find that Nanette cared next to nothing how badly +Field was wounded. What she seemed to care to know was about the +casualties among the Sioux, and, now that Stabber's village, the last +living trace of it, old men, squaws, children, pappooses, ponies and +puppies and other living creatures had, between two days, been whisked +away to the hills, there were no more Indians close at hand to whisper +information. + +She was glad Nanette was gone, because Field, wounded and present, would +have advantages over possible suitors absent on campaign--because all +the women and a few of the men were now against her, and because from +some vague, intangible symptoms, Mrs. Hay had satisfied herself that +there was something in the wind Nanette was hiding even from her--her +benefactress, her best friend, and it seemed like cold-blooded +treachery. Hay had for two days been disturbed, nervous and unhappy, yet +would not tell her why. He had been cross-questioning Pete, "Crapaud" +and other employees, and searching about the premises in a way that +excited curiosity and even resentment, for the explanation he gave was +utterly inadequate. To satisfy her if possible, he had confided, as he +said, the fact that certain money for which Lieutenant Field was +accountable, had been stolen. The cash had been carefully placed in his +old-fashioned safe; the missing money, therefore, had been taken while +still virtually in his charge. "They might even suspect me," he said, +which she knew would not be the case. "They forbade my speaking of it to +anybody, but I simply had to tell you." She felt sure there was +something he was concealing; something he would not tell her; something +concerning Nanette, therefore, because she so loved Nanette, he shrank +from revealing what might wound her. Indeed, it was best that Nanette +should go for the time, at least, but Mrs. Hay little dreamed that +others would be saying--even this kindly, gentle woman before her--that +Nanette should have stayed until certain strange things were thoroughly +and satisfactorily explained. + +But the moment she began, faltering not a little, to speak of matters +at the post, as a means of leading up to Nanette--matters concerning +Lieutenant Field and his financial affairs,--to her surprise Mrs. Dade +gently uplifted her hand and voice. "I am going to ask you not to tell +me, Mrs. Hay," said she. "Captain Dade has given me to understand there +was something to be investigated, but preferred that I should not ask +about it. Now, the general will be down in fifteen or twenty minutes. I +suggest that we walk over the hospital and see how Mr. Field is getting +on. We can talk, you know, as we go. Then you will breakfast with us. +Indeed, may I not give you a cup of coffee now, Mrs. Hay?" + +But Mrs. Hay said no. She had had coffee before coming. She would go and +see if there was anything they could do for Field, and would try again +to induce Mrs. Dade to listen to certain of her explanations. + +But Mrs. Dade was silent and preoccupied. She was thinking of that story +of Nanette's going, and wondering whether it could be true. She was +wondering if Mrs. Hay knew the couriers had gone to recall Hay, and that +if he and Nanette failed to return it might mean trouble for both. She +could accord to Mrs. Hay no confidences of her own, and had been +compelled to decline to listen to those with which Mrs. Hay would have +favored her. She was thinking of something still more perplexing. The +general, as her husband finally told her, had asked first thing to see +Hay, and later declared that he wished to talk with Mrs. Hay and see +Nanette. Was it possible he knew anything of what she knew--that +between Hay's household and Stabber's village there had been +communication of some kind--that the first thing found in the Indian +pouch brought home by Captain Blake, was a letter addressed in Nanette +Flower's hand, and with it three card photographs, two of them of +unmistakable Indians in civilized garb, and two letters, addressed, like +hers, to Mr. Ralph Moreau,--one care of the Rev. Jasper Strong, +Valentine, Nebraska, the other to the general delivery, Omaha? + +Yes, that pouch brought in by Captain Blake had contained matter too +weighty for one woman, wise as she was, to keep to herself. Mrs. Blake, +with her husband's full consent, had summoned Mrs. Ray, soon after his +departure on the trail of Webb, and told her of the strange discovery. +They promptly decided there was only one thing to do with the +letter;--hand or send it, unopened, to Miss Flower. Then, as Blake had +had no time to examine further, they decided to search the pouch. There +might be more letters in the same superscription. + +But there were not. They found tobacco, beeswax, an empty flask that had +contained whiskey, vaseline, Pond's Extract, salve, pigments, a few +sheets of note paper, envelopes and pencil--odd things to find in the +possession of a Sioux--a burning glass, matches, some quinine pills, +cigars, odds and ends of little consequence, and those letters addressed +to R. Moreau. The first one they had already decided should go to Miss +Flower. The others, they thought, should be handed unopened to the +commanding officer. They might contain important information, now that +the Sioux were at war and that Ralph Moreau had turned out probably to +be a real personage. But first they would consult Mrs. Dade. They had +done so the very evening of Blake's departure, even as he, long miles +away, was telling Kennedy his Irish heart was safe from the designs of +one blood-thirsty Sioux; and Mrs. Dade had agreed with them that +Nanette's letter should be sent to her forthwith, and that, as Captain +Blake had brought it in, the duty of returning the letter devolved upon +his wife. + +And so, after much thought and consultation, a little note was written, +saying nothing about the other contents or about the pouch itself. "Dear +Miss Flower:" it read. "The enclosed was found by Captain Blake some +time this morning. He had no time to deliver it in person. Yours +sincerely. N. B. Blake." + +She would enter into no explanation and would say nothing of the +consultation. She could not bring herself to sign her name as usually +she signed it, Nannie Bryan Blake. She had, as any man or woman would +have had, a consuming desire to know what Miss Flower could be writing +to a Mr. Moreau, whose correspondence turned up in this remarkable way, +in the pouch of a painted Sioux. But she and they deemed it entirely +needless to assure Miss Flower no alien eye had peered into the +mysterious pages. (It might have resulted in marvellous developments if +Miss Flower thought they had.) Note and enclosure were sent first thing +next morning by the trusty hand of Master Sanford Ray, himself, and by +him delivered in person to Miss Flower, who met him at the trader's +gate. She took it, he said; and smiled, and thanked him charmingly +before she opened it. She was coming out for her customary walk at the +hour of guard mounting, but the next thing he knew she had "scooted" +indoors again. + +And from that moment Miss Flower had not been seen. + +All this was Mrs. Dade revolving in mind as she walked pityingly by the +side of the troubled woman, only vaguely listening to her flow of words. +They had thought to be admitted to the little room in which the wounded +officer lay, but as they tiptoed into the wide, airy hall and looked +over the long vista of pink-striped coverlets in the big ward beyond, +the doctor himself appeared at the entrance and barred the way. + +"Is there nothing we can do?" asked Mrs. Dade, with tears in her voice. +"Is he--so much worse?" + +"Nothing can be done just now," answered Waller, gravely. "He has had +high fever during the night--has been wakeful and flighty again. +I--should rather no one entered just now." + +And then they noted that even the steward who had been with poor Field +was now hovering about the door of the dispensary and that only Dr. +Waller remained within the room. "I am hoping to get him to sleep again +presently," said he. "And when he is mending there will be a host of +things for you both to do." + +But that mending seemed many a day off, and Mrs. Hay, poor woman, had +graver cares of her own before the setting sun. Avoiding the possibility +of meeting the general just now, and finding Mrs. Dade both silent and +constrained at mention of her niece's name, the trader's wife went +straightway homeward from the hospital, and did not even see the post +commander hurrying from his office, with an open despatch in his hand. +But by this time the chief and his faithful aide were out on the +veranda, surrounded by anxious wives and daughters, many of whom had +been earnestly bothering the doctor at the hospital before going to +breakfast. Dade much wished them away, though the news brought in by +night riders was both stirring and cheery. The Indians had flitted away +from Webb's front, and he counted on reaching and rescuing the Dry Fork +party within six hours from the time the courier started. They might +expect the good news during the afternoon of Thursday. Scouts and +flankers reported finding _travois_ and pony tracks leading westward +from the scene of Ray's fierce battle, indicating that the Indians had +carried their dead and wounded into the fastnesses of the southern +slopes of the Big Horn, and that their punishment had been heavy. Among +the chiefs killed or seriously wounded was this new, vehement leader +whom Captains Blake and Ray thought might be Red Fox, who was so +truculent at the Black Hills conference the previous year. Certain of +the men, however, who had seen Red Fox at that time expressed doubts. +Lieutenant Field, said Webb, had seen him, and could probably say. + +Over this despatch the general pondered gravely. "From what I know of +Red Fox," said he, "I should think him a leader of the Sitting Bull +type,--a shrew, intriguing, mischief-making fellow, a sort of Sioux +walking delegate, not a battle leader; but according to Blake and Ray +this new man is a fighter." + +Then Mrs. Dade came out and bore the general off to breakfast, and +during breakfast the chief was much preoccupied. Mrs. Dade and the +aide-de-camp chatted on social matters. The general exchanged an +occasional word with his host and hostess, and finally surprised neither +of them, when breakfast was over and he had consumed the last of his +glass of hot water, by saying to his staff officer, "I should like to +see Mrs. Hay a few minutes, if possible. We'll walk round there first. +Then--let the team be ready at ten o'clock." + +But the team, although ready, did not start northward at ten, and the +general, though he saw Mrs. Hay, had no speech with her upon the +important matters uppermost in his mind during the earlier hours of the +day. He found that good lady in a state of wild excitement and alarm. +One of the two outriders who had started with her husband and niece at +dawn, was mounted on a dun-colored cow pony, with white face and feet. +One of the two troopers sent by Dade to overtake and bring them back, +was turning a blown and exhausted horse over to the care of Hay's +stablemen, as he briefly told his story to the wild-eyed, well nigh +distracted woman. Six miles up stream, he said, they had come suddenly +upon a dun-colored cow pony, dead in his tracks, with white feet in air +and white muzzle bathed in blood; bridle, saddle and rider gone; signs +of struggle in places--but no signs of the party, the team and wagon, +anywhere. + +"And no cavalry to send out after them!" said Dade, when he reached the +spot. Old Crabb was called at once, and mustered four semi-invalided +troopers. The infantry supplied half a dozen stout riders and, with a +mixed escort, the general, accompanied by Dade and the aide-de-camp, +drove swiftly to the scene. Six miles away they found the dead pony. +Seven miles away they encountered the second trooper, coming back. He +had followed the trail of the four mule team as far as yonder point, +said he, and there was met by half a dozen shots from unseen foe, and so +rode back out of range. But Dade threw his men forward as skirmishers; +found no living soul either at the point or on the banks of the rocky +ford beyond; but, in the shallows, close to the shore, lay the body of +the second outrider, shot and scalped. In a clump of willows lay another +body, that of a pinto pony, hardly cold, while the soft, sandy shores +were cut by dozens of hoof tracks--shoeless. The tracks of the mules and +wagon lay straight away across the stream bed--up the opposite bank and +out on the northward-sweeping bench beyond. Hay's famous four, and +well-known wagon, contents and all, therefore, had been spirited away, +not toward the haunts of the road agents in the mountains of the +Medicine Bow, but to those of the sovereign Sioux in the fastnesses of +the storied Big Horn. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +NIGHT PROWLING AT FRAYNE + + +In the full of the September moon the war-bands of the Sioux had defied +agents and peace chiefs, commissioners and soldiers, and started their +wild campaign in northern Wyoming. In the full of the October moon the +big chief of the whites had swept the last vestige of their warriors +from the plains, and followed their bloody trails into the heart of the +mountains, all his cavalry and much of his foot force being needed for +the work in hand. Not until November, therefore, when the ice bridge +spanned the still reaches of the Platte, and the snow lay deep in the +brakes and _coulées_, did the foremost of the homeward-bound commands +come in view of old Fort Frayne, and meantime very remarkable things had +occurred, and it was to a very different, if only temporary, post +commander that Sandy Ray reported them as "sighted." Even brave old Dade +had been summoned to the front, with all his men, and in their place had +come from distant posts in Kansas other troops to occupy the vacant +quarters and strive to feel at home in strange surroundings. + +A man of austere mold was the new major,--one of the old Covenanter +type, who would march to battle shouting hymn tunes, and to Christmas +and Thanksgiving chanting doleful lays. He hailed, indeed, from old +Puritan stock; had been a pillar in the village church in days before +the great war, and emulated Stonewall Jackson in his piety, if he did +not in martial prowess. Backed by local, and by no means secular, +influences he had risen in the course of the four years' war from a +junior lieutenancy to the grade of second in command of his far eastern +regiment; had rendered faithful services in command of convalescent +camps and the like, but developed none of that vain ambition which +prompts the seeking of "the bubble reputation" at the cannon's mouth. +All he ever knew of Southern men in ante-bellum days was what he heard +from the lips of inspired orators or read from the pens of very earnest +anti-slavery editors. Through lack of opportunity he had met no +Southerner before the war, and carried his stanch, Calvinistic +prejudices to such extent that he seemed to shrink from closer contact +even then. The war was holy. The hand of the Lord would surely smite the +slave-holding arch rebel, which was perhaps why the Covenanter thought +it work of supererogation to raise his own. He finished as he began the +war, in the unalterable conviction that the Southern President, his +cabinet and all his leading officers should be hung, and their lands +confiscated to the state--or its representatives. He had been given a +commission in the army when such things were not hard to get--at the +reorganization in '66, had been stationed in a Ku Klux district all one +winter and in a sanitarium most of the year that followed. He thought +the nation on the highroad to hell when it failed to impeach the +President of high crimes and misdemeanors, and sent Hancock to harmonize +matters in Louisiana. He was sure of it when the son of a Southerner, +who had openly flouted him, was sent to West Point. He retained these +radical views even unto the twentieth anniversary of the great +surrender; and, while devoutly praying for forgiveness of his own sins, +could never seem to forgive those whose lot had been cast with the +South. He was utterly nonplussed when told that the young officer, +languishing in hospital on his arrival, was the son of a distinguished +major-general of the Confederate Army, and he planned for the father a +most frigid greeting, until reminded that the former major-general was +now a member of Congress and of the committee on military affairs. Then +it became his duty to overlook the past. + +He had not entered Field's little room, even when inspecting hospital +(Flint was forever inspecting something or other)--the doctor's +assurance that, though feeble, his patient was doing quite well, was all +sufficient. He had thought to greet the former Confederate, a sorely +anxious father, with grave and distant civility, as an avowed and +doubtless unregenerate enemy of that sacred flag; but, as has been said, +that was before it was pointed out to him that this was the Honorable M. +C. from the Pelican State, now prominent as a member of the House +Committee on Military Affairs. Motherless and sister-less was the +wounded boy, yet gentle and almost caressing hands had blessed his +pillow and helped to drive fever and delirium to the winds. It was +twelve days after they brought him back to Frayne before the father +could hope to reach him, coming post haste, too; but by that time the +lad was propped on his pillows, weak, sorrowing and sorely troubled, +none the less so because there was no one now to whom he could say +_why_. + +The men whom he knew and trusted were all away on campaign, all save the +veteran post surgeon, whom hitherto he had felt he hardly knew at all. +The women whom he had best known and trusted were still present at the +post. Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Blake had been his friends, frank, cordial and +sincere up to the week of his return from Laramie and his sudden and +overwhelming infatuation for Nanette Flower. Then they had seemed to +hold aloof, to greet him only with courtesy, and to eye him with +unspoken reproach. The woman at Fort Frayne to whom he most looked up +was Mrs. Dade, and now Mrs. Dade seemed alienated utterly. She had been +to inquire for him frequently, said his attendant, when he was so racked +with fever. So had others, and they sent him now jellies and similar +delicacies, but came no more in person--just yet at least--but he did +not know the doctor so desired. Field knew that his father, after the +long, long journey from the distant South, was now close at hand,--would +be with him within a few hours, and even with Ray's warm words of praise +still ringing in his ears, the young soldier was looking to that +father's coming almost with distress. It was through God's mercy and +the wisdom of the old surgeon that no word, as yet, had been whispered +to him of the discovery made when the money packages were opened--of the +tragic fate that had, possibly, befallen Bill Hay and Miss Flower. + +That a large sum of money was missing, and that Field was the +accountable officer, was already whispered about the garrison. The fact +that four officers and Mr. Hay were aware of it in the first place, and +the latter had told it to his wife, was fatal to entire secrecy. But, in +the horror and excitement that prevailed when the details of the later +tragedy were noised about the post, this minor incident had been almost +forgotten. + +The disappearance of Hay and his brilliant, beautiful niece, however, +was not to be forgotten for a moment, day or night, despite the fact +that Mrs. Hay, who had been almost crazed with dread and terror when +first informed there had been a "hold-up," rallied almost immediately, +and took heart and hope when it became apparent that Indians, not white +men, were the captors. + +"The Sioux would never harm a hair of his head," she proudly declared. +"He has been their friend for half a century." Nor had she fears for +Nanette. The Sioux would harm nobody her husband sought to protect. When +it was pointed out to her that they had harmed the guards,--that one of +them was found shot dead and scalped at the shores of the Platte, and +the other, poor fellow, had crawled off among the rocks and bled to +death within gunshot of the scene,--Mrs. Hay said they must have first +shown fight and shot some of the Sioux, for all the Indians knew Mr. +Hay's wagon. Then why, asked Fort Frayne, had they molested him--and +his? + +The general had had to leave for the front without seeing Mrs. Hay. More +than ever was it necessary that he should be afield, for this exploit +showed that some of the Sioux, at least, had cut loose from the main +body and had circled back toward the Platte--Stabber's people in all +probability. So, sending Crabb and his little squad across the river to +follow a few miles, at least, the trail of the wagon and its captors, +and ascertain, if possible, whither it had gone, he hurried back to +Frayne; sent messengers by the Laramie road to speed the cavalry, and +orders to the colonel to send two troops at once to rescue Hay and his +niece; sent wires calling for a few reinforcements, and was off on the +way to Beecher, guarded by a handful of sturdy "doughboys" in +ambulances, before ever the body of the second victim was found. + +And then, little by little, it transpired that this mysterious war +party, venturing to the south bank of the Platte, did not exceed half a +dozen braves. Crabb got back in thirty-six hours, with five exhausted +men. They had followed the wheel tracks over the open prairie and into +the foothills far to the Northwest, emboldened by the evidence of there +being but few ponies in the original bandit escort. But, by four in the +afternoon, they got among the breaks and ravines and, first thing they +knew, among the Indians, for zip came the bullets and down went two +horses, and they had to dismount and fight to stand off possible swarms, +and, though owning they had seen no Indians, they had proof of having +felt them, and were warranted in pushing no further. After dark they +began their slow retreat and here they were. + +And for seven days that was the last heard, by the garrison, at least, +of these most recent captives of the Sioux. Gentle and sympathetic +women, however, who called on Mrs. Hay, were prompt to note that though +unnerved, unstrung, distressed, she declared again and again her faith +that the Indians would never really harm her husband. They might hold +him and Nanette as hostages for ransom. They might take for their own +purposes his wagon, his mules and that store of money, but his life was +safe, yes, and Nanette's too. Of this she was so confident that people +began to wonder whether she had not received some assurance to that +effect, and when Pete, the stable boy driver, turned up at the end of +the first week with a cock-and-bull story about having stolen an Indian +pony and shot his way from the midst of the Sioux away up on No Wood +Creek, on the west side of the hills, and having ridden by night and +hidden by day until he got back to the Platte and Frayne, people felt +sure of it. Pete could talk Sioux better than he could jabber English. +He declared the Indians were in the hills by thousands, and were going +to take Hay and the young lady away off somewhere to be held for safe +keeping. He said the two troops that, never even halting at Frayne, had +pushed out on the trail, would only get into trouble if they tried to +enter the hills from the South, and that they would never get the +captives, wherein Pete was right, for away out among the spurs and +gorges of the range, fifty miles from Frayne, the pursuers came upon the +wreck of the wagon at the foot of an acclivity, up which a force of +Sioux had gone in single file. Many warriors it would seem, however, +must have joined the party on the way, and from here,--where with the +wagon was found Hay's stout box, bereft of its contents,--in four +different directions the pony tracks of little parties crossed or +climbed the spurs, and which way the captives had been taken, Captain +Billings, the commander, could not determine. What the Sioux hoped he +might do was divide his force into four detachments and send one on each +trail. Then they could fall upon them, one by one, and slay them at +their leisure. Billings saw the game, however, and was not to be caught. +He knew Bill Hay, his past and his popularity among the red men. He knew +that if they meant to kill him at all they would not have taken the +trouble to cart him fifty miles beforehand. He dropped the stern chase +then and there, and on the following day skirted the foothills away to +the east and, circling round to the breaks of the Powder as he reached +the open country, struck and hard hit a scouting band of Sioux, and +joined the general three days later, when most he was needed, near the +log palisades of old Fort Beecher. + +Then there had been more or less of mysterious coming and going among +the halfbreed hangers-on about the trader's store, and these were things +the new post commander knew not how to interpret, even when informed of +them. He saw Mrs. Hay but once or twice. He moved into the quarters of +Major Webb, possessing himself, until his own should arrive, of such of +the major's belongings as the vigilance of Mistress McGann would suffer. +He stationed big guards from his two small companies about the post, and +started more hard swearing among his own men, for "getting only two +nights in bed," than had been heard at Frayne in long months of less +pious post commandership. He strove to make himself agreeable to the +ladies, left lamenting for their lords, but as luck would have it, fell +foremost into the clutches of the quartermaster's wife, the dominant and +unterrified Wilkins. + +Just what prompted that energetic and, in many ways, estimable woman, to +take the new major into close communion, and tell him not only what she +knew, but what she thought, about all manner of matters at the post, can +never be justly determined. But within the first few days of his coming, +and on the eve of the arrival of General Field, Major Flint was in +possession of the story of how devoted young Field had been to Esther +Dade, and how cruelly he had jilted her for the brilliant Miss Flower, +"her that was gone with the Sioux." The differences between her stout, +veteran liege and the smooth-faced stripling had given her text to start +with. The story of the money lost had filtered from her lips, and +finally that of other peccadilloes, attributable to the young post +adjutant, whom, as she said, "The meejor had to rejuice and sind to the +front all along of his doin's in gar'son." Dade was gone. There was no +man save Wilkins to whom Major Flint felt that he could appeal for +confirmation or denial of these stories. Dr. Waller was his senior in +the service by ten years at least, and a type of the old-time officer +and gentleman of whom such as Flint stood ever in awe. He preferred, +therefore, as he thought, to keep the doctor at a distance, to make him +feel the immensity of his, the post commander's, station, and so, as +Wilkins dare not disavow the sayings of his wife, even had he been so +minded, the stories stood. + +Flint was thinking of them this very evening when Dr. Waller, happening +to meet him on his way from hospital briefly said that General Field +should be with them on the morrow. "He leaves Rock Creek to-night, +having hired transportation there. I had hoped our lad might be in +better spirits by this time." + +The major answered vaguely. How could a lad with all these sins upon his +soul be in anything but low spirits? Here was a brand to be snatched +from the burning, a youth whom prompt, stern measures might redeem and +restore, one who should be taught the error of his ways forthwith; only, +the coming of the member of the Military Committee of the House of +Representatives might make the process embarrassing. There were other +ways, therefore and however, in which this valuable information in the +major's possession might be put to use, and of these was the major +thinking, more than of the condition of the wounded lad, physical or +spiritual, as homeward through the gloaming he wended his way. + +Might it not be well to wait until this important and influential +personage had reached the post before proceeding further? Might it not +be well, confidentially and gradually, as it were, to permit the +Honorable M. C. to know that grave irregularities had occurred?--that up +to this moment the complete knowledge thereof was locked in the breast +of the present post commander?--that the suppression or presentation of +the facts depended solely upon that post commander? and then if the +member of the House Committee on Military Affairs proved receptive, +appreciative, in fact responsive, might not the ends of justice better +be subserved by leaving to the parent the duty of personally and +privately correcting the son? and, in consideration of the post +commander's wisdom and continence, pledging the influence of the +Military Committee to certain delectable ends in the major's behalf? +Long had Flint had his eye on a certain desirable berth in the distant +East--at the national capitol in fact--but never yet had he found +statesman or soldier inclined to further his desire. That night the +major bade Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins hold their peace as to Field's +peccadilloes until further leave was given them to speak. That night the +major, calling at Captain Dade's, was concerned to hear that Mrs. Dade +was not at home. "Gone over to the hospital with Mrs. Blake and the +doctor," was the explanation, and these gentle-hearted women, it seems, +were striving to do something to rouse the lad from the slough of +despond which had engulfed him. That night "Pink" Marble, Hay's faithful +book-keeper and clerk for many a year, a one-armed veteran of the civil +war, calling, as was his invariable custom when the trader was absent, +to leave the keys of the safe and desks with Mrs. Hay, was surprised to +find her in a flood of tears, for which she declined all explanation; +yet the sight of Pete, the half breed, slouching away toward the stables +as Marble closed the gate, more than suggested cause, for "Pink" had +long disapproved of that young man. That night Crapaud, the other +stableman, had scandalized Jerry Sullivan, the bar-keeper, and old +McGann, Webb's Hibernian major domo, by interrupting their game of Old +Sledge with a demand for a quart of whiskey on top of all that he had +obviously and surreptitiously been drinking, and by further indulging in +furious threats, in a sputtering mixture of Dakota French and French +Dakota, when summarily kicked out. That night, late as twelve o'clock, +Mrs. Ray, aroused by the infantile demands of the fourth of the olive +branches, and further disturbed by the suspicious growlings and +challenge of old Tonto, Blake's veteran mastiff, peeped from the second +story window and plainly saw two forms in soldier overcoats at the back +fence, and wondered what the sentries found about Blake's quarters to +require so much attention. Then she became aware of a third form, +rifle-bearing, and slowly pacing the curving line of the bluff--the +sentry beyond doubt. Who, then, were these others who had now totally +disappeared? She thought to speak of it to Nannie in the morning, and +then thought not. There were reasons why nervous alarm of any kind were +best averted then from Mrs. Blake. But there came reason speedily why +Mrs. Ray could not forget it. + +And that night, later still, along toward four o'clock, the persistent +clicking of the telegraph instrument at the adjutant's office caught the +ear of the sentry, who in time stirred up the operator, and a "rush" +message was later thrust into the hand of Major Flint, demolishing a +day-old castle in the air. + + FROM ROCK CREEK, WYOMING, + _October 23, 188--._ 9:15 P. M. + +COMMANDING OFFICER, FORT FRAYNE, + _via Fort Laramie_. + +Stage capsized Crook Cañon. General Field seriously injured. Have wired +Omaha. + +(Signed) Warner, + _Commanding Camp._ + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A RIFLED DESK + + +Events moved swiftly in the week that followed. Particulars of the +accident to General Field, however, were slow in reaching Fort Frayne; +and, to the feverish unrest and mental trouble of the son, was now added +a feverish anxiety on the father's account that so complicated the +situation as to give Dr. Waller grave cause for alarm. Then it was that, +ignoring every possible thought of misbehavior on the part of the young +officer toward the gentle girl so dear to them, not only Mrs. Blake and +Mrs. Ray, but Mrs. Dade herself, insisted on being made of +use,--insisted on being permitted to go to his bedside and there to +minister, as only women can, to the suffering and distressed. Waller +thought it over and succumbed. The lad was no longer delirious, at +least, and if he revealed anything of what was uppermost in his mind it +would be a conscious and voluntary revelation. There were some things he +had said and that Waller alone had heard, the good old doctor wished +were known to certain others of the garrison, and to no one more than +Mrs. Dade; and so the prohibition against their visiting the wounded lad +was withdrawn, and not only these, but other women, sympathetically +attracted, were given the necessary authority. + +There was other reason for this. From the commanding officer of the +supply camp at Rock Springs had come, finally, a letter that was full of +foreboding. General Field, it said, was sorely injured and might not +survive. If the department commander had only been at Omaha or Cheyenne, +as the anxious father hastened to reach his son, the mishap would never +have occurred. The general would gladly have seen to it that suitable +transportation from the railway to Frayne was afforded his old-time +comrade. But, in his absence, Field shrank from appealing to anyone +else, and, through the train conductor, wired ahead to Rock Creek for a +stout four-mule team and wagon, with a capable driver. The conductor +assured him that such things were to be had for money, and that +everything would be in readiness on his arrival. Team, wagon and driver +certainly were on hand, but the team looked rickety, so did the wagon, +so did the driver, who had obviously been priming for the occasion. It +was this rig or nothing, however; and, in spite of a courteous +remonstrance from the two officers at the supply camp, who saw and +condemned the "outfit," General Field started on time and returned on an +improvised trestle three hours later. The "outfit" had been tumbled over +a ledge into a rocky creek bottom, and with disastrous results to all +concerned except the one who deserved it most--the driver. The ways of +Providence are indeed inscrutable. + +A surgeon had been sent from Fort Russell, and his report was such that +Waller would not let it go in full to his patient. They had carried the +old soldier back to camp, and such aid as could be given by the rude +hands of untaught men was all he had for nearly twenty-four hours, and +his suffering had been great. Internal injuries, it was feared, had been +sustained, and at his advanced age that was something almost fatal. No +wonder Waller was worried. Then Flint took alarm at other troubles +closer at hand. Up to this year he had been mercifully spared all +personal contact with our Indian wards, and when he was told by his +sentries that twice in succession night riders had been heard on the +westward "bench," and pony tracks in abundance had been found at the +upper ford--the site of Stabber's village--and that others still were to +be seen in the soft ground not far from Hay's corral, the major was more +than startled. At this stage of the proceedings, Sergeant Crabb of the +Cavalry was the most experienced Indian fighter left at the post. Crabb +was sent for, and unflinchingly gave his views. The Sioux had probably +scattered before the squadrons sent after them from the north; had fled +into the hills and, in small bands probably, were now raiding down +toward the Platte, well knowing there were few soldiers left to defend +Fort Frayne, and no cavalry were there to chase them. + +"What brings them here? What do they hope to get or gain?" asked Flint. + +"I don't know, sir," answered Crabb. "But this I do know, they are +after something and expect to get it. If I might make so bold, sir, I +think the major ought to keep an eye on them blasted halfbreeds at +Hay's." + +It set Flint to serious thinking. Pete and Crapaud, paid henchmen of the +trader, had been taking advantage of their employer's absence and +celebrating after the manner of their kind. One of his officers, new +like himself to the neighborhood and to the Indians, had had encounter +with the two that rubbed his commissioned fur the wrong way. A sentry, +in discharge of his duty, had warned them one evening away from the rear +gate of a bachelor den, along officers' row, and had been told to go to +sheol, or words to that effect. They had more business there than he +had, said they, and, under the potent sway of "inspiring bold John +Barleycorn" had not even abated their position when the +officer-of-the-day happened along. They virtually damned and defied him, +too. + +The officer-of-the-day reported to the commanding officer, and that +officer called on Mrs. Hay to tell her he should order the culprits off +the reservation if they were not better behaved. Mrs. Hay, so said the +servant, was feeling far from well and had to ask to be excused, when +who should appear but that ministering angel Mrs. Dade herself, and Mrs. +Dade undertook to tell Mrs. Hay of the misconduct of the men, even when +assuring Major Flint she feared it was a matter in which Mrs. Hay was +powerless. They were afraid of Hay, but not of her. Hearing of Mrs. +Hay's illness, Mrs. Dade and other women had come to visit and console +her, but there were very few whom she would now consent to see. Even +though confident no bodily harm would befall her husband or her niece, +Mrs. Hay was evidently sore disturbed about something. Failing to see +her, Major Flint sent for the bartender and clerk, and bade them say +where these truculent, semi-savage bacchanals got their whiskey, and +both men promptly and confidently declared it wasn't at the store. +Neither of them would give or sell to either halfbreed a drop, and old +Wilkins stood sponsor for the integrity of the affiants, both of whom he +had known for years and both of whom intimated that the two specimens +had no need to be begging, buying or stealing whiskey, when Bill Hay's +private cellar held more than enough to fill the whole Sioux nation. +"Moreover," said Pink Marble, "they've got the run of the stables now +the old man's away, and there isn't a night some of those horses ain't +out." When Flint said that was something Mrs. Hay ought to know, Pink +Marble replied that was something Mrs. Hay did know, unless she refused +to believe the evidence of her own senses as well as his, and Pink +thought it high time our fellows in the field had recaptured Hay and +fetched him home. If it wasn't done mighty soon he, Pink, wouldn't be +answerable for what might happen at the post. + +All the more anxious did this make Flint. He decided that the exigencies +of the case warranted his putting a sentry over Hay's stable, with +orders to permit no horse to be taken out except by an order from him, +and Crabb took him and showed him, two days later, the tracks of two +horses going and coming in the soft earth in front of a narrow side door +that led to the corral. Flint had this door padlocked at once and +Wilkins took the key, and that night was surprised by a note from Mrs. +Hay. + +"The stablemen complain that the sentries will not let them take the +horses out even for water and exercise, which has never been the case +before," and Mrs. Hay begged that the restriction might be removed. +Indeed, if Major Flint would remove the sentry, she would assume all +responsibility for loss or damage. The men had been with Mr. Hay, she +said, for six years and never had been interfered with before, and they +were sensitive and hurt and would quit work, they said, if further +molested. Then there would be nobody to take their place and the stock +would suffer. + +In point of fact, Mrs. Hay was pleading for the very men against whom +the other employés claimed to have warned her--these two halfbreeds who +had defied his sentries,--and Flint's anxieties materially increased. It +taxed all his stock of personal piety, and strengthened the belief he +was beginning to harbor, that Mrs. Hay had some use for the horses at +night--some sojourners in the neighborhood with whom she must +communicate, and who could they be but Sioux? + +Then Mistress McGann, sound sleeper that she used to be, declared to the +temporary post commander, as he was, and temporary lodger as she +considered him, that things "was goin' on about the post she'd never +heard the likes of before, and that the meejor would never put up with +a minute." When Mrs. McGann said "the meejor" she meant not Flint, but +his predecessor. There was but one major in her world,--the one she +treated like a minor. Being a soldier's wife, however, she knew the +deference due to the commanding officer, even though she did not choose +to show it, and when bidden to say her say and tell what things "was +goin' on" Mistress McGann asseverated, with the asperity of a woman who +has had to put her husband to bed two nights running, that the time had +never been before that he was so drunk he didn't know his way home, and +so got into the back of the bachelor quarters instead of his own. "And +to think av his bein' propped up at his own gate by a lousy, frog-eatin' +half Frinchman, half salvage!" Yet, when investigated, this proved to be +the case, and the further question arose, where did McGann get his +whiskey? A faithful, loyal devoted old servitor was McGann, yet Webb, as +we have seen, had ever to watch his whiskey carefully lest the Irishman +should see it, and seeing taste, and tasting fall. The store had orders +from Mrs. McGann, countersigned by Webb, to the effect that her husband +was never to have a drop. Flint was a teetotaller himself, and noted +without a shadow of disapprobation that the decanters on the sideboard +were both empty the very day he took possession, also that the cupboard +was securely locked. Mrs. McGann was sure her liege got no liquor there +nor at the store, and his confused statement that it was given him by +"fellers at the stables," was treated with scorn. McGann then was still +under marital surveillance and official displeasure the day after Mrs. +McGann's revelations, with unexplained iniquities to answer for when his +head cleared and his legs resumed their functions. But by that time +other matters were brought to light that laid still further accusation +at his door. With the consent of Dr. Waller, Lieutenant Field had been +allowed to send an attendant for his desk. There were letters, he said, +he greatly wished to see and answer, and Mrs. Ray had been so kind as to +offer to act as his amanuensis. The attendant went with the key and came +back with a scared face. Somebody, he said, had been there before him. + +They did not tell Field this at the time. The doctor went at once with +the messenger, and in five minutes had taken in the situation. Field's +rooms had been entered and probably robbed. There was only one other +occupant of the desolate set that so recently had rung to the music of +so many glad young voices. Of the garrison proper at Frayne all the +cavalry officers except Wilkins were away at the front; all the infantry +officers, five in number, were also up along the Big Horn. The four who +had come with Flint were strangers to the post, but Herron, who had been +a classmate of Ross at the Point, moved into his room and took the +responsibility of introducing the contract doctor, who came with them, +into the quarters at the front of the house on the second floor. These +rooms had been left open and unlocked. There was nothing, said the +lawful occupant, worth stealing, which was probably true; but Field had +bolted, inside, the door of his sleeping room; locked the hall door of +his living room and taken the key with him when he rode with Ray. The +doctor looked over the rooms a moment; then sent for Wilkins, the post +quartermaster, who came in a huff at being disturbed at lunch. Field had +been rather particular about his belongings. His uniforms always hung on +certain pegs in the plain wooden wardrobe. The drawers of his bureau +were generally arranged like the clothes press of cadet days, as though +for inspection, but now coats, blouses, dressingsack and smoking jacket +hung with pockets turned inside out or flung about the bed and floor. +Trousers had been treated with like contempt. The bureau looked like +what sailors used to call a "hurrah's nest," and a writing desk, +brass-bound and of solid make, that stood on a table by a front window, +had been forcibly wrenched open, and its contents were tossed about the +floor. A larger desk,--a wooden field desk--stood upon a trestle across +the room, and this, too, had been ransacked. Just what was missing only +one man could tell. Just how they entered was patent to all--through a +glazed window between the bed-room and the now unused dining room +beyond. Just who were the housebreakers no man present could say; but +Mistress McGann that afternoon communicated her suspicion to her +sore-headed spouse, and did it boldly and with the aid of a broomstick. +"It's all along," she said, "av your shtoopin' to dhrink wid them low +lived salvages at Hay's. Now, what d'ye know about this?" + +But McGann swore piously he knew nothing "barrin' that Pete and Crapaud +had some good liquor one night--dear knows when it was--an' I helped 'em +dhrink your health,--an' when 'twas gone, and more was wanted, sure Pete +said he'd taken a demijohn to the lieutenant's, with Mr. Hay's +compliments, the day before he left for the front, and sure he couldn't +have drunk all av it, and if the back dure was open Pete would inquire +anyhow." + +That was all Michael remembered or felt warranted in revealing, for +stoutly he declared his and their innocence of having burglariously +entered any premises, let alone the lieutenant's. "Sure they'd bite +their own noses off fur him," said Mike, which impossible feat attested +the full measure of halfbreed devotion. Mistress McGann decided to make +further investigation before saying anything to anybody; but, before the +dawn of another day, matters took such shape that fear of sorrowful +consequences, involving even Michael, set a ban on her impulse to speak. +Field, it seems, had been at last induced to sleep some hours that +evening, and it was nearly twelve when he awoke and saw his desk on a +table near the window. The attendant was nodding in an easy chair; and, +just as the young officer determined to rouse him, Mrs. Dade, with the +doctor, appeared on tiptoe at the doorway. For a few minutes they kept +him interested in letters and reports concerning his father's condition, +the gravity of which, however, was still withheld from him. Then there +were reports from Tongue River, brought in by courier, that had to be +told him. But after a while he would be no longer denied. He demanded to +see his desk and his letters. + +At a sign from the doctor, the attendant raised it from the table and +bore it to the bed. "I found things in some confusion in your quarters, +Field," said Waller, by way of preparation, "and I probably haven't +arranged the letters as you would if you had had time. They were lying +about loosely--" + +But he got no further. Field had started up and was leaning on one +elbow. The other arm was outstretched. "What do you mean?" he cried. +"The desk hasn't been _opened_?" + +Too evidently, however, it had been, and in an instant Field had pulled +a brass pin that held in place a little drawer. It popped part way out, +and with trembling hands he drew it forth--empty. + +Before he could speak Mrs. Dade suddenly held up her hand in signal for +silence, her face paling at the instant. There was a rush of slippered +feet through the corridor, a hum of excited voices, and both Dr. Waller +and the attendant darted for the door. + +Outside, in the faint starlight, sound of commotion came from the +direction of the guard-house,--of swift footfalls from far across the +parade, of the vitreous jar of windows hastily raised. Two or three +lights popped suddenly into view along the dark line of officers' +quarters, and Waller's voice, with a ring of authority unusual to him, +halted a running corporal of the guard. + +"What is it?" demanded he. + +"I don't know, sir," was the soldier's answer. "There was an awful +scream from the end quarters--Captain Ray's, sir." Then on he went +again. + +And then came the crack, crack of a pistol. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BURGLARY AT BLAKE'S + + +The doctor started at the heels of the corporal, but was distanced long +before he reached the scene. The sergeant of the guard was hammering on +the front door of Blake's quarters; but, before the summons was answered +from within, Mrs. Ray, in long, loose wrapper, came hurrying forth from +her own--the adjoining--hallway. Her face was white with dread. "It is +I, Nannie. Let us in," she cried, and the door was opened by a terrified +servant, as the doctor came panting up the steps. Together he and Mrs. +Ray hurried in. "Robbers!" gasped the servant girl--"Gone--the back +way!" and collapsed on the stairs. Sergeant and corporal both tore +around to the west side and out of the rear gate. Not a sign of +fugitives could they see, and, what was worse, not a sign of sentry. +Number 5, of the third relief, should at that moment have been pacing +the edge of the bluff in rear of the northernmost quarters, and yet +might be around toward the flagstaff. "Find Number 5," were the +sergeant's orders, and back he hurried to the house, not knowing what to +expect. By that time others of the guard had got there and the +officer-of-the-day was coming,--the clink of his sword could be heard +down the road,--and more windows were uplifted and more voices were +begging for information, and then came Mrs. Dade, breathless but calm. + +Within doors she found the doctor ministering to a stout female who +seemed to have gone off in an improvised swoon--Mrs. Blake's imported +cook. Up the stairs, to her own room again, Mrs. Blake was being led by +Marion Ray's encircling arm. Three women were speedily closeted there, +for Mrs. Dade was like an elder sister to these two sworn friends, and, +not until Mrs. Dade and they were ready, did that lady descend the +stairs and communicate the facts to the excited gathering in the parlor, +and they in turn to those on the porch in front. By this time Flint +himself, with the poet quartermaster, was on hand, and all Fort Frayne +seemed to rouse, and Mrs. Gregg had come with Mrs. Wilkins, and these +two had relieved the doctor of the care of the cook, now talking +volubly; and, partly through her revelations, but mainly through the +more coherent statements of Mrs. Dade, were the facts made public. +Margaret, the cook, had a room to herself on the ground floor adjoining +her kitchen. Belle, the maid, had been given the second floor back, in +order to be near to her young mistress. Bitzer, the Blakes' +man-of-all-work,--like McGann, a discharged soldier,--slept in the +basement at the back of the house, and there was he found, blinking, +bewildered and only with difficulty aroused from stupor by a wrathful +sergeant. The cook's story, in brief, was that she was awakened by Mrs. +Blake's voice at her door and, thinking Belle was sick, she jumped up +and found Mrs. Blake in her wrapper, asking was she, Margaret, up stairs +a moment before. Then Mrs. Blake, with her candle, went into the dining +room, and out jumped a man in his stocking feet from the captain's den +across the hall, and knocked over Mrs. Blake and the light, and made for +her, the cook; whereat she screamed and slammed her door in his face, +and that was really all she knew about it. + +But Mrs. Blake knew more. Awakened by some strange consciousness of +stealthy movement about the house, she called Belle by name, thinking +possibly the girl might be ill and seeking medicine. There was sound of +more movement, but no reply. Mrs. Blake's girlhood had been spent on the +frontier. She was a stranger to fear. She arose; struck a light and, +seeing no one in her room or the guest chamber and hallway, hastened to +the third room, and was surprised to find Belle apparently quietly +sleeping. Then she decided to look about the house and, first, went down +and roused the cook. As she was coming out of the dining room, a man +leaped past her in the hall, hurling her to one side and dashing out the +light. Her back was toward him, for he came from Gerald's own premises +known as the den. In that den, directly opposite, was one of her +revolvers, loaded. She found it, even in the darkness and, hurrying +forth again, intending to chase the intruder and alarm the sentry at the +rear, encountered either the same or a second man close to the back +door, a man who sprang past her like a panther and darted down the +steps at the back of the house, followed by two shots from her Smith & +Wesson. One of these men wore a soldier's overcoat, for the cape, ripped +from the collar seam, was left in her hands. Another soldier's overcoat +was later found at the rear fence, but no boots, shoes or tracks +thereof, yet both these men, judging from the sound, had been in +stocking feet, or possibly rubbers, or perhaps--but that last suspicion +she kept to herself, for Mrs. Hay, too, was now among the arrivals in +the house, full of sympathy and genuine distress. The alarm, then, had +gone beyond the guard-house, and the creators thereof beyond the ken of +the guard, for not a sentry had seen or heard anything suspicious until +after the shots; then Number 8, Flint's latest addition, declared that +from his post at Hay's corral he had distinctly heard the swift +hoofbeats of a brace of ponies darting up the level bench to the +westward. Number 5 had turned up safely, and declared that at the moment +the scream was heard he was round by the flagstaff, listening to the +night chorus of a pack of yelping coyotes, afar out to the northwest, +and then he thought he heard scrambling and running down at the foot of +the bluff just as the shots were fired. Investigation on his part was +what took him out of sight for the moment, and later investigation +showed that one marauder, at least, had gone that way, for a capeless +greatcoat was found close down by the shore, where some fugitive had +tossed it in his flight. This overcoat bore, half erased from the soiled +lining, the name of Culligan, Troop "K;" but Culligan had served out +his time and taken his discharge a year before. The other overcoat was +even older, an infantry coat, with shorter cape, bearing a company +number "47," but no name. Both garments savored strongly of the stable. + +Then, before quiet was restored, certain search was made about the +quarters. It was found the intruders had obtained admission through the +basement door at the back, which was never locked, for the sentry on +Number 5 had orders to call Bitzer at 5:30 A. M., to start the fires, +milk the cow, etc.,--Hogan, Ray's factotum, being roused about the same +time. The marauders had gone up the narrow stairway into the kitchen, +first lashing one end of a leather halter-strap about the knob of +Bitzer's door and the other to the base of the big refrigerator,--a +needless precaution, as it took sustained and determined effort, as many +a sentry on Number 5 could testify, to rouse Bitzer from even a nap. + +It was no trick for the prowlers to softly raise the trap door leading +to the kitchen, and, once there, the rest of the house was practically +open. Such a thing as burglary or sneak thieving about the officers' +quarters had been unheard of at Frayne for many a year. One precaution +the visitors had taken, that of unbolting the back door, so that retreat +might not be barred in case they were discovered. Then they had gone +swiftly and noiselessly about their work. + +But what had they taken? The silver was upstairs, intact, under Mrs. +Blake's bed; so was the little safe in which was kept her jewelry and +their valuable papers. Books, bric-à-brac,--everything down +stairs--seemed unmolested. No item was missing from its accustomed +place. Mrs. Blake thought perhaps the intruders had not entered her room +at all. In Gerald's den were "stacks," as he said, of relics, souvenirs, +trophies of chase and war, but no one thing of the intrinsic value of +fifty dollars. What could have been the object of their midnight search? +was the question all Fort Frayne was asking as people dispersed and went +home,--the doctor intimating it was high time that Mrs. Blake was +permitted to seek repose. Not until he had practically cleared the house +of all but her most intimate friends, Mrs. Dade and Mrs. Ray, would +Waller permit himself to ask a question that had been uppermost in his +mind ever since he heard her story. + +"Mrs. Blake, someone has been ransacking Mr. Field's quarters for +letters or papers. Now,--was there anything of that kind left by the +captain that--someone may have needed?" + +Nannie Blake's head was uplifted instantly from Marion's shoulder. She +had been beginning to feel the reaction. For one moment the three women +looked intently into each other's faces. Then up they started and +trooped away into Gerald's den. The doctor followed. The upper drawer of +a big, flat-topped desk stood wide open, and pretty Mrs. Blake opened +her eyes and mouth in emulation as she briefly exclaimed-- + +"It's gone!" + +Then Waller went forthwith to the quarters of the commander and caught +him still in conference with his quartermaster and the guard, four or +five of the latter being grouped without. The major retired to his front +room, where, with Wilkins, he received the doctor. + +"Major Flint," said Waller, "those overcoats belong to Mr. Hay's +stablemen,--Pete and Crapaud. Will you order their immediate arrest?" + +"I would, doctor," was the answer, "but they are not at the corral. We +know how to account for the hoofbeats in the valley. Those scoundrels +have got nearly an hour's start, and we've nobody to send in chase." + +Then it presently appeared that the post commander desired to continue +conference with his staff officer, for he failed to invite the post +surgeon to be seated. Indeed, he looked up into the doctor's kindling +eyes with odd mixture of impatience and embarrassment in his own, and +the veteran practitioner felt the slight, flushed instantly, and, with +much _hauteur_ of manner, took prompt but ceremonious leave. + +And when morning came and Fort Frayne awoke to another busy day, as if +the excitements of the night gone by had not been enough for it, a new +story went buzzing, with the first call for guard mount, about the +garrison; and, bigger even than yesterday, the two details, in soldier +silence, began to gather in front of the infantry quarters. Major Flint +had ordered sentries posted at the trader's home, with directions that +Mrs. Hay was not to be allowed outside her gate, and no one, man or +woman, permitted to approach her from without except by express +permission of the post commander. "General Harney" and "Dan," the two +best horses of the trader's stable, despite the presence of the sentry +at the front, had been abstracted sometime during the earlier hours of +the night, and later traced to the ford at Stabber's old camp, and with +Pete and Crapaud, doubtless, were gone. + +That day the major wired to Omaha that he should be reinforced at once. +One half his little force, he said, was now mounted each day for guard, +and the men couldn't stand it. The general, of course, was in the field, +but his chief of staff remained at headquarters and was empowered to +order troops from post to post within the limits of the department. +Flint hoped two more companies could come at once, and he did not care +what post was denuded in his favor. His, he said, was close to the +Indian lands,--separated from them, in fact, only by a narrow and +fordable river. The Indians were all on the warpath and, aware of his +puny numbers, might be tempted at any moment to quit the mountains and +concentrate on him. Moreover, he was satisfied there had been frequent +communication between their leaders and the household of the post trader +at Fort Frayne. He was sure Mrs. Hay had been giving them valuable +information, and he expected soon to be able to prove very serious +charges against her. Meantime, he had placed her under surveillance. +(_That_ she had been ever since his coming, although she never realized +it.) Fancy the sensation created at Omaha, where the Hays were well +known, when this news was received! Flint did not say "under arrest," +guarded day and night by a brace of sentries who were sorely disgusted +with their duty. He had no doubt his appeals for more troops would be +honored, in view of his strenuous representations, but the day passed +without assurance to that effect and without a wired word to say his +action regarding Mrs. Hay had been approved. It began to worry him. At 3 +P. M. Mrs. Hay sent and begged him to call upon her that she might +assure and convince him of her innocence. But this the major found means +to refuse, promising, however a meeting in the near future, after he had +received tidings from the front, which he was awaiting and expecting +every moment. He had reluctantly given permission to visit her to Mrs. +Dade, Mrs. Ray and two or three other women whose hearts were filled +with sympathy and sorrow, and their heads with bewilderment, over the +amazing order. Indeed, it was due to Mrs. Dade's advice that she so far +triumphed over pride and wrath as to ask to see the major and explain. +She had received tidings from her husband and Nanette. She was perfectly +willing to admit it,--to tell all about it,--and, now that Pete and +Crapaud had turned out to be such unmitigated rascals, to have them +caught and castigated, if caught they could be. But all this involved no +disloyalty. They had always been friendly with the Sioux and the Sioux +with them. Everybody knew it;--no one better than General Crook himself, +and if he approved why should a junior disapprove? Indeed, as she asked +her friends, what junior who had ever known Mr. Hay and her, or the +Indians either, would be apt to disapprove so long as the Indians, when +on the warpath, received no aid or comfort from either her husband or +herself? "And if they had," said she, further, waxing eloquent over her +theme, "could we have _begun_ to give them half the aid or comfort--or a +thousandth part of the supplies and ammunition--they got day after day +through the paid agents of the Interior Department?" + +But these were questions army people could not properly discuss,--their +mission in life being rather to submit to, than suggest, criticism. + +And so another restless day went by and no more news came from either +front or rear--from the range to the north or Rock Springs at the south, +and Flint was just formulating another fervid appeal to that impassive +functionary, the adjutant general at Omaha, when toward evening word +came whistling down the line in the person of Master Sanford Ray, that +two couriers were in sight "scooting" in from Moccasin Ridge, and Flint +and fully half the soldier strength of Fort Frayne gathered on the +northward bluff like the "wan burghers" of ancient Rome, to watch and +speed their coming. Who could tell what the day might yet bring forth? + +It was well nigh dark before the foremost reached the ford--a scout in +worn and tawdry buckskin, wearied and impassive. He gave his despatch to +the care of the first officer to accost him and took the way to the +store, briefly saying in reply to questions, that he was "too dry to +speak the truth." So they flocked, at respectful distance, about the +major as he read the hurried lines. The general bade the post commander +wire the entire message to Washington, and to take all precautions for +the protection of the few settlers about him. The columns under Colonel +Henry and Major Webb had united near the head waters of the Clear Fork +of the Powder; had had a rattling running fight with Lame Wolf's people; +had driven them into the mountains and were following hot on the trail, +but that Stabber's band and certain disaffected Sioux had cut loose from +the main body and gone south. Whistling Elk, a young chief of much +ambition had quarrelled with certain of the Red Cloud element, and +joined Stabber, with his entire band. "Look out for them and watch for +signals any day or night from Eagle Butte." + +Flint read with sinking heart. Indian fighting was something far too +scientific for his martial education and too much for his skeleton +command. In the gathering dusk his face looked white and drawn, and old +Wilkins, breasting his way up the slope, puffed hard, as he begged for +news. There was still another despatch, however, which was evidently +adding to the major's perturbation, for it concerned him personally and +for the moment Wilkins went unheard. + + The general desires that you send the couriers back within + twenty-four hours of their arrival, after you have had time to + scout the line of the Platte say twenty miles each way, giving full + report of every Indian seen or heard of. He enjoins vigilance and + hopes to keep the Sioux so busy that they can send no more in your + direction. Should they do so, however, he will pursue at once. He + trusts that you are doing everything possible to comfort and + reassure Mrs. Hay, and that you can send good news of Lieutenant + Field. + +And this when he had just refused to remove the sentries or to visit +Mrs. Hay:--this when he had just been told by Dr. Waller that Lieutenant +Field was distinctly worse. + +"He is simply fretting his heart out here," were the doctor's words to +him but a short time before, "and, while unable to mount a horse, he is +quite strong enough now to take the trip by ambulance, slowly, that is, +to Rock Springs. I fear his father is failing. I fear Field will fail if +not allowed to go. I recommend a seven days' leave, with permission to +apply to Omaha for thirty--he'll probably need it." + +"I can't permit government teams and ambulances to be used for any such +purpose," said the major, stoutly. "It is distinctly against orders." + +"Then, sir, he can go in my spring wagon and we'll hire mules from Mrs. +Hay," was the doctor's prompt reply. "He can do no good here, major. He +may do much good there." + +But Flint was full of information and official zeal. The matter of +Field's going had been broached before, and, when told of it, the +Wilkins pair had been prompt with their protests. "Of course he'd be +wantin' to get away," said Wilkins, "wid all that money to account for, +let alone these other things." The Irishman was hot against the young +West Pointer who had derided him. He doubtless believed his own words. +He never dreamed how sorely the lad now longed to see his father,--how +deep was his anxiety on that father's account,--how filled with +apprehension on his own, for that rifled desk had brought him reason for +most painful thought. Wilkins and Field had been antagonistic from the +start. Neither could see good in the other and, egged on by his worthy +spouse's exhortations, the quartermaster had seized the opportunity to +fill the post commander's too receptive mind with all his own +suspicions--and this at a crucial time. + +"I can't listen to it, Dr. Waller," said the major, sternly. "Here's a +matter of near a thousand dollars that young man has got to answer for +the moment he is well enough to stir. And if he can't account for +it--you well know what my duty will demand." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A SLAP FOR THE MAJOR + + +The columns of Colonel Henry and Major Webb, as said "the Chief," had +united, and here were two men who could be counted on to push the +pursuit "for all they were worth." Hitherto, acting in the open country +and free from encumbrance, the Indians had been hard to reach. Now they +were being driven into their fastnesses among the mountains toward the +distant shelter whither their few wounded had been conveyed, and where +the old men, the women and children were in hiding. Now it meant that, +unless the troops could be confronted and thrown back, another transfer +of tepees and _travois_, ponies and dogs, wounded and aged would have to +be made. Lame Wolf had thought his people safe behind the walls of the +Big Horn and the shifting screen of warriors along the foothills, but +the blue skirmish lines pushed steadily on into the fringing pines, +driving the feathered braves from ridge to ridge, and Lame Wolf had +sense enough to see that here were leaders that "meant business" and +would not be held. Henry had ten veteran troops at his back when he +united with Webb, who led his own and the Beecher squadron, making +eighteen companies, or troops, of Horse, with their pack mules, all out +at the front, while the wagon train and ambulances were thoroughly +guarded by a big battalion of sturdy infantry, nearly all of them good +marksmen, against whose spiteful Springfields the warriors made only one +essay in force, and that was more than enough. The blue coats emptied +many an Indian saddle and strewed the prairie with ponies, and sent +Whistling Elk and his people to the right about in sore dismay, and then +it dawned on Lame Wolf that he must now either mislead the cavalry +leader,--throw him off the track, as it were,--or move the villages, +wounded, prisoners and all across the Big Horn river, where hereditary +foemen, Shoshone and Absaraka, would surely welcome them red-handed. + +It was at this stage of the game he had his final split with Stabber. +Stabber was shrewd, and saw unerringly that with other columns out--from +Custer on the Little Horn and Washakie on the Wind River,--with +reinforcements coming from north and south, the surrounding of the Sioux +in arms would be but a matter of time. He had done much to get Lame Wolf +into the scrape and now was urging hateful measures as, unless they were +prepared for further and heavier losses, the one way out, and that way +was--surrender. + +Now, this is almost the last thing the Indian will do. Not from fear of +consequences at the hands of his captors, for he well knows that, +physically, he is infinitely better off when being coddled by Uncle Sam +than when fighting in the field. It is simply the loss of _prestige_ +among his fellow red men that he hates and dreads. Therefore, nothing +short of starvation or probable annihilation prompts him, as a rule, to +yield himself a prisoner. Stabber urged it rather than risk further +battle and further loss, but Stabber had long been jealous of the +younger chief, envied him his much larger following and his record as a +fighter, and Stabber, presumably, would be only too glad to see him +fallen from his high estate. They could then enjoy the hospitality of a +generous nation (a people of born fools, said the unreasoning and +unregenerate red man) all winter, and, when next they felt sufficiently +slighted to warrant another issue on the warpath, they could take the +field on equal terms. Lame Wolf, therefore, swore he'd fight to the +bitter end. Stabber swore he'd gather all his villagers, now herding +with those of Wolf; and, having segregated his sheep from the more +numerous goats, would personally lead them whither the white man could +not follow. At all events he made this quarrel the pretext for his +withdrawal with full five score fighting men, and Lame Wolf cursed him +roundly as the wretch deserved and, all short-handed now, with hardly +five hundred braves to back him, bent his energies to checking Henry's +column in the heart of the wild hill country. + +And this was the situation when the general's first despatches were sent +in to Frayne,--this the last news to reach the garrison from the distant +front for five long days, and then one morning, when the snow was +sifting softly down, there came tidings that thrilled the little +community, heart and soul--tidings that were heard with mingled tears +and prayers and rejoicings, and that led to many a visit of +congratulation to Mrs. Hay, who, poor woman, dare not say at the moment +that she had known it all as much as twenty-four hours earlier, despite +the fact that Pete and Crapaud were banished from the roll of her +auxiliaries. + +Even as the new couriers came speeding through the veil of falling +flakes, riding jubilantly over the wide-rolling prairie with their news +of victory and battle, the post commander at Fort Frayne was puzzling +over a missive that had come to him, he knew not how, mysterious as the +anarchists' warnings said to find their way to the very bedside of the +guarded Romanoffs. Sentry Number 4 had picked it up on his post an hour +before the dawn--a letter addressed in bold hand to Major Stanley Flint, +commanding Fort Frayne, and, presuming the major himself had dropped it, +he turned it over to the corporal of his relief, and so it found its way +toward reveillé into the hands of old McGann, wheezing about his work of +building fires, and Michael laid it on the major's table and thought no +more about it until two hours later, when the major roused and read, and +then a row began that ended only with the other worries of his +incumbency at Frayne. + +Secretly Flint was still doing his best to discover the bearer when came +the bold riders from the north with their thrilling news. Secretly, he +had been over at the guard-house interviewing as best he could, by the +aid of an unwilling clerk who spoke a little Sioux, a young Indian girl +whom Crabb's convalescent squad, four in number, had most unexpectedly +run down when sent scouting five miles up the Platte, and brought, +screaming, scratching and protesting back to Frayne. Her pony had been +killed in the dash to escape, and the two Indians with her seemed to be +young lads not yet well schooled as warriors, for they rode away +pellmell over the prairie, leaving the girl to the mercy of the +soldiers. Flint believed her to be connected in some way with the coming +of the disturbing note, which was why he compelled her detention at the +guard-house. Under Webb's _régime_ she would have been questioned by +Hay, or some one of his household. Under Flint, no one of Hay's family +or retainers could be allowed to see her. He regarded it as most +significant that her shrillest screams and fiercest resistance should +have been reserved until just as her guardians were bearing her past the +trader's house. She had the little light prison room to herself all that +wintry morning, and there, disdainful of bunk or chair, enveloped in her +blanket, she squatted disconsolate, greeting all questioners with +defiant and fearless shruggings and inarticulate protest. Not a syllable +of explanation, not a shred of news could their best endeavors wring +from her. Yet her glittering eyes were surely in search of some one, for +she looked up eagerly every time the door was opened, and Flint was just +beginning to think he would have to send for Mrs. Hay when the couriers +came with their stirring news and he had to drop other affairs in order +to forward this important matter to headquarters. + +Once again, it seems, Trooper Kennedy had been entrusted with +distinguished duty, for it was he who came trotting foremost up the +road, waving his despatch on high. A comrade from Blake's troop, +following through the ford, had turned to the left and led his horse up +the steep to the quarters nearest the flagstaff. This time there was no +big-hearted post commander to bid the Irishman refresh himself _ad +libitum_. Flint was alone at his office at the moment, and knew not this +strange trooper, and looked askance at his heterodox garb and war-worn +guise. Such laxity, said he to himself, was not permitted where _he_ had +hitherto served, which was never on Indian campaign. Kennedy, having +delivered his despatches, stood mutely expectant of question and +struggling with an Irishman's enthusiastic eagerness to tell the details +of heady fight. But Flint had but one method of getting at facts--the +official reports--and Kennedy stood unnoticed until, impatient at last, +he queried:-- + +"Beg pardon, sir, but may we put up our horses?" + +"Who's we?" asked the major, bluntly. "And where are the others?" + +"Trigg, sir--Captain Blake's troop. He went to the captain's quarters +with a package." + +"He should have reported himself first to the post commander," said the +major, who deemed it advisable to make prompt impression on these savage +hunters of savage game. + +"Thim wasn't his ordhers, surr," said Kennedy, with zealous, but +misguided loyalty to his comrades and his regiment. + +"No one has a right, sir, to give orders that are contrary in spirit to +the regulations and customs of the service," answered the commander, +with proper austerity. "Mr. Wilkins," he continued, as the burly +quartermaster came bustling in, "have the other trooper sent to report +at once to me and let this man wait outside till I am ready to see him." + +And so it happened that a dozen members of the garrison gathered, from +the lips of a participant, stirring particulars of a spirited chase and +fight that set soldiers to cheering and women and children to +extravagant scenes of rejoicing before the official head of the garrison +was fairly ready to give out the news. Kennedy had taken satisfaction +for the commander's slights by telling the tidings broadcast to the +crowd that quickly gathered, and, in three minutes, the word was flying +from lip to lip that the troops had run down Lame Wolf's main village +after an all day, all night rush to head them off, and that with very +small loss they had been able to capture many of the families and to +scatter the warriors among the hills. In brief, while Henry, with the +main body, had followed the trail of the fighting band, Webb had been +detached and, with two squadrons, had ridden hard after a Shoshone guide +who led them by a short cut through the range and enabled them to pounce +on the village where were most of Lame Wolf's noncombatants, guarded +only by a small party of warriors, and, while Captains Billings and Ray +with their troops remained in charge of these captives, Webb, with Blake +and the others had pushed on in pursuit of certain braves who had +scampered into the thick of the hills, carrying a few of the wounded and +prisoners with them. Among those captured, or recaptured, were Mr. Hay +and Crapaud. Among those who had been spirited away was Nanette Flower. +This seemed strange and unaccountable. + +And yet Blake had found time to write to his winsome wife,--to send her +an important missive and most important bit of news. It was with these +she came running in to Mrs. Ray before the latter had time to half read +the long letter received from her soldier husband, and we take the facts +in the order of their revelation. + +"Think of it, Maidie!" she cried. "Think of it! Gerald's first words, +almost, are 'Take good care of that pouch and contents,' and now pouch +and contents are gone! Whoever dreamed that they would be of such +consequence? He says the newspaper will explain." + +And presently the two bonny heads were bent over the big sheets of a +dingy, grimy copy of a Philadelphia daily, and there, on an inner page, +heavily marked, appeared a strange item, and this Quaker City journal +had been picked up in an Ogalalla camp. The item read as follows: + + AN UNTAMED SIOUX + + The authorities of the Carlisle School and the police of Harrisburg + are hunting high and low for a young Indian known to the records of + the Academy as Ralph Moreau, but borne on the payrolls of Buffalo + Bill's Wild West aggregation as Eagle Wing--a youth who is credited + with having given the renowned scout-showman more trouble than all + his braves, bronchos and "busters" thereof combined. Being of + superb physique and a daring horseman, Moreau had been forgiven + many a peccadillo, and had followed the fortunes of the show two + consecutive summers until Cody finally had to get rid of him as an + intolerable nuisance. + + It seems that when a lad of eighteen, "Eagle Wing" had been sent to + Carlisle, where he ran the gamut of scrapes of every conceivable + kind. He spoke English picked up about the agencies; had + influential friends and, in some clandestine way, received + occasional supplies of money that enabled him to take French leave + when he felt like it. He was sent back from Carlisle to Dakota as + irreclaimable, and after a year or two on his native heath, + reappeared among the haunts of civilization as one of Buffalo + Bill's warriors. Bill discharged him at Cincinnati and, at the + instance of the Indian Bureau, he was again placed at Carlisle, + only to repeat on a larger scale his earlier exploits and secure a + second transfer to the Plains, where his opportunities for + devilment were limited. Then Cody was induced to take him on again + by profuse promises of good behavior, which were kept until + Pennsylvania soil was reached two weeks ago, when he broke loose + again; was seen in store clothes around West Philadelphia for a few + days, plentifully supplied with money, and next he turned up in the + streets of Carlisle, where he assaulted an attaché of the school, + whose life was barely saved by the prompt efforts of other Indian + students. Moreau escaped to Harrisburg, which he proceeded to paint + his favorite color that very night, and wound up the entertainment + by galloping away on the horse of a prominent official, who had + essayed to escort him back to Carlisle. It is believed that he is + now in hiding somewhere about the suburbs, and that an innate + propensity for devilment will speedily betray him to the clutches + of the law. + +A few moments after reading this oddly interesting story the two friends +were in consultation with Mrs. Dade, who, in turn, called in Dr. Waller, +just returning from the hospital and a not too satisfactory visit to Mr. +Field. There had been a slight change for the better in the condition of +General Field that had enabled Dr. Lorain of Fort Russell and a local +physician to arrange for his speedy transfer to Cheyenne. This had in a +measure relieved the anxiety of Waller's patient, but never yet had the +veteran practitioner permitted him to know that he was practically a +prisoner as well as a patient. Waller feared the result on so +high-strung a temperament, and had made young Field believe that, when +strong and well enough to attempt the journey, he should be sent to Rock +Springs. Indeed, Dr. Waller had no intention of submitting to Major +Flint's decision as final. He had written personally to the medical +director of the department, acquainting him with the facts, and, +meanwhile, had withdrawn himself as far as possible, officially and +socially, from the limited circle in which moved his perturbed +commanding officer. + +He was at a distant point of the garrison, therefore, and listening to +the excited and vehement comments of the younger of the three women upon +this strange newspaper story, and its possible connection with matters +at Frayne, at the moment when a dramatic scene was being enacted over +beyond the guard-house. + +Kennedy was still the center of a little group of eager listeners when +Pink Marble, factotum of the trader's store, came hurrying forth from +the adjutant's office, speedily followed by Major Flint. "You may tell +Mrs. Hay that while I cannot permit her to visit the prisoner," he +called after the clerk, "I will send the girl over--under suitable +guard." + +To this Mr. Marble merely shrugged his shoulders and went on. He fancied +Flint no more than did the relics of the original garrison. A little +later Flint personally gave an order to the sergeant of the guard and +then came commotion. + +First there were stifled sounds of scuffle from the interior of the +guard-house; then shrill, wrathful screams; then a woman's voice +unlifted in wild upbraidings in an unknown tongue, at sound of which +Trooper Kennedy dropped his rein and his jaw, stood staring one minute; +then, with the exclamation: "Mother of God, but I know that woman!" +burst his way through the crowd and ran toward the old log blockhouse at +the gate,--the temporary post of the guard. Just as he turned the corner +of the building, almost stumbling against the post commander, there came +bursting forth from the dark interior a young woman of the Sioux, +daring, furious, raging, and, breaking loose from the grasp of the two +luckless soldiers who had her by the arms, away she darted down the +road, still screaming like some infuriated child, and rushed straight +for the open gateway of the Hays. Of course the guard hastened in +pursuit, the major shouting "Stop her! Catch her!" and the men striving +to appear to obey, yet shirking the feat of seizing the fleeing woman. +Fancy, then, the amaze of the swiftly following spectators when the +trader's front door was thrown wide open and Mrs. Hay herself sprang +forth. Another instant and the two women had met at the gate. Another +instant still, and, with one motherly arm twining about the quivering, +panting, pleading girl and straining her to the motherly heart, Mrs. +Hay's right hand and arm flew up in the superb gesture known the wide +frontier over as the Indian signal "Halt!" And halt they did, every +mother's son save Kennedy, who sprang to the side of the girl and faced +the men in blue. And then another woman's voice, rich, deep, ringing, +powerful, fell on the ears of the amazed, swift-gathering throng, with +the marvellous order: "Stand where you are! You shan't touch a hair of +her head! She's a chief's daughter. She's my own kin and I'll answer for +her to the general himself. As for you," she added, turning now and +glaring straight at the astounded Flint, all the pent-up sense of wrath, +indignity, shame and wrong overmastering any thought of prudence or of +"the divinity that doth hedge" the commanding officer, "As for you," she +cried, "I pity you when our own get back again! God help you, Stanley +Flint, the moment my husband sets eyes on you. D'you know the message +that came to him this day?" And now the words rang louder and clearer, +as she addressed the throng. "_I_ do, and so do officers and gentlemen +who'd be shamed to have to shake hands with such as he. He's got my +husband's note about him now, and what my husband wrote was this--'I +charge myself with every dollar you charge to Field, and with the +further obligation of thrashing you on sight'--and, mark you, he'll do +it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE SIOUX SURROUNDED + + +In the hush of the wintry night, under a leaden sky, with snowflakes +falling thick and fast and mantling the hills in fleecy white, Webb's +column had halted among the sturdy pines, the men exchanging muttered, +low-toned query and comment, the horses standing with bowed heads, +occasionally pawing the soft coverlet and sniffing curiously at this +filmy barrier to the bunch grass they sought in vain. They had feasted +together, these comrade troopers and chargers, ere the sun went +down,--the men on abundant rations of agency bacon, flour and brown +sugar, found with black tailed deer and mountain sheep in abundance in +the captured village, and eked out by supplies from the pack train,--the +horses on big "blankets" of oats set before them by sympathetic friends +and masters. Then, when the skies were fairly dark, Webb had ordered +little fires lighted all along the bank of the stream, leaving the men +of Ray's and Billings' troops to keep them blazing through the long +night watches to create the impression among the lurking Sioux that the +whole force was still there, guarding the big village it had captured in +the early afternoon, and then, in silence, the troopers had saddled and +jogged away into the heart of the hills, close on the heels of their +guides. + +There had been little time to look over the captures. The main interest +of both officers and men, of course, centred in Mr. Hay, who was found +in one of the tepees, prostrate from illness and half frantic from fever +and strong mental excitement. He had later tidings from Frayne, it +seems, than had his rescuers. He could assure them of the health and +safety of their wives and little ones, but would not tell them what was +amiss in his own household. One significant question he asked: Did any +of them know this new Major Flint? No? Well, God help Flint, if ever he, +Hay, got hold of him. + +"He's delirious," whispered Webb, and rode away in that conviction, +leaving him to Ray and Billings. + +Three miles out, on the tortuous trail of the pursued, the column halted +and dismounted among the pines. Then there was brief conference, and the +word "Mount" was whispered along the Beecher squadron, while Blake's men +stood fast. With a parting clasp of the hand Webb and "Legs" had +returned to the head of their respective commands, "Legs" and his +fellows to follow steadily the Indian trail through the twisting ravines +of the foothills; Webb to make an all-night forced march, in wide +_détour_ and determined effort, to head off the escaping warriors before +they could reach the rocky fastnesses back of Bear Cliff. Webb's chief +scout "Bat," chosen by General Crook himself, had been a captive among +the Sioux through long years of his boyhood, and knew the Big Horn +range as Webb did the banks of the Wabash. "They can stand off a +thousand soldiers," said the guide, "if once they get into the rocks. +They'd have gone there first off only there was no water. Now there's +plenty snow." + +So Blake's instructions were to follow them without pushing, to let them +feel they were being pursued, yet by no means to hasten them, and, if +the general's favorite scout proved to be all he promised as guide and +pathfinder, Webb might reasonably hope by dint of hard night riding, to +be first at the tryst at break of day. Then they would have the +retreating Sioux, hampered by their few wounded and certain prisoners +whom they prized, hemmed between rocky heights on every side, and sturdy +horsemen front and rear. + +It was eight by the watch at the parting of the ways. It was 8:30 when +Blake retook the trail, with Sergeants Schreiber and Winsor, the latter +borrowed from Ray, far in the van. Even had the ground been hard and +stony these keen-eyed soldier scouts could have followed the signs +almost as unerringly as the Indians, for each had had long years of +experience all over the West; but, despite the steadily falling snow, +the traces of hoofs and, for a time, of _travois_ poles could be readily +seen and followed in the dim gray light of the blanketed skies. +Somewhere aloft, above the film of cloud, the silvery moon was shining, +and that was illumination more than enough for men of their years on the +trail. + +For over an hour Blake followed the windings of a ravine that grew +closer and steeper as it burrowed into the hills. Old game trails are as +good as turnpikes in the eyes of the plainsman. It was when the ravine +began to split into branches that the problem might have puzzled them, +had not the white fleece lain two inches deep on the level when "Lo" +made his dash to escape. Now the rough edges of the original impression +were merely rounded over by the new fallen snow. The hollows and ruts +and depressions led on from one deep cleft into another, and by midnight +Blake felt sure the quarry could be but a few miles ahead and Bear Cliff +barely five hours' march away. So, noiselessly, the signal "Halt!" went +rearward down the long, dark, sinuous column of twos, and every man +slipped out of saddle--some of them stamping, so numb were their feet. +With every mile the air had grown keener and colder. They were glad when +the next word whispered was, "Lead on" instead of "Mount." + +By this time they were far up among the pine-fringed heights, with the +broad valley of the Big Horn lying outspread to the west, invisible as +the stars above, and neither by ringing shot nor winged arrow had the +leaders known the faintest check. It seemed as though the Indians, in +their desperate effort to carry off the most important or valued of +their charges, were bending all their energies to expediting the +retreat. Time enough to turn on the pursuers when once the rocks had +closed about them,--when the wounded were safe in the fastnesses, and +the pursuers far from supports. But, at the foot of a steep ascent, the +two leading scouts,--rival sergeants of rival troops but devoted friends +for nearly twenty years,--were seen by the next in column, a single +corporal following them at thirty yards' distance, to halt and begin +poking at some dark object by the wayside. Then they pushed on again. A +dead pony, under a quarter inch coverlet of snow, was what met the eyes +of the silently trudging command as it followed. The high-peaked wooden +saddle tree was still "cinched" to the stiffening carcass. Either the +Indians were pushed for time or overstocked with saddlery. Presently +there came a low whistle from the military "middleman" between the +scouts and a little advance guard. "Run ahead," growled the sergeant +commanding to his boy trumpeter. "Give me your reins." And, leaving his +horse, the youngster stumbled along up the winding trail; got his +message and waited. "Give this to the captain," was the word sent back +by Schreiber, and "this" was a mitten of Indian tanned buckskin, soft +and warm if unsightly, a mitten too small for a warrior's hand, if ever +warrior deigned to wear one,--a mitten the captain examined curiously, +as he ploughed ahead of his main body, and then returned to his +subaltern with a grin on his face: + +"Beauty draws us with a single hair," said he, "and can't shake us even +when she gives us the mitten. Ross," he added, after a moment's thought, +"remember this. With this gang there are two or three sub-chiefs that we +should get, alive or dead, but the chief end of man, so far as 'K' +Troop's concerned, is to capture that girl, unharmed." + +And just at dawn, so gray and wan and pallid it could hardly be told +from the pale moonlight of the earlier hours, the dark, snake-like +column was halted again, nine miles further in among the wooded heights. +With Bear Cliff still out of range and sight, something had stopped the +scouts, and Blake was needed at the front. He found Schreiber crouching +at the foot of a tree, gazing warily forward along a southward-sloping +face of the mountain that was sparsely covered with tall, straight +pines, and that faded into mist a few hundred yards away. The +trail,--the main trail, that is,--seemed to go straight away eastward, +and, for a short distance, downward through a hollow or depression; +while, up the mountain side to the left, the north, following the spur +or shoulder, there were signs as of hoof tracks, half sheeted by the +new-fallen snow, and through this fresh, fleecy mantlet ploughed the +trooper boots in rude, insistent pursuit. The sergeants' horses were +held by a third soldier a few yards back behind the spur, for Winsor was +"side scouting" up the heights. + +The snowfall had ceased for a time. The light was growing broader every +moment, and presently a soft whistle sounded somewhere up the steep, and +Schreiber answered. "He wants us, sir," was all he said, and in five +minutes they had found him, sprawled on his stomach on a projecting +ledge, and pointing southeastward, where, boldly outlined against the +gray of the morning sky, a black and beetling precipice towered from +the mist-wreathed pines at its base. Bear Cliff beyond a doubt! + +"How far, sergeant?" asked the captain, never too reliant on his powers +of judging distance. + +"Five miles, sir, at least; yet some three or four Indians have turned +off here and gone--somewhere up there." And, rolling half over, Winsor +pointed again toward a wooded bluff, perhaps three hundred feet higher +and half a mile away. "That's probably the best lookout this side of the +cliff itself!" he continued, in explanation, as he saw the puzzled look +on the captain's face. "From there, likely, they can see the trail over +the divide--the one Little Bat is leading the major and, if they've made +any time at all, the squadron should be at Bear Cliff now." + +They were crawling to him by this time, Blake and Schreiber, among the +stunted cedars that grew thickly along the rocky ledge. Winsor, flat +again on his stomach, sprawled like a squirrel close to the brink. Every +moment as the skies grew brighter the panorama before them became more +extensive, a glorious sweep of highland scenery, of boldly tossing +ridges east and south and west--the slopes all mantled, the trees all +tipped, with nature's ermine, and studded now with myriad gems, taking +fire at the first touch of the day god's messenger, as the mighty king +himself burst his halo of circling cloud and came peering over the low +curtain far at the eastward horizon. Chill and darkness and shrouding +vapor vanished all in a breath as he rose, dominant over countless +leagues of wild, unbroken, yet magnificent mountain landscape. + +"Worth every hour of watch and mile of climb!" muttered Blake. "But it's +Indians, not scenery, we're after. What are we here for, Winsor?" and +narrowly he eyed Ray's famous right bower. + +"If the major got there first, sir,--and I believe he did,--they have to +send the prisoners and wounded back this way." + +"Then we've got 'em!" broke in Schreiber, low-toned, but exultant. "Look +sir," he added, as he pointed along the range. "They are signalling +now." + +From the wooded height ten hundred yards away, curious little puffs of +smoke, one following another, were sailing straight for the zenith, and +Blake, screwing his field glasses to the focus, swept with them the +mountain side toward the five-mile distant cliff, and presently the +muscles about his mouth began to twitch--sure sign with Blake of +gathering excitement. + +"You're right, sergeant," he presently spoke, repressing the desire to +shout, and striving, lest Winsor should be moved to invidious +comparisons, to seem as _nonchalant_ as Billy Ray himself. "They're +coming back already." Then down the mountain side he dove to plan and +prepare appropriate welcome, leaving Winsor and the glasses to keep +double powered watch on the situation. + +Six-fifty of a glorious, keen November morning, and sixty troopers of +the old regiment were distributed along a spur that crossed, almost at +right angles, the line of the Indian trail. Sixty fur-capped, +rough-coated fellows, with their short brown carbines in hand, crouching +behind rocks and fallen trees, keeping close to cover and warned to +utter silence. Behind them, two hundred yards away, their horses were +huddled under charge of their disgusted guards, envious of their fellows +at the front, and cursing hard their luck in counting off as number +four. Schreiber had just come sliding, stumbling, down from Winsor's +perch to say they could hear faint sound of sharp volleying far out to +the eastward, where the warriors, evidently, were trying to "stand off" +Webb's skirmish line until the _travois_ with the wounded and the escort +of the possible prisoners should succeed in getting back out of harm's +way and taking surer and higher trail into the thick of the wilderness +back of Bear Cliff. "Some of 'em must come in sight here in a minute, +sir," panted the veteran sergeant. "We could see them plainly up +there--a mule litter and four _travois_, and there must be a dozen in +saddle." + +A dozen there were, for along the line of crouching men went sudden +thrill of excitement. Shoulders began to heave; nervous thumbs bore down +on heavy carbine hammers, and there was sound of irrepressible stir and +murmur. Out among the pines, five hundred yards away, two mounted +Indians popped suddenly into view, two others speedily following, their +well-nigh exhausted ponies feebly shaking their shaggy, protesting +heads, as their riders plied the stinging quirt or jabbed with cruel +lance; only in painful jog trot could they zig zag through the trees. +Then came two warriors, leading the pony of a crippled comrade. "Don't +fire--Don't harm them! Fall back from the trail there and let them in. +They'll halt the moment they see our tracks! Get 'em alive, if +possible!" were Blake's rapid orders, for his eyes were eagerly fixed on +other objects beyond these dejected leaders--upon stumbling mules, +lashed fore and aft between long, spliced saplings and bearing thus a +rude litter--Hay's pet wheelers turned to hospital use. An Indian boy, +mounted, led the foremost mule; another watched the second; while, on +each side of the occupant of this Sioux palanquin, jogged a blanketed +rider on jaded pony. Here was a personage of consequence--luckier much +than these others following, dragged along on _travois_ whose trailing +poles came jolting over stone or hummock along the rugged path. It was +on these that Blake's glittering eyes were fastened. "Pounce on the +leaders, you that are nearest!" he ordered, in low, telling tones, the +men at his left; then turned to Schreiber, crouching close beside him, +the fringe of his buckskin hunting shirt quivering over his bounding +heart. "There's the prize I want," he muttered low. "Whatever you do, +let no shot reach that litter. Charge with me the moment the leaders +yell. You men to the right," he added, slightly raising his voice, "be +ready to jump with me. Don't shoot anybody that doesn't show fight. Nab +everything in sight." + +[Illustration: "CHARGE WITH ME THE MOMENT THE LEADERS YELL."] + +"Whoo-oop!" All in a second the mountain woke, the welkin rang, to a +yell of warning from the lips of the leading Sioux. All in a second +they whirled their ponies about and darted back. All in that second +Blake and his nearmost sprang to their feet and flung themselves forward +straight for the startled convoy. In vain the few warriors bravely +rallied about their foremost wounded; the unwieldy litter could not turn +about; the frantic mules, crazed by the instant pandemonium of shouts +and shots,--the onward rush of charging men,--the awful screams of a +brace of squaws, broke from their leading reins; crashed with their +litter against the trees, hurling the luckless occupant to earth. Back +drove the unhit warriors before the dash of the cheering line. Down went +first one pony, then a second, in his bloody tracks. One after another, +litter, _travois_, wounded and prisoner, was clutched and seized by +stalwart hands, and Blake, panting not a little, found himself bending +staring over the prostrate form flung from the splintered wreck of the +litter, a form writhing in pain that forced no sound whatever from +between grimly clinching teeth, yet that baffled effort, almost superb, +to rise and battle still--a form magnificent in its proportions, yet +helpless through wounds and weakness. Not the form Blake thought to see, +of shrinking, delicate, dainty woman, but that of the furious warrior +who thrice had dared him on the open field--the red brave well known to +him by sight and deed within the moon now waning, but, only within the +day gone by, revealed to him as the renegade Ralph Moreau,--Eagle Wing +of the Ogalalla Sioux. + +Where then was Nanette? + +"Look out for this man, corporal!" he called, to a shouting young +trooper. "See that no harm comes to him." Then quickly he ran on to the +huddle of _travois_. Something assured him she could not be far away. +The first drag litter held another young warrior, sullen and speechless +like the foremost. The next bore a desperately wounded brave whose +bloodless lips were compressed in agony and dumb as those of the dead. +About these cowered, shivering and whimpering, two or three +terror-stricken squaws, one of them with a round-eyed pappoose staring +at her back. A pony lay struggling in the snow close by. Half a dozen +rough soldier hands were dragging a stricken rider from underneath. Half +a dozen more were striving to control the wild plungings of another +mettlesome little beast, whose rider, sitting firmly astride, lashed +first at his quivering flank and then at the fur gauntleted hands,--even +at the laughing, bearded faces--sure sign of another squaw, and a game +one. Far out to the front the crackle of carbine and rifle told that +Webb was driving the scattered braves before him,--that the comrade +squadron was coming their way,--that Bear Cliff had been sought by the +Sioux in vain,--that Indian wiles and strategy, Indian pluck and staying +power, all had more than met their match. Whatever the fate of Lame +Wolf's fighting force, now pressed by Henry's column, far in the +southward hills, here in sight of the broad Big Horn valley, the white +chief had struck a vital blow. Village, villagers, wounded and prisoners +were all the spoil of the hated soldiery. Here at the scene of Blake's +minor affair there appeared still in saddle just one undaunted, +unconquered amazon whose black eyes flashed through the woolen hood that +hid the rest of her face, whose lips had uttered as yet no sound, but +from whom two soldiers recoiled at the cry of a third. "Look at the hand +of her, fellers! It's whiter than mine!" + +"That's all right, Lanigan," answered the jovial voice of the leader +they loved and laughed with. "Hold that pony steady. Now, by +your-ladyship's leave," and two long, sinewy arms went circling about +the shrinking rider's waist, and a struggling form was lifted +straightway out of saddle and deposited, not too gracefully, on its +moccasined feet. "We will remove this one impediment to your speech," +continued Blake, whereat the muffling worsted was swiftly unwound, "and +then we will listen to our meed of thanks. Ah, no wonder you did not +need a side-saddle that night at Frayne. You ride admirably _à +califourchon_. My compliments, Mademoiselle La Fleur; or should I +say--Madame Moreau." + +For all answer Blake received one quick, stinging slap in the face from +that mittenless little right hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THANKSGIVING AT FRAYNE + + +Thanksgiving Day at Frayne! Much of the garrison was still afield, +bringing back to their lines and, let us hope, to their senses, the +remnant of Stabber's band, chased far into the Sweetwater Hills before +they would stop, while Henry's column kept Lame Wolf in such active +movement the misnamed chieftain richly won his later sobriquet "The +Skipper." The general had come whirling back from Beecher in his Concord +wagon, to meet Mr. Hay as they bore that invalid homeward from the Big +Horn. Between the fever-weakened trader and the famous frontier soldier +there had been brief conference--all that the doctors felt they could +allow--and then the former had been put to bed under the care of his +devoted wife, while the latter, without so much as sight of a pillow, +had set forth again out Sweetwater way to wind up the campaign. This +time he went in saddle, sending his own team over the range of the +Medicine Bow to carry a convalescent subaltern to the side of a stricken +father; the sender ignorant, possibly, of the post commander's +prohibition; ignoring it, if, as probable, it was known to him. The good +old doctor himself had bundled the grateful lad and sent a special +hospital attendant with him. Mrs. Dade and her devoted allies up the row +had filled with goodies a wonderful luncheon basket, while Mrs. Hay had +sent stores of wine for the use of both invalids, and had come down +herself to see the start, for, without a word indicative of reproof, the +general had bidden Flint remove the blockade, simply saying he would +assume all responsibility, both for Mrs. Hay and the young Indian girl, +given refuge under the trader's roof until the coming of her own people +still out with Stabber's band. Flint could not fathom it. He could only +obey. + +And now, with the general gone and Beverly Field away, with Hay home and +secluded, by order, from all questioning or other extraneous worry; with +the wounded soldiers safely trundled into hospital, garrison interest +seemed to centre for the time mainly in that little Ogalalla +maid--Flint's sole Sioux captive--who was housed, said the much +interrogated domestic, in Mrs. Hay's own room instead of Miss Flower's, +while the lady of the house, when she slept at all, occupied a sofa near +her husband's bedside. + +Then came the tidings that Blake, with the prisoners from No Wood Creek +and Bear Cliff was close at hand, and everybody looked with eager eyes +for the coming across the snowy prairie of that homeward bound +convoy--that big village of the Sioux, with its distinguished captives, +wounded and unwounded; one of the former, the young sub-chief Eagle +Wing, alias Moreau;--one of the latter a self-constituted martyr, since +she was under no official restraint,--Nanette Flower, hovering ever +about the litter bearing that sullen and still defiant brave, whose side +she refused to leave. + +Not until they reached Fort Frayne; not until the surgeon, after careful +examination, declared there was no need of taking Moreau into +hospital,--no reason why he should not be confined in the prison room of +the guard-house,--were they able to induce the silent, almost desperate +girl to return to her aunt. Not until Nanette realized that her warrior +was to be housed within wooden walls whence she would be excluded, could +Mrs. Hay, devoted to the last, persuade the girl to reoccupy her old +room and to resume the dress of civilization. Barring that worsted hood, +she was habited like a chieftain's daughter, in gaily beaded and +embroidered garments, when recaptured by Blake's command. Once within +the trader's door, she had shut herself in her old room, the second +floor front, refusing to see anybody from outside the house, unless she +could be permitted to receive visits from the captive Sioux, and this +the major, flintily, forebade. It was nightfall when the litter-bearers +reached the post, Hay's rejoicing mules braying unmelodious ecstasy at +sight of their old stable. It was dark when the wounded chief was borne +into the guard-house, uttering not a sound, and Nanette was led within +the trader's door, yet someone had managed to see her face, for the +story went all over the wondering post that very night,--women flitting +with it from door to door,--that every vestige of her beauty was +gone;--she looked at least a dozen years older. Blake, when questioned, +after the first rapture of the home-coming had subsided, would neither +affirm nor deny. "She would neither speak to me nor harken," said he, +whimsically. "The only thing she showed was teeth and--temper." + +Then presently they sent a lot of the Sioux--Stabber's villagers and +Lame Wolf's combined,--by easy stages down the Platte to Laramie, and +then around by Rawhide and the Niobrara to the old Red Cloud agency, +there to be fed and coddled and cared for, wounded warriors and all, +except a certain few, including this accomplished orator and chieftain, +convalescing under guard at Frayne. About his case there hung details +and complications far too many and intricate to be settled short of a +commission. Already had the tidings of this most important capture +reached the distant East. Already both Indian Bureau and Peace Societies +had begun to wire the general in the field and "work" the President and +the Press at home. Forgotten was the fact that he had been an +intolerable nuisance to Buffalo Bill and others who had undertaken to +educate and civilize him. The Wild West Show was now amazing European +capitals and, therefore, beyond consulting distance. Forgotten were +escapades at Harrisburg, Carlisle and Philadelphia. Suppressed were +circumstances connecting him with graver charges than those of repeated +roistering and aggravated assault. Ignored, or as yet unheard, were the +details of his reappearance on the frontier in time to stir up most of +the war spirit developed that September, and to take a leading part in +the fierce campaign that followed. He was a pupil of the nation, said +the good people of the Indian Friends Societies--a youth of exceptional +intelligence and promise, a son of the Sioux whose influence would be of +priceless value could he be induced to complete his education and accept +the views and projects of his eastern admirers. It would never do to let +his case be settled by soldiers, settlers and cowboys, said +philanthropy. They would hang him, starve him, break his spirit at the +very least. (They were treating him particularly well just now, as he +had sense enough to see.) There must be a deputation,--a committee to go +out at once to the West, with proper credentials, per diem, mileage and +clerks, to see to it that these unfortunate children of the mountain and +prairie were accorded fair treatment and restored to their rights, +especially this brilliant young man Moreau. The general was beyond reach +and reasoning with, but there was Flint, eminent for his piety, and +untrammelled in command; Flint, with aspirations of his own, the very +man to welcome such influence as theirs, and, correspondingly, to give +ear to their propositions. Two days after the safe lodgment of Eagle +Wing behind the bars, the telegrams were coming by dozens, and one week +after that deserved incarceration Fort Frayne heard with mild +bewilderment the major's order for Moreau's transfer to the hospital. By +that time letters, too, were beginning to come, and, two nights after +this removal to the little room but lately occupied by Lieutenant +Field--this very Thanksgiving night, in fact,--the single sentry at the +door stood attention to the commanding officer, who in person ushered +in a womanly form enveloped in hooded cloak, and with bowed head Nanette +Flower passed within the guarded portal, which then closed behind her +and left her alone with her wounded brave. + +Blake and Billings had been sent on to Red Cloud, guarding the +presumably repentant Ogalallas. Webb, Ray, Gregg and Ross were still +afield, in chase of Stabber. Dade, with four companies of infantry, was +in the Big Horn guarding Henry's wagon train. There was no one now at +Frayne in position to ask the new commander questions, for Dr. Waller +had avoided him in every possible way, but Waller had nobly done the +work of his noble profession. Moreau, or Eagle Wing, was mending so very +fast there was no reason whatever why the doctor should object to his +receiving visitors. It was Flint alone who would be held responsible if +anything went wrong. Yet Fort Frayne, to a woman, took fire at the +major's action. Two days previous he might have commanded the support of +Mrs. Wilkins, but Nanette herself had spoiled all chance of that. It +seems the lady had been to call at Mrs. Hay's the previous day--that +Mrs. Hay had begged to be excused,--that Mrs. Wilkins had then +persisted, possibly as a result of recent conference with Flint, and had +bidden the servant say she'd wait until Miss Flower could come down, and +so sailed on into the parlor, intent on seeing all she could of both the +house and its inmates. But not a soul appeared. Mrs. Hay was watching +over her sleeping husband, whose slow recovery Flint was noting with +unimpatient eye. Voices low, yet eager, could be heard aloft in +Nanette's room. The servant, when she came down, had returned without a +word to the inner regions about the kitchen, and Mrs. Wilkins's wait +became a long one. At last the domestic came rustling through the lower +floor again, and Mrs. Wilkins hailed. Both were Irish, but one was the +wife of an officer and long a power, if not indeed a terror, in the +regiment. The other feared the quartermaster's wife as little as Mrs. +Wilkins feared the colonel's, and, when ordered to stand and say why she +brought no answer from Miss Flower, declined to stand, but decidedly +said she brought none because there was none. + +"Did ye tell her I'd wait?" said Mrs. Wilkins. + +"I did," said Miss McGrath, "an' she said 'Let her,' an' so I did." Then +in came Mrs. Hay imploring hush, and, with rage in her Hibernian heart, +the consort of the quartermaster came away. + +There was not one woman in all Fort Frayne, therefore, to approve the +major's action in permitting this wild girl to visit the wilder Indian +patient. Mrs. Hay knew nothing of it because Nanette well understood +that there would be lodged objection that she dare not disregard--her +uncle's will. One other girl there was, that night at Frayne, who marked +her going and sought to follow and was recalled, restrained at the very +threshold by the sound of a beloved voice softly, in the Sioux tongue, +calling her name. One other girl there was who knew not of her going, +who shrank from thought of meeting her at any time,--in any place,--and +yet was destined to an encounter fateful in its results in every way. + +Just as tattoo was sounding on the infantry bugle, Esther Dade sat +reading fairy stories at the children's bedside in the quarters of +Sergeant Foster, of her father's company. There had been Thanksgiving +dinner with Mrs. Ray, an Amazonian feast since all their lords were +still away on service, and Sandy Ray and Billy, Jr., were perhaps too +young to count. Dinner was all over by eight o'clock, and, despite some +merry games, the youngsters' eyes were showing symptoms of the sandman's +coming, when that privileged character, Hogan, Ray's long-tried trooper +now turned _major domo_, appeared at the doorway of the little army +parlor. He had been bearer of a lot of goodies to the children among the +quarters of the married soldiers, and now, would Mrs. Dade please speak +with Mrs. Foster, who had come over with him, and Mrs. Dade departed for +the kitchen forthwith. Presently she returned. "I'm going back awhile +with Mrs. Foster," said she. "She's sitting up to-night with poor Mrs. +Wing, who--" But there was no need of explanation. They all knew. They +had laid so recently their wreaths of evergreen on the grave of the +gallant soldier who fell, fighting at the Elk, and now another helpless +little soul had come to bear the buried name, and all that were left for +mother and babe was woman's boundless charity. It was Thanksgiving +night, and while the wail of the bereaved and stricken went up from more +than one of these humble tenements below the eastward bluff, there were +scores of glad and grateful hearts that lifted praise and thanksgiving +to the throne on high, even though they knew not at the moment but that +they, too, might, even then, be robbed of all that stood between them +and desolation. Once it happened in the story of our hard-fighting, +hard-used little army that a bevy of fair young wives, nearly half a +score in number, in all the bravery of their summer toilets, sat in the +shadow of the flag, all smiles and gladness and applause, joining in the +garrison festivities on the Nation's natal day, never dreaming of the +awful news that should fell them ere the coming of another sun; that one +and all they had been widowed more than a week; that the men they loved, +whose names they bore, lay hacked and mutilated beyond recognition +within sight of those very hills where now the men from Frayne were +facing the same old foe. In the midst of army life we are, indeed, in +death, and the thanksgiving of loving ones about the fireside for +mercies thus far shown, is mingled ever with the dread of what the +morrow may unfold. + +"Let me go, too, mamma," was Esther's prompt appeal, as she heard her +mother's words. "I can put the children to bed while you and Mrs. Foster +are over there." + +And so with Hogan, lantern bearing, mother and daughter had followed the +sergeant's wife across the broad, snow-covered parade; had passed +without comment, though each was thinking of the new inmate, the +brightly-lighted hospital building on the edge of the plateau, and +descended the winding pathway to the humble quarters of the married +soldiers, nestling in the sheltered flats between the garrison proper +and the bold bluffs that again close bordered the rushing stream. And +here at Sergeant Foster's doorway Esther parted from the elders, and was +welcomed by shrieks of joy from three sturdy little cherubs--the +sergeant's olive branches, and here, as the last notes of tattoo went +echoing away under the vast and spangled sky, one by one her charges +closed their drooping lids and dropped to sleep and left their gentle +friend and reader to her own reflections. + +There was a soldier dance that night in one of the vacant messrooms. +Flint's two companies were making the best of their isolation, and +found, as is not utterly uncommon, quite a few maids and matrons among +the households of the absent soldiery quite willing to be consoled and +comforted. There were bright lights, therefore, further along the edge +of the steep, beyond those of the hospital, and the squeak of fiddle and +drone of 'cello, mingled with the plaintive piping of the flute, were +heard at intervals through the silence of the wintry night. No tramp of +sentry broke the hush about the little rift between the heights--the +major holding that none was necessary where there were so many dogs. +Most of the soldiers' families had gone to the dance; all of the younger +children were asleep; even the dogs were still, and so, when at ten +o'clock Esther tiptoed from the children's bedside and stood under the +starlight, the murmur of the Platte was the only sound that reached her +ears until, away over at the southwest gate the night guards began the +long-drawn heralding of the hour. "Ten o'clock and all's well" it went +from post to post along the west and northward front, but when Number +Six, at the quartermaster's storehouse near the southeast corner, should +have taken up the cry where it was dropped by Number Five, afar over +near the flagstaff, there was unaccountable silence. Six did not utter a +sound. + +Looking up from the level of "Sudstown," as it had earlier been named, +Esther could see the black bulk of the storehouse close to the edge of +the plateau. Between its westward gable end and the porch of the +hospital lay some fifty yards of open space, and through this gap now +gleamed a spangled section of the western heavens. Along the bluff, just +under the crest, ran a pathway that circled the southeastward corner and +led away to the trader's store, south of the post. Tradition had it that +the track was worn by night raiders, bearing contraband fluids from +store to barracks in the days before such traffic was killed by that +common sense promoter of temperance, soberness and chastity--the post +exchange. Along that bluff line, from the storehouse toward the +hospital, invisible, doubtless, from either building or from the bluff +itself, but thrown in sharp relief against that rectangular inlet of +starry sky, two black figures, crouching and bearing some long, flat +object between them, swift and noiseless were speeding toward the +hospital. The next instant they were lost in the black background of +that building. Then, as suddenly and a moment later, one of them +reappeared, just for a moment, against the brightly lighted +window,--the southernmost window on the easterward side--the window of +the room that had been Beverly Field's--the window of the room now given +over to Eagle Wing, the Sioux,--the captive for whose safe keeping a +special sentry within the building, and this strangely silent Number Six +without, were jointly responsible. Then that silhouetted figure was +blotted from her sight in general darkness, for the lights within as +suddenly went out. + +And at that very moment a sound smote upon her ear, unaccountable at +that hour and that side of the garrison--hoofbeats swiftly coming down +into the hollow from the eastward bluff,--hoofbeats and low, excited +voices. Foster's little house was southernmost of the settlement. The +ground was open between it and the heights, and despite the low, +cautious tones, Esther heard the foremost rider's muttered, angering +words. "Dam fool! Crazy! Heap crazy! Too much hurry. Ought t' let him +call off first!" Then an answer in guttural Sioux. + +And then in an instant it dawned upon the girl that here was new crime, +new bloodshed, perhaps, and a plot to free a villianous captive. Her +first thought was to scream for aid, but what aid could she summon? Not +a man was within hail except these, the merciless haters of her race and +name. To scream would be to invite their ready knives to her heart--to +the heart of any woman who might rush to her succor. The cry died in her +throat, and, trembling with dread and excitement, she clung to the door +post and crouched and listened, for stifled mutterings could be heard, +a curse or two in vigorous English, a stamping of impatient ponies, a +warning in a woman's tone. Then, thank God! Up at the storehouse corner +a light came dancing into view. In honest soldier tones boomed out the +query "What's the matter, Six?" and then, followed by a scurry of hoofs, +a mad lashing of quirts, a scramble and rush of frightened steeds, and a +cursing of furious tongues, her own brave young voice rang out on the +night. "This way, sergeant! Help--Quick!" + +Black forms of mounts and riders sped desperately away, and then with +all the wiry, sinewy strength of her lithe and slender form, Esther +hurled herself upon another slender figure, speeding after these, afoot. +Desperately she clung to it in spite of savage blows and strainings. And +so they found her, as forth they came,--a rush of shrieking, startled, +candle-bearing women,--of bewildered and unconsciously blasphemous men +of the guard--her arms locked firmly about a girl in semi-savage garb. +The villain of the drama had been whisked away, leaving the woman who +sought to save him to the mercy of the foe. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +BEHIND THE BARS + + +In the whirl and excitement following the startling outcry from the +flats, all Fort Frayne was speedily involved. The guard came rushing +through the night, Corporal Shannon stumbling over a prostrate +form,--the sentry on Number Six, gagged and bound. The steward shouted +from the hospital porch that Eagle Wing, the prisoner patient, had +escaped through the rear window, despite its height above the sloping +ground. A little ladder, borrowed from the quartermaster's corral, was +found a moment later. An Indian pony, saddled Sioux fashion, was caught +running, riderless, toward the trader's back gate, his horsehair bridle +torn half way from his shaggy head. Sergeant Crabb, waiting for no +orders from the major, no sooner heard that Moreau was gone, than he +rushed his stable guard to the saddleroom, and in fifteen minutes had, +not only his own squad, but half a dozen "casual" troopers circling the +post in search of the trail, and in less than half an hour was hot in +chase of two fleeing horsemen, dimly seen ahead through the starlight, +across the snowy wastes. That snowfall was the Sioux's undoing. Without +it the trail would have been invisible at night. With it, the pursued +were well-nigh hopeless from the start. Precious time had been lost in +circling far out south of the post before making for the ford, whither +Crabb's instinct sent him at once, to the end that he and two of his +fellows ploughed through the foaming waters, barely five hundred yards +behind the chase, and, as they rode vehemently onward through the +starlight, straining every nerve, they heard nothing of the happenings +about the Fosters' doorway, where by this time post commander, post +surgeon, post quartermaster and acting post adjutant, post ordnance, +quartermaster and commissary sergeants, many of the post guard and most +of the post laundresses had gathered--some silent, anxious and +bewildered, some excitedly babbling; while, within the sergeant's +domicile, Esther Dade, very pale and somewhat out of breath, was trying +with quiet self possession to answer the myriad questions poured at her, +while Dr. Waller was ministering to the dazed and moaning sentry, and, +in an adjoining tenement, a little group had gathered about an +unconscious form. Someone had sent for Mrs. Hay, who was silently, +tearfully chafing the limp and almost lifeless hands of a girl in Indian +garb. The cloak and skirts of civilization had been found beneath the +window of the deserted room, and were exhibited as a means of bringing +to his senses a much bewildered major, whose first words on entering the +hut gave rise to wonderment in the eyes of most of his hearers, and to +an impulsive reply from the lips of Mrs. Hay. + +"I warned the general that girl would play us some Indian trick, but he +ordered her release," said Flint, and with wrathful emphasis came the +answer. + +"The general warned you _this_ girl would play you a trick, and, thanks +to no one but you, she's done it!" + +Then rising and stepping aside, the long-suffering woman revealed the +pallid, senseless face,--not of the little Indian maid, her shrinking +charge and guest,--but of the niece she loved and had lived and lied for +many and trying years--Nanette La Fleur, a long-lost sister's only +child. + +So Blake knew what he was talking about that keen November morning among +the pines at Bear Cliff. He had unearthed an almost forgotten legend of +old Fort Laramie. + +But the amaze and discomfiture of the temporary post commander turned +this night of thanksgiving, so far as he was concerned, into something +purgatorial. The sight of his sentry, bound, gagged and bleeding,--the +discovery of the ladder and of the escape of the prisoner, for whom he +was accountable, had filled him with dismay, yet for the moment failed +to stagger his indomitable self esteem. There had been a plot, of +course, and the instant impulse of his soul was to fix the blame on +others and to free himself. An Indian trick, of course, and who but the +little Indian maid within the trader's gates could be the instrument! +Through her, of course, the conspirators about the post had been enabled +to act. She was the general's _protegée_, not his, and the general must +shoulder the blame. Even when Flint saw Nanette, self convicted through +her very garb and her presence at the scene of the final struggle,--even +when assured it was she and not the little Ogalalla girl who had been +caught in the act,--that the latter, in fact, had never left the +trader's house, his disproportioned mind refused to grasp the situation. +Nanette, he declared, with pallid face, "must have been made a victim." +"Nothing could have been farther from her thoughts than complicity in +the escape of Eagle Wing." "She had every reason to desire his +restoration to health, strength and to the fostering care of the good +and charitable body of Christian people interested in his behalf." "All +this would be endangered by his attempt to rejoin the warriors on the +warpath." The major ordered the instant arrest of the sentry stationed +at the door of the hospital room--shut out by the major's own act from +all possibility of seeing what was going on within. He ordered under +arrest the corporal of the relief on post for presumable complicity, +and, mindful of a famous case of Ethiopian skill then new in the public +mind, demanded of Dr. Waller that he say in so many words that the gag +and wrist thongs on the prostrate sentry had not been self applied. +Waller impassively pointed to the huge lump at the base of the +sufferer's skull, "Gag and bonds he might have so placed, after much +assiduous practice," said he, "but no man living could hit himself such +a blow at the back of the head." + +"Who could have done it, then?" asked Flint. It was inconceivable to +Waller's mind that any one of the soldiery could have been tempted to +such perfidy for an Indian's sake. There was not at the moment an +Indian scout or soldier at the post, or an Indian warrior, not a +prisoner, unaccounted for. There had been halfbreeds hanging about the +store prior to the final escapade of Pete and Crapaud, but these had +realized their unpopularity after the battle on the Elk, and had +departed for other climes. Crapaud was still under guard. Pete was still +at large, perchance, with Stabber's braves. There was not another man +about the trader's place whom Flint or others could suspect. Yet the +sergeant of the guard, searching cautiously with his lantern about the +post of Number Six, had come upon some suggestive signs. The snow was +trampled and bloody about the place where the soldier fell, and there +were here and there the tracks of moccasined feet,--those of a young +woman or child going at speed toward the hospital, running, probably, +and followed close by a moccasined man. Then those of the man, alone, +went sprinting down the bluff southeastward over the flats some distance +south of the Foster's doorway and up the opposite bluff, to a point +where four ponies, shoeless, had been huddled for as much, perhaps, as +half an hour. Then all four had come scampering down close together into +the space below the hospital, not fifty yards from where the sentry +fell, and the moccasined feet of a man and woman had scurried down the +bluff from the hospital window, to meet them west of Foster's shanty. +Then there had been confusion,--trouble of some kind: One pony, pursued +a short distance, had broken away; the others had gone pounding out +southeastward up the slope and out over the uplands, then down again, in +wide sweep, through the valley of the little rivulet and along the low +bench southwest of the fort, crossing the Rock Springs road and +striking, further on, diagonally, the Rawlins trail, where Crabb and his +fellows had found it and followed. + +But all this took hours of time, and meanwhile, only half revived, +Nanette had been gently, pityingly borne away to a sorrowing woman's +home, for at last it was found, through the thick and lustrous hair, +that she, too, had been struck a harsh and cruel blow; that one reason, +probably, why she had been able to oppose no stouter resistance to so +slender a girl as Esther Dade was that she was already half dazed +through the stroke of some blunt, heavy weapon, wielded probably by him +she was risking all to save. + +Meantime the major had been pursuing his investigations. Schmidt, the +soldier sentry in front of Moreau's door, a simple-hearted Teuton of +irreproachable character, tearfully protested against his incarceration. +He had obeyed his orders to the letter. The major himself had brought +the lady to the hospital and showed her in. The door that had been open, +permitting the sentry constant sight of his prisoner, had been closed by +the commanding officer himself. Therefore, it was not for him, a private +soldier, to presume to reopen it. The major said to the lady he would +return for her soon after ten, and the lady smilingly (Schmidt did not +say how smilingly,--how bewitchingly smilingly, but the major needed no +reminder) thanked him, and said, by that time she would be ready. In a +few minutes she came out, saying, (doubtless with the same bewitching +smile) she would have to run over home for something, and she was gone +nearly half an hour, and all that time the door was open, the prisoner +on the bed in his blankets, the lamp brightly burning. It was near +tattoo when she returned, with some things under her cloak, and she was +breathing quick and seemed hurried and shut the door after thanking him, +and he saw no more of her for fifteen minutes, when the door opened and +out she came, the same cloak around her, yet she looked different, +somehow, and must have tiptoed, for he didn't hear her heels as he had +before. She didn't seem quite so tall, either, and that was all, for he +never knew anything more about it till the steward came running to tell +of the escape. + +So Schmidt could throw but little light upon the situation, save to +Flint himself, who did not then see fit to say to anyone that at no time +was it covenanted that Miss Flower should be allowed to go and come +unattended. In doing so she had deluded someone beside the sentry. + +It was late in the night when Number Six regained his senses and could +tell _his_ tale, which was even more damaging. Quite early in the +evening, so he said,--as early as nine o'clock,--he was under the +hospital corner, listening to the music further up along the bluff. A +lady came from the south of the building as though she were going down +to Sudstown. Mrs. Foster had gone down not long before, and Hogan, with +a lantern, and two officers' ladies. But this one came all alone and +spoke to him pleasant-like and said she was so sorry he couldn't be at +the dance. She'd been seeing the sick and wounded in hospital, she said, +and was going to bring some wine and jellies. If he didn't mind, she'd +take the path around the quartermaster's storehouse outside, as she was +going to Mr. Hay's, and didn't care to go through by the guard-house. So +Six let her go, as he "had no orders agin it" (even though it dawned +upon him that this must be the young lady that had been carried off by +the Sioux). That made him think a bit, he said, and when she came back +with a basket nicely covered with a white napkin, she made him take a +big chicken sandwich. "Sure I didn't know how to refuse the lady, until +she poured me out a big tumbler of wine--wine, she said, she was taking +in to Sergeant Briggs and Corporal Turner that was shot at the Elk, and +she couldn't bear to see me all alone out there in the cold." But Six +said he dasn't take the wine. He got six months "blind" once for a +similar solecism, and, mindful of the major's warning (this was +diplomatic) Six swore he had sworn off, and had to refuse the repeated +requests of the lady. He suspicioned her, he said, because she was so +persistent. Then she laughed and said good-night and went on to the +hospital. What became of the wine she had poured out? (This from the +grim and hitherto silent doctor, seated by the bedside.) She must have +tossed it out or drunk it herself, perhaps, Six didn't know. Certainly +no trace of it could be found in the snow. Then nothing happened for as +much as twenty minutes or so, and he was over toward the south end of +his post, but facing toward the hospital when she came again down the +steps, and this time handed him some cake and told him he was a good +soldier not to drink even wine, and asked him what were the lights away +across the Platte, and he couldn't see any, and was following her +pointing finger and staring, and then all of a sudden he saw a million +lights, dancing, and stars and bombs and that was all he knew till they +began talking to him here in hospital. Something had hit him from +behind, but he couldn't tell what. + +Flint's nerve was failing him, for here was confirmation of the +general's theory, but there was worse to come and more of it. + +Miss McGrath, domestic at the trader's, had told a tale that had reached +the ears of Mistress McGann, and 'twas the latter that bade the major +summon the girl and demand of her what it was she had seen and heard +concerning "Crappo" and the lady occupant of the second floor front at +the trader's home. Then it was that the major heard what others had +earlier conjectured--that there had been clandestine meetings, whispered +conferences and the like, within the first week of the lovely niece's +coming to Fort Frayne. That notes had been fetched and carried by +"Crappo" as well as Pete; that Miss Flower was either a somnambulist or +a good imitation of one, as on two occasions the maid had "peeked" and +seen her down-stairs at the back door in the dead hours of the night, or +the very early morning. That was when she first came. Then, since the +recapture, Miss McGrath felt confident that though never again detected +down stairs, Miss Flower had been out at night, as Miss McGrath believed +her to have been the night, when was it? "when little Kennedy had his +scrap wid the Sioux the boys do be all talkin' about"--the night, in +fact, that Stabber's band slipped away from the Platte, Ray's troop +following at dawn. Questioned as to how it was possible for Miss Flower +to get out without coming down stairs, Miss McGrath said she wasn't good +at monkeyshines herself, but "wimmen that could ride sthraddle-wise" +were capable of climbs more difficult than that which the vine trellis +afforded from the porch floor to the porch roof. Miss McGrath hadn't +been spying, of course, because her room was at the back of the house, +beyond the kitchen, but how did the little heel tracks get on the +veranda roof?--the road dust on the matting under the window? the vine +twigs in that "quare" made skirt never worn by day? That Miss Flower +could and did ride "asthraddle" and ride admirably when found with the +Sioux at Bear Cliff, everybody at Frayne well knew by this time. That +she had so ridden at Fort Frayne was known to no officer or lady of the +garrison then present, but believed by Miss McGrath because of certain +inexpressibles of the same material with the "quare" made skirt; both +found, dusty and somewhat bedraggled, the morning Captain Blake was +having his chase after the Indians, and Miss Flower was so "wild excited +like." All this and more did Miss McGrath reveal before being permitted +to return to the sanctity of her chamber, and Flint felt the ground +sinking beneath his feet. It might even be alleged of him now that he +had connived at the escape of this most dangerous and desperate +character, this Indian leader, of whom example, prompt and sharp, would +certainly have been made, unless the general and the ends of justice +were defeated. But what stung the major most of all was that he had been +fairly victimized, hoodwinked, cajoled, wheedled, flattered into this +wretched predicament, all through the wiles and graces of a woman. No +one knew it, whatever might be suspected, but Nanette had bewitched him +quite as much as missives from the East had persuaded and misled. + +And so it was with hardened and resentful heart that the major sought +her on the morrow. The general and the commands afield would soon be +coming home. Such Indians as they had not "rounded up" and captured were +scattered far and wide. The campaign was over. Now for the disposition +of the prisoners. It was to tell Mrs. Hayand Nanette, especially +Nanette, why the sentries were re-established about their home and that, +though he would not place the trader's niece within a garrison cell, he +should hold her prisoner beneath the trader's roof to await the action +of superior authority on the grievous charges lodged at her door. She +was able to be up, said Miss McGrath,--not only up but down--down in the +breakfast room, looking blither and more like herself than she had been +since she was brought home. + +"Say that Major Flint desires to see her and Mrs. Hay," said Flint, with +majesty of mien, as, followed by two of his officers, he was shown into +the trader's parlor. + +And presently they came--Mrs. Hay pale and sorrowing; Miss Flower, pale, +perhaps, but triumphantly defiant. The one sat and covered her face with +her hands as she listened to the major's few words, cold, stern and +accusing. The other looked squarely at him, with fearless, glittering +eyes:-- + +"You may order what you like so far as I'm concerned," was the utterly +reckless answer of the girl. "I don't care what you do now that I know +he is safe--free--and that you will never lay hands on him again." + +"That's where you are in error, Miss Flower," was the major's calm, +cold-blooded, yet rejoiceful reply. It was for this, indeed, that he had +come. "Ralph Moreau was run down by my men soon after midnight, and he's +now behind the bars." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A SOLDIER ENTANGLED + + +December and bitter cold. The river frozen stiff. The prairie sheeted in +unbroken snow. Great log fires roaring in every open fireplace. Great +throngs of soldiery about the red hot barrack stoves, for all the +columns were again in winter columns, and Flint's two companies had "got +the route" for home. They were to march on the morrow, escorting as far +as Laramie the intractables of Stabber's band, some few of the Indians +to go in irons, among them Ralph Moreau, or Eagle Wing, now a notorious +character. + +The general was there at Frayne, with old "Black Bill," erstwhile chief +inspector of the department, once a subaltern in days long gone by when +Laramie was "Ultima Thule" of the plains forts. The general had heard +Flint's halting explanation of his laxity in Moreau's case, saying +almost as little in reply as his old friend Grant when "interviewed" by +those of whom he disapproved. "Black Bill" it was who waxed explosive +when once he opened on the major, and showed that amazed New Englander +something of the contents of Moreau's Indian kit, including the now +famous hunting pouch, all found with Stabber's village. A precious +scoundrel, as it turned out, was this same Moreau, with more sins to +answer for than many a convicted jail bird, and with not one follower +left to do him reverence except, perhaps, that lonely girl, self +secluded at the Hays. Hay himself, though weak, was beginning to sit up. +Dade, Blake and Ray were all once more housed in garrison. Truscott and +Billings, with their hardy troopers, had taken temporary station at the +post, until the general had decided upon the disposition of the array of +surrendered Indians, nearly three hundred in number, now confined under +strong guard in the quartermaster's corral at the flats, with six "head +devils," including Eagle Wing, in the garrison prison. + +All the officers, with two exceptions, were again for duty at Frayne. +Webb, laid by the heels at Beecher, his feet severely frozen, and +Beverly Field, who, recalled from a brief and solemn visit to a far +southern home, had reached the post at nightfall of the 10th. There had +hardly been allowed him time to uplift a single prayer, to receive a +word of consolation from the lips of friends and kindred who loved the +honored father, borne to his last resting place. "Come as soon as +possible," read the message wired him by Ray, and, though the campaign +was over, it was evident that something was amiss, and, with all his +sorrow fresh upon him, the lad, sore in body and soul, had hastened to +obey. + +And it was Ray who received and welcomed him and took him straightway to +his own cosy quarters, that Mrs. Ray, and then the Blakes, might add +their sympathetic and cordial greeting,--ere it came to telling why it +was that these, his friends despite that trouble that could not be +talked of, were now so earnest in their sympathy,--before telling him +that his good name had become involved, that there were allegations +concerning him which the chief had ordered "pigeon-holed" until he +should come to face them. A pity it is that Bill Hay could not have been +there, too, but his fever had left him far too weak to leave his room. +Only Ray and Blake were present and it was an interview not soon, if +ever, to be forgotten. + +"I'm no hand at breaking things gently, Field," said Ray, when finally +the three were closeted together in the captain's den. "It used to worry +Webb that you were seen so often riding with Miss--Miss Flower up to +Stabber's village, and, in the light of what has since happened, you +will admit that he had reasons. Hear me through," he continued, as +Field, sitting bolt upright in the easy chair, essayed to speak. +"Neither Captain Blake nor I believe one word to your dishonor in the +matter, but it looks as though you had been made a tool of, and you are +by no means the first man. It was to see this fellow, Moreau--Eagle +Wing--whom you recognized at the Elk,--she was there so frequently--was +it not?" + +Into Field's pale face there had come a look of infinite distress. For a +moment he hesitated, and little beads began to start out on his +forehead. + +"Captain Ray," he finally said, "they tell me--I heard it from the +driver on the way up from Rock Springs--that Miss Flower is virtually a +prisoner, that she had been in league with the Sioux, and yet, until I +can see her--can secure my release from a promise, I have to answer you +as I answered you before--I cannot say." + +Blake started impatiently and heaved up from his lounging chair, his +long legs taking him in three strides to the frost-covered window at the +front. Ray sadly shook his dark, curly head. + +"You _are_ to see her, Field. The general--bless him for a +trump!--wouldn't listen to a word against you in your absence; but that +girl has involved everybody--you, her aunt, who has been devotion itself +to her, her uncle, who was almost her slave. She deliberately betrayed +him into the hands of the Sioux. In fact this red robber and villain, +Moreau, is the only creature she hasn't tried to 'work,' and he +abandoned her after she had lied, sneaked and stolen for him." + +"Captain Ray!" The cry came from pallid lips, and the young soldier +started to his feet, appalled at such accusation. + +"Every word of it is true," said Ray. "She joined him after his wounds. +She shared his escape from the village at our approach. She was with him +when Blake nabbed them at Bear Cliff. She was going with him from here. +What manner of girl was that, Field, for you to be mixed up with?" + +"He is her half brother!" protested Field, with kindling eyes. "She told +me--everything--told me of their childhood together, and--" + +"Told you a pack of infernal lies!" burst in Blake, no longer able to +contain himself. "Made you a cat's paw; led you even to taking her by +night to see him when she learned the band were to jump for the +mountains--used you, by God, as he used _her_, and, like the Indian she +is, she'd turn and stab you now, if you stood in her way or his. Why, +Field, that brute's her lover, and she's his--" + +"It's a lie! You shall not say it, sir!" cried Field, beside himself +with wrath and amaze, as he stood quivering from head to foot, still +weak from wounds, fever and distress of mind. But Ray sprang to his +side. "Hush, Blake! Hush, Field! Don't speak. What is it, Hogan?" And +sharply he turned him to the door, never dreaming what had caused the +interruption. + +"The general, sir, to see the captain!" + +And there, in the hallway, throwing off his heavy overcoat and +"arctics," there, with that ever faithful aide in close attendance, was +the chief they loved; dropped in, all unsuspecting, just to say +good-bye. "I knocked twice," began Hogan, but Ray brushed him aside, +for, catching sight of the captain's face, the general was already at +the door. Another moment and he had discovered Field, and with both +hands extended, all kindliness and sympathy, he stepped at once across +the room to greet him. + +"I was so very sorry to hear the news," said he. "I knew your father +well in the old days. How's your wound? What brought you back so soon?" + +And then there was one instant of awkward silence and then--Ray spoke. + +"That was my doing, general. I believed it best that he should be here +to meet you and--every allegation at his expense. Mr. Field, I feel +sure, does not begin to know them yet, especially as to the money." + +"It was all recovered," said the general. "It was found almost +intact--so was much of that that they took from Hay. Even if it hadn't +been, Hay assumed all responsibility for the loss." + +With new bewilderment in his face, the young officer, still white and +trembling, was gazing, half stupefied, from one to the other. + +"What money?" he demanded. "I never heard--" + +"Wait," said the general, with significant glance at Ray, who was about +to speak. "I am to see them--Mrs. Hay and her niece--at nine o'clock. It +is near that now. Webb cannot be with us, but I shall want you, Blake. +Say nothing until then. Sit down, Mr. Field, and tell me about that leg. +Can you walk from here to Hay's, I wonder?" + +Then the ladies, Mrs. Ray and her charming next door neighbor, appeared, +and the general adjourned the conference forthwith, and went with them +to the parlor. + +"Say nothing more," Ray found time to whisper. "You'll understand it all +in twenty minutes." + +And at nine o'clock the little party was on its way through the sharp +and wintry night, the general and Captain Blake, side by side, ahead, +the aide-de-camp and Mr. Field close following. Dr. Waller, who had been +sent for, met them near the office. The sentries at the guard-house +were being changed as the five tramped by along the snapping and +protesting board walk, and a sturdy little chap, in fur cap and +gauntlets, and huge buffalo overcoat, caught sight of them and, facing +outward, slapped his carbine down to the carry--the night signal of +soldier recognition of superior rank as practised at the time. + +"Tables are turned with a vengeance," said the general, with his quiet +smile. "That's little Kennedy, isn't it? I seem to see him everywhere +when we're campaigning. Moreau was going to eat his heart out next time +they met, I believe." + +"So he said," grinned Blake, "before Winsor's bullet fetched him. Pity +it hadn't killed instead of crippling him." + +"He's a bad lot," sighed the general. "Wing won't fly away from Kennedy, +I fancy." + +"Not if there's a shot left in his belt," said Blake. "And Ray is +officer-of-the-day. There'll be no napping on guard this night." + +At the barred aperture that served for window on the southward front, a +dark face peered forth in malignant hate as the speakers strode by. But +it shrank back, when the sentry once more tossed his carbine to the +shoulder, and briskly trudged beneath the bars. Six Indians shared that +prison room, four of their number destined to exile in the distant +East,--to years, perhaps, within the casemates of a seaboard fort--the +last place on earth for a son of the warlike Sioux. + +"They know their fate, I understand," said Blake, as the general moved +on again. + +"Oh, yes. Their agent and others have been here with Indian Bureau +orders, permitting them to see and talk with the prisoners. Their +shackles are to be riveted on to-night. Nearly time now, isn't it?" + +"At tattoo, sir. The whole guard forms then, and the four are to be +moved into the main room for the purpose. I am glad this is the last of +it." + +"Yes, we'll start them with Flint at dawn in the morning. He'll be more +than glad to get away, too. He hasn't been over lucky here, either." + +A strange domestic--(the McGrath having been given warning and removed +to Sudsville) showed them into the trader's roomy parlor, the largest +and most pretentious at the post. Hay had lavished money on his home and +loved it and the woman who had so adorned it. She came in almost +instantly to greet them, looking piteously into the kindly, bearded face +of the general, and civilly, yet absently, welcoming the others. She did +not seem to realize that Field, who stood in silence by the side of +Captain Blake, had been away. She had no thought, apparently, for anyone +but the chief himself,--he who held the destinies of her dear ones in +the hollow of his hand. His first question was for Fawn Eyes, the little +Ogalalla maiden whose history he seemed to know. "She is well and trying +to be content with me," was the reply. "She has been helping poor +Nanette. She does not seem to understand or realize what is coming to +him. Have they--ironed him--yet?" + +[Illustration: "HUSH! SHE'S COMING"--SHE WAS THERE.] + +"I believe not," said the general. "But it has to be done to-night. They +start so early in the morning." + +"And you won't let her see him, general. No good can come from it. She +declares she will go to him in the morning, if you prohibit it +to-night," and the richly jewelled hands of the unhappy woman were +clasped almost in supplication. + +"By morning he will be beyond her reach. The escort starts at six." + +"And--these gentlemen here--" She looked nervously, appealingly about +her. "Must they--all know?" + +"These and the inspector general. He will be here in a moment. But, +indeed, Mrs. Hay, it _is_ all known, practically," said the general, +with sympathy and sorrow in his tone. + +"Not all--not all, general! Even I don't know all--She herself has said +so. Hush! She's coming." + +She was there! They had listened for swish of skirts or fall of slender +feet upon the stairway, but there had not been a sound. They saw the +reason as she halted at the entrance, lifting with one little hand the +costly Navajo blanket that hung as a portière. In harmony with the +glossy folds of richly dyed wool, she was habited in Indian garb from +head to foot. In two black, lustrous braids, twisted with feather and +quill and ribbon, her wealth of hair hung over her shoulders down the +front of her slender form. A robe of dark blue stuff, rich with broidery +of colored bead and bright-hued plumage, hung, close clinging, and her +feet were shod in soft moccasins, also deftly worked with bead and +quill. But it was her face that chained the gaze of all, and that drew +from the pallid lips of Lieutenant Field a gasp of mingled consternation +and amaze. Without a vestige of color; with black circles under her +glittering eyes; with lines of suffering around the rigid mouth and with +that strange pinched look about the nostrils that tells of anguish, +bodily and mental, Nanette stood at the doorway, looking straight at the +chief. She had no eyes for lesser lights. All her thought, apparently, +was for him,--for him whose power it was, in spite of vehement +opposition, to deal as he saw fit with the prisoner in his hands. Appeal +on part of Friends Societies, Peace and Indian Associations had failed. +The President had referred the matter in its entirety to the general +commanding in the field, and the general had decided. One moment she +studied his face, then came slowly forward. No hand extended. No sign of +salutation,--greeting,--much less of homage. Ignoring all others +present, she addressed herself solely to him. + +"Is it true you have ordered him in irons and to Fort Rochambeau?" she +demanded. + +"It is." + +"Simply because he took part with his people when your soldiers made war +on them?" she asked, her pale lips quivering. + +"You well know how much else there was," answered the general, simply. +"And I have told you he deserves no pity--of yours." + +"Oh, you say he came back here a spy!" she broke forth, impetuously. +"It is not so! He never came near the post,--nearer than Stabber's +village, and there he had a right to be. You say 'twas he who led them +to the warpath,--that he planned the robbery here and took the money. He +never knew they were going, till they were gone. He never stole a penny. +That money was loaned him honestly--and for a purpose--and with the hope +and expectation of rich profit thereby." + +"By you, do you mean?" asked the general, calmly, as before. + +"By me? No! What money had I? He asked it and it was given him--by +Lieutenant Field." + +A gasp that was almost a cry following instantly on this insolent +assertion--a sound of stir and start among the officers at whom she had +not as yet so much as glanced, now caused the girl to turn one swift, +contemptuous look their way, and in that momentary flash her eyes +encountered those of the man she had thus accused. Field stood like one +turned suddenly to stone, gazing at her with wild, incredulous eyes. One +instant she seemed to sway, as though the sight had staggered her, but +the rally was as instantaneous. Before the general could interpose a +word, she plunged on again:-- + +"He, at least, had a heart and conscience. He knew how wrongfully Moreau +had been accused,--that money was actually needed to establish his +claim. It would all have been repaid if your soldiers had not forced +this wicked war, and--" and now in her vehemence her eyes were flashing, +her hand uplifted, when, all on a sudden, the portière was raised the +second time, and there at the doorway stood the former inspector +general, "Black Bill." At sight of him the mad flow of words met sudden +stop. Down, slowly down, came the clinched, uplifted hand. Her eyes, +glaring as were Field's a moment agone, were fixed in awful fascination +on the grizzled face. Then actually she recoiled as the veteran officer +stepped quietly forward into the room. + +"And what?" said he, with placid interest. "I haven't heard you rave in +many a moon, Nanette. You are your mother over again--without your +mother's excuse for fury." + +But a wondrous silence had fallen on the group. The girl had turned +rigid. For an instant not a move was made, and, in the hush of all but +throbbing hearts, the sound of the trumpets pealing forth the last notes +of tattoo came softly through the outer night. + +Then sudden, close at hand, yet muffled by double door and windows, came +other sounds--sounds of rush and scurry,--excited voices,--cries of +halt! halt!--the ring of a carbine,--a yell of warning--another shot, +and Blake and the aide-de-camp sprang through the hallway to the storm +door without. Mrs. Hay, shuddering with dread, ran to the door of her +husband's chamber beyond the dining room. She was gone but a moment. +When she returned the little Ogalalla maid, trembling and wild-eyed, had +come running down from aloft. The general had followed into the lighted +hallway,--they were all crowding there by this time,--and the voice of +Captain Ray, with just a tremor of excitement about it, was heard at +the storm door on the porch, in explanation to the chief. + +"Moreau, sir! Broke guard and stabbed Kennedy. The second shot dropped +him. He wants Fawn Eyes, his sister." + +A scream of agony rang through the hall, shrill and piercing. Then the +wild cry followed: + +"You shall not hold me! Let me go to him, I say--I am his wife!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE DEATH SONG OF THE SIOUX + + +That was a gruesome night at Frayne. Just at tattoo the door leading to +the little cell room had been thrown open, and the sergeant of the guard +bade the prisoners come forth,--all warriors of the Ogalalla band and +foremost of their number was Eagle Wing, the battle leader. Recaptured +by Crabb and his men after a desperate flight and fight for liberty, he +had apparently been planning ever since a second essay even more +desperate. In sullen silence he had passed his days, showing no sign of +recognition of any face among his guards until the morning Kennedy +appeared--all malice forgotten now that his would-be slayer was a +helpless prisoner, and therefore did the Irishman greet him jovially. +"That man would knife you if he had half a chance," said the sergeant. +"Watch out for him!" + +"You bet I'll watch out," said Kennedy, never dreaming that, despite all +search and vigilance, Moreau had managed to obtain and hide a knife. + +In silence they had shuffled forth into the corridor. The heavy portal +swung behind them, confining the other two. Another door opened into the +guardroom proper, where stood the big, red hot stove and where waited +two blacksmiths with the irons. Once in the guard room every window was +barred, and members of the guard, three deep, blocked in eager curiosity +the doorway leading to the outer air. In the corridor on one side stood +three infantry soldiers, with fixed bayonets. On the other, facing them, +three others of the guard. Between them shuffled the Sioux, "Wing" +leading. One glance at the waiting blacksmiths was enough. With the +spring of a tiger, he hurled himself, head foremost and bending low, +straight at the open doorway, and split his way through the astonished +guards like center rush at foot ball, scattering them right and left; +then darted round the corner of the guard-house, agile as a cat. + +And there was Kennedy confronting him! One furious lunge he made with +gleaming knife, then shot like an arrow, straight for the southward +bluff. It was bad judgment. He trusted to speed, to dim starlight, to +bad aim, perhaps; but the little Irishman dropped on one knee and the +first bullet tore through the muscles of a stalwart arm; the second, +better aimed, pierced the vitals. Then they were on him, men by the +dozen, in another instant, as he staggered and fell there, impotent and +writhing. + +They bore him to the cell again,--the hospital was too far,--and Waller +and his aides came speedily to do all that surgery could accomplish, but +he cursed them back. He raved at Ray, who entered, leading poor, sobbing +little Fawn Eyes, and demanded to be left alone with her. Waller went +out to minister to Kennedy, bleeding fast, and the others looked to Ray +for orders when the door was once more opened and Blake entered with +Nanette. + +"By the general's order," said he, in brief explanation, and in an +instant she was on her knees beside the dying Sioux. There and thus they +left them. Waller said there was nothing to be done. The junior surgeon, +Tracy,--he whom she had so fascinated only those few weeks before,--bent +and whispered: "Call me if you need. I shall remain within hearing." But +there came no call. At taps the door was once more softly opened and +Tracy peered within. Fawn Eyes, rocking to and fro, was sobbing in an +abandonment of grief. Nanette, face downward, lay prone upon a stilled +and lifeless heart. + +Flint and his escort duly went their way, and spread their story as they +camped at Laramie and "the Chug." The general tarried another week at +Frayne. There was still very much to keep him there; so, not until he +and "Black Bill" came down did we at other stations learn the facts. The +general, as usual, had little to say. The colonel talked for both. + +A woful time, it seems, they had had with poor Nanette when at last it +became necessary to take her away from her dead brave. She raged and +raved at even her pleading aunt. Defiant of them all, from the general +down, and reckless of law or fact, she vowed it was all a conspiracy to +murder Moreau in cold blood. They gave him the knife, she declared, +although it later developed that she had tossed it through the open +window. They had given him the chance to escape--the sight of Kennedy, +"who had striven to kill him twice before," and then of the blacksmiths, +with their degrading shackles--all just to tempt him to make a dash for +freedom;--just as they had lured and murdered Crazy Horse--Crazy Horse, +his brave kinsman--not ten years before,--then had placed a dead shot on +the path to life and liberty--a man who killed him in cold blood, as +deliberately planned. These were her accusations, and that story took +strong hold in certain circles in the far East, where "love of truth" +inspired its widespread publication, but not its contradiction when the +facts became known. The same conditions obtain to-day in dealing with +affairs across the sea. + +Nanette said many other things before her final breakdown; and Hay and +his sorrowing wife found their load of care far heaviest, for the strain +of Indian blood, now known to all, had steeled the soul of the girl +against the people at Fort Frayne, men and women both--against none so +vehemently as those who would have shown her sympathy--none so +malignantly as those who had suffered for her sake. + +This was especially true of Field. In the mad hope of "getting justice," +as she termed it, for the dead, she had demanded speech of the general, +and, in presence of "Black Bill" and the surgeon, he had given her a +hearing. It proved fatal to her cause, for in her fury at what she +termed "the triumph of his foes," she lost all sense of right or reason, +and declared that it was Field who had warned Stabber's band and sent +them fleeing to unite with Lame Wolf,--Field who took the trader's +horses and rode by night with Kennedy to warn them it was Webb's +intention to surround the village at dawn and make prisoners of the men. +It was Field, she said, who furnished the money Moreau needed to +establish his claim to a gold mine in the Black Hills, the ownership of +which would make them rich and repay Field a dozen times over. It was +Field who sought to protect her kindred among the Sioux in hopes, she +said it boldly, of winning her. But the general had heard enough. The +door was opened and Ray and Blake were ushered in. The former briefly +told of the finding of her note in Field's room the night the adjutant +was so mysteriously missing. The note itself was held forth by the +inspector general and she was asked if she cared to have it opened and +read aloud. Her answer was that Field was a coward, a dastard to betray +a woman who had trusted him. + +"Oh, he didn't," said Blake, drily. "'Twas just the other way. He +couldn't be induced to open his head, so his friends took a hand. You +got word of the outbreak through your Indian followers. You wrote to +Field and sent the note by Pete, bidding him join you at that godless +hour, telling him that you would provide the horses and that you must +ride to Stabber's camp to see Moreau for the last time, as he was going +at once to the Black Hills. You made Field believe he was your half +brother, instead of what he was. You brought Moreau back to the post and +took something, I can't say what, down to him from Mr. Hay's,--he +waiting for you on the flats below the trader's corral. You should have +worn your moccasins, as well as a divided skirt, that night instead of +French-heeled _bottines_. The rest--others can tell." + +The others were Kennedy and the recaptured, half recalcitrant Pete; the +latter turned state's evidence. Kennedy told how he had wandered down +into the flats after "the few dhrinks" that made him think scornful of +Sioux; of his encounter with Eagle Wing, his rescue by Field and a girl +who spoke Sioux like a native. He thought it was little Fawn Eyes when +he heard her speak, and until he heard this lady; then he understood. He +had been pledged to secrecy by the lieutenant, and never meant to tell a +soul, but when he heard the lie the lady told about the lieutenant, it +ended any promise. + +Then Pete, an abject, whining wretch, was ushered in, and his story, +when dragged out by the roots, was worst of all. Poor Mrs. Hay! She had +to hear it, for they sent for her; somebody had to restrain Nanette. +Pete said he had known Nanette long time, ever since baby. So had +Crapaud. Yes, and they had known Eagle Wing, Moreau, always--knew his +father and mother. Knew Nanette's father and mother. But Black Bill +interposed. No need to go into these particulars, as substantiating Mrs. +Hay and himself, said he. "The lady knows perfectly well that I know all +about her girlhood," so Pete returned to modern history. Eagle Wing, it +seems, came riding often in from Stabber's camp to see Nanette by night, +and "he was in heap trouble, always heap trouble, always want money," +and one night she told Pete he must come with her, must never tell of +it. She had money, she said, her own, in the trader's safe, but the door +was too heavy, she couldn't open it, even though she had the key. She +had opened the store by the back door, then came to him to help her with +the rest. He pulled the safe door open, he said, and then she hunted and +found two big letters, and took them to the house, and next night she +opened the store again, and he pulled open the safe, and she put back +the letters and sent him to Mr. Field's back door with note, and then +over to saddle Harney and Dan, and "bring 'em out back way from stable." +Then later she told him Captain Blake had Eagle Wing's buckskin pouch +and letters, and they must get them or somebody would hang Eagle Wing, +and she kept them going, "all time going," meeting messengers from the +Sioux camps, or carrying letters. She fixed everything for the Sioux to +come and capture Hay and the wagon;--fixed everything, even to nearly +murdering the sentry on Number Six. Pete and Spotted Horse, a young +brave of Stabber's band, had compassed that attempted rescue. She would +have had them kill the sentry, if need be, and the reason they didn't +get Wing away was that she couldn't wait until the sentries had called +off. They might even then have succeeded, only her pony broke away, and +she clung to Eagle Wing's until he--he had to hit her to make her let +go. + +The wild girl, in a fury declared it false from end to end. The poor +woman, weeping by her side, bowed her head and declared it doubtless +true. + +Her story,--Mrs. Hay's,--was saddest of all. Her own father died when +she was very, very young. He was a French Canadian trader and traveller +who had left them fairly well to do. Next to her Indian mother, Mrs. Hay +had loved no soul on earth as she had her pretty baby sister. The girls +grew up together. The younger, petted and spoiled, fell in love with a +handsome, reckless young French half breed, Jean La Fleur; against all +warnings, became his wife, and was soon bullied, beaten and deserted. +She lived but a little while, leaving to her more prosperous and +level-headed sister, now wedded to Mr. Hay, their baby daughter, also +named Nanette, and by her the worthy couple had done their very best. +Perhaps it would have been wiser had they sent the child away from all +association with the Sioux, but she had lived eight years on the Laramie +in daily contact with them, sharing the Indian sports and games, loving +their free life, and rebelling furiously when finally taken East. "She" +was the real reason why her aunt spent so many months of each succeeding +year away from her husband and the frontier. One of the girl's playmates +was a magnificent young savage, a son of Crow Killer, the famous chief. +The father was killed the day of Crazy Horse's fierce assault on the +starving force of General Crook at Slim Buttes in '76, and good, kind +missionary people speedily saw promise in the lad, put him at school and +strove to educate him. The rest they knew. Sometimes at eastern schools, +sometimes with Buffalo Bill, but generally out of money and into +mischief, Eagle Wing went from one year to another, and Nanette, +foolishly permitted to meet him again in the East, had become +infatuated. All that art and education, wealth, travel and luxury +combined could do, was done to wean her from her passionate adoration of +this superb young savage. There is no fiercer, more intense, devotion +than that the Sioux girl gives the warrior who wins her love. She +becomes his abject slave. She will labor, lie, steal, sin, suffer, die, +_gladly_ die for him, if only she believes herself loved in turn, and +this did Nanette more than believe, and believing, slaved and studied +between his irregular appearances that she might wheedle more money from +her aunt to lavish on her brave. When discovered meeting him in secret +and by night, she was locked in her third story room and thought secure, +until the day revealed her gone by way of the lightning rod. They had to +resort to more stringent measures, but time and again she met him, +undetected until too late, and when at last her education was declared +complete, she had amazed her aunt by expressing willingness to go to +Frayne, when the good woman thought the objectionable kinsman abroad +with Buffalo Bill. Until too late, Mrs. Hay knew nothing of his having +been discharged and of his preceding them to the West. Then Nanette +begged her for more money, because he was in dreadful trouble;--had +stabbed a police officer at Omaha, whose people, so Moreau said, agreed +not to prosecute him if one thousand dollars could be paid at once. +Hay's patience had been exhausted. He had firmly refused to contribute +another cent to settle Moreau's scrapes, even though he was a distant +kinsman of his wife, and they both were fond of his little sister Fawn +Eyes. It had never occurred to Mrs. Hay that Nan could steal from or +plot against her benefactors, but that was before she dreamed that +Nanette had become the Indian's wife. After that, anything might happen. +"If she could do _that_ for love of Moreau," said she, "there was +nothing she could not do." + +And it would seem there was little short of deliberate murder she had +not done for her Sioux lover, who had rewarded her utter self-sacrifice +by a savage blow with a revolver butt. "Poor Nanette!" sobbed Mrs. Hay, +and "Poor Nanette!" said all Fort Frayne, their distrust of her buried +and forgotten as she lay, refusing herself to everyone; starving herself +in dull, desperate misery in her lonely room. Even grim old "Black +Bill," whom she had recognized at once,--Bill, who had been the first to +confirm Blake's suspicions as to her identity,--had pity and compassion +for her. "It's the way of the blood," said Blake. "She is + + "'Bred out of that bloody strain + That haunted us in our familiar paths.'" + +"She could do no different," said the general, "having fixed her love on +him. It's the strain of the Sioux. _We_ call her conduct criminal:--they +call it sublime." + +And one night, while decision in Nanette's case was still pending, and, +still self-secluded, she hid within the trader's home, refusing speech +with anyone but little Fawn Eyes, a sleighing party set out from Frayne +for a spin by moonlight along the frozen Platte. Wagon bodies had been +set on runners, and piled with hay. The young people from officers' row, +with the proper allowance of matrons and elders, were stowed therein, +and tucked in robes and furs, Esther Dade among them, gentle and +responsive as ever, yet still very silent. Field, in his deep mourning, +went nowhere. He seemed humiliated beyond words by his connection with +this most painful affair. Even the general failed to cheer and reassure +him. He blamed himself for everything and shrank even from his friends. +They saw the dim glow of the student lamp in his quarters, as they +jingled cheerily away. They were coming homeward, toward ten o'clock. +The moon was shining brilliantly along the bold heights of the southern +bank, and, insensibly, chat and laughter gradually ceased as they came +again in sight of the twinkling lights of Frayne, and glanced aloft at a +new-made scaffolding, standing black against the sky at the crest of +Fetterman Bluff. "Eagle Wing roosts high," said a thoughtless youngster. +"The general let them have their way to the last. What's that?" he +added, with sudden stop. + +The sleigh had as suddenly been reined in. The driver, an Irish trooper, +crossed himself, for, on the hush of the breathless winter night, there +rose and fell--shrill, quavering, now high, now low, in mournful minor, +a weird, desolate, despairing chant, the voice of a heart-broken woman, +and one and all they knew at once it was Nanette, after the manner of +her mother's people, alone on the lofty height, alone in the wintry +wilderness, sobbing out her grief song to the sleeping winds, mourning +to the last her lost, her passionately loved brave. + +Then, all on a sudden, it ceased. A black form started from under the +scaffolding to the edge of the bluff. Then again, weird, wild, uncanny, +a barbaric, almost savage strain burst from the lips of the girl. +"Mother of Heavin!" cried the driver. "Can no one shtop that awful keen. +It's her death song she's singin'!" + +Two young officers sprang from the sleigh, but at the instant another +cry arose. Another form, this one of horse and rider, appeared at the +crest, silhouetted with the girl's against the stars. They saw the rider +leap from saddle, almost within arms' length of the singer; saw her +quickly turn, as though, for the first time, aware of an intruder. Then +the wailing song went out in sudden scream of mingled wrath, hatred and +despair, and, like the Sioux that she was at heart, the girl made one +mad rush to reach the point of bluff where was a sheer descent of over +eighty feet. A shriek of dread went up from the crowded sleigh; a cry of +rejoicing, as the intruder sprang and clasped her, preventing her +reaching the precipice. But almost instantly followed a moan of anguish, +for slipping at the crest, together, firmly linked, they came rolling, +sliding, shooting down the steep incline of the frozen bluff, and +brought up with stunning force among the ice blocks, logs and driftwood +at the base. + +They bore them swiftly homeward,--Field senseless and sorely +shaken,--Nanette's fierce spirit slowly drifting away from the bruised +and broken tenement held there, so pityingly, in the arms of Esther +Dade. Before the Christmas fires were lighted in the snowbound, frontier +fort, they had laid all that was mortal of the brave, deluded girl in +the little cemetery of Fort Frayne, her solemn story closed, on earth, +forever. + + + + +L'ENVOI + + +Nearly two years later, with the old regiment still serving along the +storied Platte, they were talking of her one moonlit evening at the +flagstaff. The band, by this time a fixture at Frayne, had been playing +delightfully, and some of the girls and young gallants had been waltzing +on the Rays' veranda. A few new faces were there. Two faces, well known, +were missing,--those of Esther Dade and Beverly Field. The latter had +never been the same man since the tragic events that followed so closely +on the heels of the Lame Wolf campaign. Wounds had slowly healed. +Injuries, physical, were well nigh forgotten; but, mentally, he had been +long a sufferer. For months after the death of Nanette, even when +sufficiently restored to be on duty, he held shrinkingly aloof from post +society. Even Webb, Blake and Ray were powerless to pull him out of his +despond. He seemed to feel,--indeed he said so, that his brief +entanglement with that strange, fascinating girl had clouded his soldier +name for all time. To these stanch friends and advisers he frankly told +the whole story, and they, in turn, had told it to the general, to the +colonel commanding the regiment and to those whose opinions they most +valued; but Field could speak of it to none others. Frankly he admitted +that from the moment he met the girl he fell under the influence of a +powerful fascination. Within twenty-four hours of his return from the +Laramie trip they were riding together, and during that ride she asked +to be taken to Stabber's village, and there had talked long with that +magnificent young Sioux. Later, Field surprised her in tears, and then +she told him a pitiful tale. Eagle Wing had been educated, she said, by +her aunt and uncle,--was indeed their nephew and her own cousin. He had +been wild and had given them much trouble, and her aunt was in bitter +distress over his waywardness. It was to plead with him that she, +Nanette, had gone. "Moreau" had been taught mining and mineralogy, it +seems, and declared that he had "located" a most promising mine in the +Black Hills. He could buy off every claim if he had a thousand dollars, +and the mine might be worth millions. Hay pooh-poohed the story. Mrs. +Hay could not persuade him. Then "Moreau" became threatening. He would +join the hostiles, he swore, if his aunt would not help him. Indeed, and +here Field's young face burned with shame, Nanette told him that she +understood that he, Field, was an only son who might inherit wealth in +days to come, and could draw upon his father now for any reasonable sum; +and, within the week of his meeting her, he was on the point of offering +everything she needed, but that he disbelieved the Indian's story. Then, +one night, there came a note begging him to meet her at once. She had a +dreadful message, she said, from "Moreau." The fellow had frequently +been prowling about the trader's during the dark hours, and now she was +afraid of him, yet must see him, and see him at once, even if she had to +ride to Stabber's camp. Field's eyes were blinded and he went. Hay's +horses were ready beyond the corral, and she rode astride on one of +Hay's own saddles. They found "Moreau" awaiting them at the ford, and +there was a scene Field could not understand, for they spoke in the +Sioux language. That night it was that, all in tears at the Indian's +obduracy, she owned that he was her own brother, not merely a cousin, +and together they had all gone back toward Frayne. "Moreau" was to wait +on the flats until she could return to the house. She had been striving +to get him to make certain promises, she said, contingent on her giving +him something from her own means. Field said he remonstrated with her to +the utmost, but she told him no woman with Sioux blood in her veins ever +deserted a brother--or lover. And so she had returned with a packet, +presumably of money, and there they found the Indian clinched with +Kennedy. Kennedy was rescued in the nick of time, and pledged to +silence. The Indian rode away triumphant. Nanette climbed back to her +window, exhausted, apparently, by her exertions, and Field started for +his quarters, only to find the entire garrison astir. The rest they +knew. + +Asked how she came to know of the money in the trader's safe, he said no +secret had been made of it by either Hay or him. She had asked him +laughingly about his quarrel with Wilkins, and seemed deeply interested +in all the details of subaltern life. Either Hay or he, fortunately, +could have made good the missing sum, even had most of it not been found +amongst Stabber's plunder. Field had never seen her again until the +night the general took him to confront her at the Hays', and, all too +late, had realized how completely she had lured and used him. In pride, +honor, self-respect, he had been sorely wounded, and, even when assured +that the general attached no blame to him, and that his name was no +longer involved, he would have resigned his commission and quit the +service had it not been for these soldiers three, Webb, Blake and Ray. +They made him see that, all the more because his father's death had left +him independent--sole master of quite a valuable property--he must stick +to the sword and live down the possible stain. + +And stay he did, refusing even a chance to go abroad the following +spring, and devoting himself assiduously to his duties, although he +shrank from society. They made him sometimes spend a quiet evening at +Ray's or Blake's, where twice Miss Dade was found. But that young lady +was quick to see that her hostess had been scheming, as loving women +will. And then, when he went hoping to see her, yet half afraid, she +came no more. They could not coax her. The early spring had taken him +forth on long campaign. The ensuing fall had taken her to the far +distant East, for gallant old Dade was breaking down. The doctors sent +him on prolonged sick leave. Then was Fort Frayne indeed a desolate post +to Beverly Field, and when midwinter came, and with it the news that +Dade had but little while to live, he took counsel with Ray, and a +month's leave, not much of which was spent in the South. The old +regiment was represented at the sad and solemn little ceremony when the +devoted husband, father and fellow soldier was laid at rest. + +Nor was Field a happier man when he rejoined from leave, and they all +thought they knew why. Letters came, black-bordered, with Esther's +superscription, sometimes, but only for Mrs. Blake or Mrs. Ray. There +was never one for Field. And so a second summer came and went and a +second September was ushered in, and in the flood of the full moonlight +there was again music and dancing at Fort Frayne, but not for Field, not +for Esther Dade. They were all talking of Nanette, Daughter of the +Dakotas, and Esther, Daughter of the Regiment, as they called her in her +father's Corps, and the mail came late from Laramie, and letters were +handed round as tattoo sounded, and Mrs. Blake, eagerly scanning a +black-bordered page, was seen suddenly to run in doors, her eyes +brimming over with tears. + +Later that night Hogan tapped at Field's front door and asked would the +lieutenant step over to Mrs. Ray's a minute, and he went. + +"Read that," said Mrs. Ray, pointing to a paragraph on the third page of +the black-bordered missive that had been too much for Mrs. Blake. And he +read: + + "Through it all Esther has been my sweetest comfort, but now I must + lose her, too. Our means are so straitened that she has _made_ me + see the necessity. Hard as it is, I must yield to her for the help + that it may bring. She has been studying a year and is to join the + staff of trained nurses at St. Luke's the first of October." + +For a moment there was silence in the little army parlor. Field's hands +were trembling, his face was filled with trouble. She knew he would +speak his heart to her at last, and speak he did:-- + +"All these months that she has been studying I've been begging and +pleading, Mrs. Ray. _You_ know what I went for last winter,--all to no +purpose. I'm going again now, if I have to stay a patient at St. Luke's +to coax her out of it." + +But not until Christmas came the welcome "wire:" + + Patient discharged. Nurse finally accepts new engagement. + +FINIS + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Daughter of the Sioux, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX *** + +***** This file should be named 19023-8.txt or 19023-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/2/19023/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Daughter of the Sioux + A Tale of the Indian frontier + +Author: Charles King + +Illustrator: Frederic Remington and Edwin Willard Deming + +Release Date: August 10, 2006 [EBook #19023] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="COVER" /> +<a name="COVER" id="COVER"></a> +</div> +<hr style="width: 5%;" /> + +<h1>A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX</h1> +<hr style="width: 5%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/001.jpg" alt="Ray's Troop" /> +<a name="FRONT" id="FRONT"></a><br /> +<span class="smcap">Ray's Troop.</span> +</div> + +<h3><i>A Tale of the Indian Frontier</i></h3> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>GENERAL CHARLES KING</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "FORT FRAYNE," +"AN ARMY WIFE," ETC., ETC.</p> +<hr style="width: 5%;" /> +<p class="center">"He is bred out of that bloody strain<br /> +That haunted us in our familiar paths."</p> +<p class="r"><i>King Henry V.</i></p> +<hr style="width: 5%;" /> +<p class="center">ILLUSTRATIONS BY</p> +<h3>FREDERIC REMINGTON</h3> +<p class="center"><i>and</i></p> +<h3>EDWIN WILLARD DEMING</h3> +<h3>NEW YORK<br /> +THE HOBART COMPANY<br /> +1903</h3> +<hr style="width: 5%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1902,<br /> +BY<br /> +THE HOBART COMPANY.</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"><i>A Daughter of the Sioux</i> +</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> +<td align="right"><i>Published March 15, 1903</i> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> +<table summary="table" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> +<tr><td align="center"> +<a href="#ILLUSTRATIONS"><b>ILLUSTRATIONS</b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#A_DAUGHTER_OF_THE_SIOUX"><b>A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX</b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I <br /><span class="smcap">Foreshadowed Events,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II<br /><span class="smcap">Absent from Duty,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III<br /><span class="smcap">A Night Encounter,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV<br /><span class="smcap">The Sign of the Bar Shoe,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V<br /><span class="smcap">A Grave Discovery,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI<br /><span class="smcap">First Sight of the Foe,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII<br /><span class="smcap">Blood Will Tell,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII<br /><span class="smcap">More Strange Discoveries,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX<br /><span class="smcap">Bad News from the Front,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X<br /><span class="smcap">"I'll Never Go Back,"</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI<br /><span class="smcap">A Fight with a Fury,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII<br /><span class="smcap">The Ordeal by Fire,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII<br /><span class="smcap">Wounded—Body and Soul,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV<br /><span class="smcap">A Vanished Heroine,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV<br /><span class="smcap">A Woman's Plot,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI<br /><span class="smcap">Night Prowling at Frayne,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII<br /><span class="smcap">A Rifled Desk,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII<br /><span class="smcap">Burglary at Blake's,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX<br /><span class="smcap">A Slap for the Major,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX<br /><span class="smcap">The Sioux Surrounded,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI<br /><span class="smcap">Thanksgiving at Frayne,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII<br /><span class="smcap">Behind the Bars,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII</b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV<br /><span class="smcap">A Soldier Entangled,</span></b></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#LENVOI"><b>L'ENVOI</b></a><br /><br /> +</td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<table summary="table" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> +<tr><td align="center"> +<a href="#COVER"><b><span class="smcap">Cover</span></b></a><br /> +<a href="#FRONT"><b><span class="smcap">Frontispiece</span></b></a><br /> +<a href="#MAJOR"><b><span class="smcap">"The Major Sought to Block that Morning's Ride in Vain"</span></b></a><br /> +<a href="#RAY"><b><span class="smcap">Ray's Troop</span></b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOLDIER"><b><span class="smcap">"The Soldier Leaped from his Saddle"</span></b></a><br /> +<a href="#WITH"><b><span class="smcap">"With One Magnificent Red Arm Uplifted"</span></b></a><br /> +<a href="#SOME"><b><span class="smcap">"Some Few of their Number Borne away by their Comrades"</span></b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHARGE"><b><span class="smcap">"Charge with Me the Moment the Leaders Yell"</span></b></a><br /> +<a href="#HUSH"><b><span class="smcap">"Hush! She's Coming"—She was There</span></b></a><br /> +</td></tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_DAUGHTER_OF_THE_SIOUX" id="A_DAUGHTER_OF_THE_SIOUX"></a>A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER I</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">FORESHADOWED EVENTS</a></h3> + + +<p>The major commanding looked up from the morning report and surveyed the +post adjutant with something of perturbation, if not annoyance, in his +grim, gray eyes. For the fourth time that week had Lieutenant Field +requested permission to be absent for several hours. The major knew just +why the junior wished to go and where. The major knew just why he wished +him not to go, but saw fit to name almost any other than the real reason +when, with a certain awkward hesitancy he began:</p> + +<p>"W—ell, is the post return ready?"</p> + +<p>"It <i>will</i> be, sir, in abundant time," was the prompt reply.</p> + +<p>"You know they sent it back for correction last month," hazarded the +commander.</p> + +<p>"And you know, sir, the error was not mine," was the instant rejoinder, +so quick, sharp and positive as to carry it at a bound to the verge of +disrespect, and the keen, blue eyes of the young soldier gazed, frank +and fearless, into the heavily ambushed grays of the veteran in the +chair. It made the latter wince and stir uneasily.</p> + +<p>"If there's one thing I hate, Field, it is to have my papers sent back +by some whipsnapper of a clerk, inviting attention to this or that +error, and I expect my adjutant to see to it that they don't."</p> + +<p>"Your adjutant does see to it, sir. I'm willing to bet a month's pay +fewer errors have been found in the papers of Fort Frayne than any post +in the Department of the Platte. General Williams told you as much when +you were in Omaha."</p> + +<p>The major fairly wriggled in his cane-bottomed whirligig. What young +Field said was true, and the major knew it. He knew, moreover, there +wasn't a more painstaking post adjutant from the Missouri to the +mountains. He knew their monthly reports—"returns" as the regulations +call them—were referred to by a model adjutant general as model papers. +He knew it was due to young Field's care and attention, and he knew he +thought all the world of that young gentleman. It was just because he +thought so much of him he was beginning to feel that it was high time to +put a stop to something that was going on. But, it was a delicate +matter; a woman was the matter; and he hadn't the moral courage to go at +it the straightforward way. He "whip sawed" again. Thrumming on the desk +with his lean, bony fingers he began:—</p> + +<p>"If I let my adjutant out so much, what's to prevent other youngsters +asking similar indulgence?"</p> + +<p>The answer came like the crack of a whip:—</p> + +<p>"Nothing, sir; and far better would it be for everybody concerned if +they spent more hours in the saddle and fewer at the store."</p> + +<p>This was too much for the one listener in the room. With something like +the sound of a suppressed sneeze, a tall, long-legged captain of cavalry +started up from his chair, an outspread newspaper still full-stretched +between him and the desk of the commander, and, thus hidden as to his +face, sidled sniggering off to the nearest window. Young Field had +fearlessly, if not almost impudently, hit the nail on the head, and +metaphorically rapped the thrumming fingers of his superior officer. +Some commanders would have raged and sent the daring youngster right +about in arrest. Major Webb knew just what Field referred to,—knew that +the fascinations of pool, "pitch" and poker held just about half his +commissioned force at all "off duty" hours of the day or night hanging +about the officers' club room at the post trader's; knew, moreover, that +while the adjutant never wasted a moment over cards or billiards, he, +the post commander, had many a time taken a hand or a cue and wagered +his dollars against those of his devoted associates. They all loved him. +There wasn't "a mean streak in his whole system," said every soldier at +Fort Frayne. He had a capital record as a volunteer—a colonel and, +later, brigade commander in the great war. He had the brevet of +brigadier general of volunteers, but repudiated any title beyond that +of his actual rank in the regulars. He was that <i>rara avis</i>—a bachelor +field officer, and a bird to be brought down if feminine witchery could +do it. He was truthful, generous, high-minded, brave—a man who +preferred to be of and with his subordinates rather than above them—to +rule through affection and regard rather than the stern standard of +command. He was gentle and courteous alike to officers and the rank and +file, though he feared no man on the face of the globe. He was awkward, +bungling and overwhelmingly, lavishly, kind and thoughtful in his +dealings with the womenfolk of the garrison, for he stood in awe of the +entire sisterhood. He could ride like a centaur; he couldn't dance worth +a cent. He could snuff a candle with his Colt at twenty paces and +couldn't hit a croquet ball to save his soul. His deep-set gray eyes, +under their tangled thatch of brown, gazed straight into the face of +every man on the Platte, soldier, cowboy, Indian or halfbreed, but fell +abashed if a laundress looked at him. Billy Ray, captain of the sorrel +troop and the best light rider in Wyoming, was the only man he ever +allowed to straddle a beautiful thoroughbred mare he had bought in +Kentucky, but, bad hands or good, there wasn't a riding woman at Frayne +who hadn't backed Lorna time and again, because to a woman the major +simply couldn't say no.</p> + +<p>And though his favorite comrades at the post were captains like Blake +and Billy Ray, married men both whose wives he worshipped, the major's +rugged heart went out especially to Beverly Field, his boy adjutant, a +lad who came to them from West Point only three years before the autumn +this story opens, a young fellow full of high health, pluck and +principle—a tip top soldier, said everybody from the start, until, as +Gregg and other growlers began to declaim, the major completely spoiled +him. Here, three years only out of military leadingstrings, he was a +young cock of the walk, "too dam' independent for a second lieutenant," +said the officers' club element of the command, men like Gregg, Wilkins, +Crane and a few of their following. "The keenest young trooper in the +regiment," said Blake and Ray, who were among its keenest captains, and +never a cloud had sailed across the serene sky of their friendship and +esteem until this glorious September of 188-, when Nanette Flower, a +brilliant, beautiful brunette came a visitor to old Fort Frayne.</p> + +<p>And it was on her account the major would, could he have seen the way, +said no to the adjutant's request to be absent again. On her account and +that of one other, for that request meant another long morning in saddle +with Miss Flower, another long morning in which "the sweetest girl in +the garrison," so said they all, would go about her daily duties with an +aching heart. There was no woman at Fort Frayne who did not know that +Esther Dade thought all the world of Beverly Field. There was only one +man who apparently had no inkling of it—Beverly Field himself.</p> + +<p>She was the only daughter of a veteran officer, a captain of infantry, +who at the age of fifty, after having held a high command in the +volunteers during the civil war, was still meekly doing duty as a +company officer of regulars nearly two decades after. She had been +carefully reared by a most loving and thoughtful mother, even in the +crude old days of the army, when its fighting force was scattered in +small detachments all over the wide frontier, and men, and women, too, +lived on soldier rations, eked out with game, and dwelt in tents or +ramshackle, one-storied huts, "built by the labor of troops." At twelve +she had been placed at school in the far East, while her father enjoyed +a two years' tour on recruiting service, and there, under the care of a +noble woman who taught her girls to be women indeed—not vapid votaries +of pleasure and fashion, Esther spent five useful years, coming back to +her fond father's soldier roof a winsome picture of girlish health and +grace and comeliness—a girl who could ride, walk and run if need be, +who could bake and cook, mend and sew, cut, fashion and make her own +simple wardrobe; who knew algebra, geometry and "trig" quite as well as, +and history, geography and grammar far better than, most of the young +West Pointers; a girl who spoke her own tongue with accuracy and was not +badly versed in French; a girl who performed fairly well on the piano +and guitar, but who sang full-throated, rejoiceful, exulting like the +lark—the soulful music that brought delight to her ageing father, half +crippled by the wounds of the war days, and to the mother who so +devotedly loved and carefully planned for her. Within a month from her +graduation at Madame Piatt's she had become the darling of Fort Frayne, +the pet of many a household, the treasure of her own. With other young +gallants of the garrison, Beverly Field had been prompt to call, prompt +to be her escort when dance or drive, ride or picnic was planned in her +honor, especially the ride, for Mr. Adjutant Field loved the saddle, the +open prairie or the bold, undulating bluffs. But Field was the busiest +man at the post. Other youngsters, troop or company subalterns, had far +more time at their disposal, and begged for rides and dances, strolls +and sports which the post adjutant was generally far too busy to claim. +It was Esther who brought lawn tennis to Frayne and found eager pupils +of both sexes, but Field had been the first to meet and welcome her; had +been for a brief time at the start her most constant cavalier. Then, as +others began to feel the charm of her frank, cordial, joyous manner, and +learned to read the beauty that beamed in her clear, truthful eyes and +winsome, yet not beautiful face, they became assiduous in turn,—two of +them almost distressingly so,—and she could not wound them by refusals. +Then came a fortnight in which her father sat as a member of a +court-martial down at old Fort Laramie, where were the band, +headquarters and four troops of the ——th, and Captain and Mrs. +Freeman, who were there stationed, begged that Mrs. Dade and Esther +should come and visit them during the session of the court. There would +be all manner of army gaieties and a crowd of outside officers, and, as +luck would have it, Mr. Field was ordered thither as a witness in two +important cases. The captain and his good wife went by stage; Esther and +Beverly rode every inch of the way in saddle, camping over night with +their joyous little party at La Bontè. Then came a lovely week at +Laramie, during which Mr. Field had little to do but devote himself to, +and dance with, Esther, and when his final testimony was given and he +returned to his station, and not until then, Esther Dade discovered that +life had little interest or joy without him; but Field rode back +unknowing, and met at Frayne, before Esther Dade's return, a girl who +had come almost unheralded, making the journey over the Medicine Bow +from Rock Springs on the Union Pacific in the comfortable carriage of +old Bill Hay, the post trader, escorted by that redoubtable woman, Mrs. +Bill Hay, and within the week of her arrival Nanette Flower was the +toast of the bachelors' mess, the talk of every household at Fort +Frayne.</p> + +<p>And well she might be. Dark and lustrous were her eyes; black, luxuriant +and lustrous was her hair; dark, rich and lustrous her radiant beauty. +In contour her face was well nigh faultless. It might have been called +beautiful indeed but for the lips, or something about the mouth, that in +repose had not a soft or winsome line, but then it was never apparently +in repose. Smiles, sunshine, animation, rippling laughter, flashing, +even, white teeth—these were what one noted when in talk with Miss +Flower. There was something actually radiant, almost dazzling, about her +face. Her figure, though <i>petite</i>, was exquisite, and women marked with +keen appreciation, if not envy, the style and finish of her varied and +various gowns. Six trunks, said Bill Hay's boss teamster, had been +trundled over the range from Rawlins, not to mention a box containing +her little ladyship's beautiful English side-saddle, Melton bridle and +other equine impedimenta. Did Miss Flower like to ride? She adored it, +and Bill Hay had a bay half thoroughbred that could discount the major's +mare 'cross country. All Frayne was out to see her start for her first +ride with Beverly Field, and all Frayne reluctantly agreed that sweet +Essie Dade could never sit a horse over ditch or hurdle with the superb +grace and unconcern displayed by the daring, dashing girl who had so +suddenly become the centre of garrison interest. For the first time in +her life Mrs. Bill Hay knew what it was to hold the undivided attention +of army society, for every woman at Fort Frayne was wild to know all +about the beautiful newcomer, and only one could tell.</p> + +<p>Hay, the trader, had prospered in his long years on the frontier, first +as trader among the Sioux, later as sutler, and finally, when Congress +abolished that title, substituting therefore the euphemism, without +material clog upon the perquisites, as post trader at Fort Frayne. No +one knew how much he was worth, for while apparently a most +open-hearted, whole-souled fellow, Hay was reticence itself when his +fortunes or his family were matters of question or comment. He had long +been married, and Mrs. Hay, when at the post, was a social +sphinx,—kind-hearted, charitable, lavish to the soldiers' wives and +children, and devotion itself to the families of the officers when +sickness and trouble came, as come in the old days they too often did. +It was she who took poor Ned Robinson's young widow and infant all the +way to Cheyenne when the Sioux butchered the luckless little hunting +party down by Laramie Peak. It was she who nursed Captain Forrest's wife +and daughter through ten weeks of typhoid, and, with her own means, sent +them to the seashore, while the husband and father was far up on the +Yellowstone, cut off from all communication in the big campaign of '76. +It was she who built the little chapel and decked and dressed it for +Easter and Christmas, despite the fact that she herself had been +baptized in the Roman Catholic faith. It was she who went at once to +every woman in the garrison whose husband was ordered out on scout or +campaign, proffering aid and comfort, despite the fact long whispered in +the garrisons of the Platte country, that in the old, old days she had +far more friends among the red men than the white. That could well be, +because in those days white men were few and far between. Every one had +heard the story that it was through her the news of the massacre at Fort +Phil Kearny was made known to the post commander, for she could speak +the dialects of both the Arapahoe and the Sioux, and had the sign +language of the Plains veritably at her fingers' ends. There were not +lacking those who declared that Indian blood ran in her veins—that her +mother was an Ogalalla squaw and her father a French Canadian fur +trapper, a story to which her raven black hair and brows, her deep, dark +eyes and somewhat swarthy complexion gave no little color. But, long +years before, Bill Hay had taken her East, where he had relatives, and +where she studied under excellent masters, returning to him summer after +summer with more and more of refinement in manner, and so much of style +and fashion in dress that her annual advent had come to be looked upon +as quite the event of the season, even by women of the social position +of Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Blake, the recognized leaders among the young +matrons of the ——th Cavalry, and by gentle Mrs. Dade, to whom every +one looked up in respect,—almost in reverence. Despite the mystery +about her antecedents there was every reason why Mrs. Hay should be held +in esteem and affection. Bill Hay himself was a diamond in the +rough,—square, sturdy, uncompromising, generous and hospitable; his +great pride and glory was his wife; his one great sorrow that their only +child had died almost in infancy. His solecisms in syntax and society +were many. He was given at times to profanity, and at others, when +madame was away, to draw poker; but officers and men alike proclaimed +him a man of mettle and never hesitated to go to him when in financial +straits, sure of unusurious aid. But, even had this not been the case, +the popularity of his betterhalf would have carried him through, for +there was hardly a woman at Frayne to speak of her except in terms of +genuine respect. Mrs. Hay was truth telling, sympathetic, a peacemaker, +a resolute opponent of gossip and scandal of every kind, a woman who +minded her own business and was only mildly insistent that others should +do likewise. She declined all overtures leading to confidences as to her +past, and demanded recognition only upon the standard of the present, +which was unimpeachable.</p> + +<p>All the same it came something like a shock to society at Frayne that, +when she appeared at the post this beautiful autumn of 188-, nearly +three months later than the usual time, she should be accompanied by +this brilliant and beautiful girl of whom no one of their number had +previously heard, and whom she smilingly, confidently presented as, "My +niece, Miss Flower."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/002.jpg" alt="The Major sought to block that morning's ride in vain" /> +<a name="MAJOR" id="MAJOR"></a><br /> +<span class="smcap">"The Major sought to block that morning's ride in vain."</span> +</div> + +<p>There was a dance the night the Dades got home from Laramie. Nearly all +day long had they driven in the open buckboard over the rough, winding +road along the Platte, and Mrs. Dade was far too tired to think of +going, but Esther was so eager that her father put aside his precious +paper, tucked her under his arm and trudged cheerily away across the +parade toward the bright lights of the hop room. They had a fairly good +string orchestra at Frayne that year, and one of Strauss's most witching +waltzes—"Sounds from the Vienna Woods"—had just been begun as father +and daughter entered. A dozen people, men and women both, saw them and +noted what followed. With bright, almost dilated, eyes, and a sweet, +warm color mantling her smiling face, Esther stood gazing about the +room, nodding blithely as she caught the glance of many a friend, yet +obviously searching for still another. Then of a sudden they saw the +bonny face light up with joy uncontrollable, for Mr. Field came bounding +in at the side door, opening from the veranda of the adjutant's office. +He saw her; smiled joyous greeting as he came swiftly toward her; +then stopped short as a girl in black grenadine dropped the arm of her +cavalier, the officer with whom she was promenading, and without a +moment's hesitation, placed her left hand, fan-bearing, close to the +shoulder knot on his stalwart right arm, her black-gloved right in his +white-kidded left, and instantly they went gliding away together, he +nodding half in whimsical apology, half in merriment, over the black +spangled shoulder, and the roseate light died slowly from the sweet, +smiling face—the smile itself seemed slowly freezing—as the still +dilated eyes followed the graceful movements of the couple, slowly, +harmoniously winding and reversing about the waxen floor. Even at the +Point she had never seen more beautiful dancing. Even when her stanchest +friend, Mrs. Blake, pounced upon her with fond, anxious, welcoming +words, and Mrs. Ray, seeing it all, broke from her partner's encircling +arm, and sped to add her greeting, the child could hardly regain +self-control, and one loving-hearted woman cried herself to sleep that +night for the woe that had come into the soft and tender eyes which had +first beamed with joy at sight of Beverly Field, then filled with sudden +dread immeasurable.</p> + +<p>But the major sought to block that morning ride in vain. The impetuous +will of the younger soldier prevailed, as he might have known it would, +and from the rear gallery of his quarters, with his strong fieldglass, +Major Webb watched the pair fording the Platte far up beyond Pyramid +Butte. "Going over to that damned Sioux village again," he swore +between his set teeth. "That makes the third time she's headed him there +this week," and with strange annoyance at heart he turned away to seek +comfort in council with his stanch henchman, Captain Ray, when the +orderly came bounding up the steps with a telegraphic despatch which the +major opened, read, turned a shade grayer and whistled low.</p> + +<p>"My compliments to Captains Blake and Ray," said he, to the silent young +soldier, standing attention at the doorstep, "and say I should be glad +to see them here at once."</p> + +<p>That night the sentries had just called off half past one when there was +some commotion at the guard-house. A courier had ridden in post haste +from the outlying station of Fort Beecher, far up under the lee of the +Big Horn range. The corporal of the guard took charge of his reeking +horse, while the sergeant led the messenger to the commander's quarters. +The major was already awake and half dressed. "Call the adjutant," was +all he said, on reading the despatch, and the sergeant sped away. In +less than five minutes he was back.</p> + +<p>"I could get no answer to my knock or ring, sir, so I searched the +house. The adjutant isn't there!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER II</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">ABSENT FROM DUTY</a></h3> + + +<p>For a moment the major stood in silence; then, briefly saying, "Call +Captain Ray," turned again to the dimly lighted hallway of his +commodious quarters, (the women thought it such a shame there should be +no "lady of the house" for the largest and finest of the long line known +as "Officers' Row") while the sergeant of the guard scurried away to the +soldier home of the senior cavalry captain on duty at the post. When the +major again came forth his field glasses were in his hand and he had +hurried down the steps and out into the broad sheen of the moonlight +when he caught sight of the courier seated on the horseblock at the +gate, wearily leaning his head upon his gauntleted hand. Webb stopped +short:</p> + +<p>"Come right in here, my lad," he cried, "I want to speak with you," and, +followed slowly by the soldier, he entered his parlor, and whirled an +easy chair in front of the open fireplace. "Sit right down there now, +and I'll be with you in a minute," he added; bustled into the rear room +and presently reappeared with a decanter and glass; poured out a stiff +tot of Monongahela; "A little water?" he asked, as the trooper's eye +brightened gratefully. A little water was added and off came the right +hand gauntlet. "I drink the major's health and long life to him," said +the soldier, gulping down the fluid without so much as a wink. Then, +true to his training, set down the glass and stood strictly at +attention.</p> + +<p>"You've had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, I'll be bound," said +Webb. "Now, I've got to see some of my officers at once. You make +yourself at home here. You'll find cold beef, bread, cheese, pickles, +milk, if you care for it, and pie right there in the pantry. Take the +lamp in with you and help yourself. If you want another nip, there's the +decanter. You've made splendid time. Did you meet no Indians?"</p> + +<p>"Not one, sir, but I saw smokes at sunset out toward Eagle Butte."</p> + +<p>"Your name—I see you belong to Captain Truscott's troop."</p> + +<p>"Kennedy, sir; and I thank the major."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll leave you in charge until you've had your fill," said the +commander. "Then go over to 'F' Troop's quarters and get a bed. Tell +anybody who comes I've gone to the flagstaff." With that the major +stalked from the room, followed by the Irishman's adoring eyes. A moment +later he stood by the tall white staff at the edge of the northward +bluff, at whose feet the river swept by in musical murmurings. There he +quickly focussed his glass, and gazed away westward up the Platte to +where but the evening before a score of Indian lodges dotted the other +bank, perhaps two miles away. The September moon was at its full and, in +that rare, cloudless atmosphere, flooding the valley with its soft, +silvery light so that close at hand, within the limits of the garrison, +every object could be almost as distinctly seen as in broad day-light, +but, farther away, over the lowlands and the river bottom and the +rolling prairie stretching to the northern horizon, the cottonwoods +along the stream or in the distant swales made only black blotches +against the vague, colorless surface, and the bold bluffs beyond the +reservation limits south of the flashing waters, the sharp, sawlike edge +of the distant mountain range that barred the way to the west, even the +cleancut outlines of Eagle Butte, the landmark of the northward prairie, +visible for fifty miles by day, were now all veiled in some intangible +filament that screened them from the soldier's searching gaze. Later in +the season, on such a night, their crests would gleam with radiance +almost intolerable, the glistening sheen of their spotless crown of +snow. All over this broad expanse of upland prairie and wooded river bed +and boldly undulating bluff line not so much as a spark of fire peeped +through the wing of night to tell the presence of human wayfarer, white, +halfbreed or Indian, even where the Sioux had swarmed, perhaps two +hundred strong, at sunset of the day gone by.</p> + +<p>Close at hand, northernmost of the brown line, was the double set of +quarters occupied by Captains Blake and Ray, the latter, as senior, +having chosen the half nearest the bluff because of the encircling +veranda and the fine, far-extending view. A bright light gleamed now +behind the blinds of the corner room of the second floor, telling that +the captain was up and dressing in answer to the commander's summons, +but all the rest of the dozen houses were black, save where at the +middle of the row a faint glow came from the open doorway at the +commanding officer's. Across the broad level of the parade were the +long, low barracks of the troops, six in number, gable-ending east and +west. Closing the quadrangle on the south were the headquarters +buildings and the assembly room, the offices of the adjutant and +quartermaster, the commissary and quartermaster's storehouses, etc. At +the southwest angle stood the guard-house, where oil lamps, backed by +their reflectors of polished tin, sent brilliant beams of light athwart +the roadway. Beyond these low buildings the black bulk of the Medicine +Bow Mountains, only a dozen miles away, tumbled confusedly against the +sparkling sky. All spoke of peace, security, repose, for even in the +flats under the westward bluff, where lay the wide extended corrals, hay +and wood yards and the stables, not one of the myriad dogs that hung +about the post was lifting up his voice to bay the autumn moon. Even +those easily-started night trumpeters, the big Missouri mules, sprawled +about their roomy, sand-floored stables and drowsed in placid comfort, +wearied with their musical efforts of the earlier hours of the night and +gathering impetus for the sonorous braying with which they should +presently salute the dawn.</p> + +<p>Beyond the guard-house, at the edge of the plateau overlooking the +westward flats, but invisible from the flagstaff bluff, stood the big +wooden edifice known as the store, with its card and billiard room for +the officers on the southern side, another for the enlisted men upon the +northern, the bar and general merchandise establishment compressed +between them. Southward, farther still, surrounded by crude greenhouses +abounding in potted plants and beds of vine and vegetables, was the big +and somewhat pretentious house of the post trader himself, his own +stables and corral being half way down the slope and well away from +those of the garrison. "Out of sight," muttered Webb, "but by no means +out of mind," for it was safe to say the thoughts of more than half the +men and women making up the social element of Fort Frayne had been +centering within the last few days beneath the roof that gave shelter to +that brilliant, fascinating beauty Nanette Flower.</p> + +<p>Ten days a denizen of the fort, it seemed as though she had been there +as many weeks, so completely had she accepted the situation and +possessed herself of the ins and outs of garrison life. The women had +called, of course, and gone away filled with unwilling admiration, for +the girl's gowns and graces were undeniable. The married men, as was the +army way, had called with their wives on the occasion of the first +visit. The bachelors, from Webb down to the junior subaltern, had called +in little squads at first; afterwards, except the major, they sought to +see Miss Flower when other fellows were not present. Even Hartley and +Donovan, the two whose devotions to Esther Dade had been carried to the +verge of oppression, and who were on terms of distant civility only when +compelled to appear together in the presence of women or their other +superiors, had been moved to more than one visit at the Hays', but +Hartley speedily returned to his undesired siege at the quarters of +Captain Dade, while Donovan joined forces with two other youngsters, +Bruce and Putney, because it gave them comfort to bother Field; who, +being the adjutant, and a very busy man, could visit only at certain +hours of the day or evening. Now, it had become apparent to the boys +that despite her general attitude of cordiality their attentions were +not what Mrs. Hay so much desired as those of the major commanding. +Twice had he been invited to dine within the week of Nanette's coming. +Once he accepted. The second time he begged off on plea of a previous +engagement, subsequently made, to go shooting with Blake. It was the +bachelor heart and home of Major Webb to which Mrs. Hay would have laid +vicarious siege, small blame to her, for that indomitable +cross-examiner, Mrs. Wilkins, wife and manager of the veteran ranker now +serving as post quartermaster, had wormed out of Mrs. Hay the admission +that Nanette had no fortune. She was the only daughter of a half +brother, very dear to Mrs. Hay, whom she had lost, she said, long years +before. To do her justice, it was quite apparent that Miss Flower was no +party to the plan, for, though she beamed on Webb as she did on all, she +frankly showed her preference for the younger officers who could dance +as well as ride, and either dancing or riding was her glory. She danced +like a sylph; she seemed to float about the room as though on air; she +rode superbly, and shirked no leap that even Ray and Field took with +lowered hands and close gripping knees. She was joyous, laughing, +radiant with all the officers, and fairly glowed with cordiality for all +the women. But it speedily developed that she would rather dance with +Field than any of the others, probably because he was by far the best +waltzer, and to ride with him, because, Ray excepted, there was none to +excel him in the saddle. Ten days had she been at Frayne and within that +time had become as thoroughly at ease and home as though it had been her +abiding place since babyhood. It was plain to see that big Bill Hay +almost worshipped this lovely <i>protegée</i> of the wife he more than +worshipped. It was plain to see that Webb uneasily held aloof, as though +fearful of singeing his shrivelling wings. It was plain to see that the +hitherto indomitable Mrs. Wilkins was puzzled. It was not so plain to +see that there were two women at the post on whom Miss Flower's charms +made slight impression—Mesdames Blake and Ray—two wise young matrons +who were known to have few secrets from each other and no intimacies—or +rather no confidences—with any other woman at Fort Frayne—Mrs. Dade +possibly excepted.</p> + +<p>But what they thought, their liege lords stood ready to swear to; and it +was to them Webb turned in his perplexity when it became apparent that +his young adjutant was ensnared. It was to Ray he promptly opened his +heart, as that veteran of a dozen Indian campaigns, then drawing his +fourth "fogy," came hastening out to join the commander.</p> + +<p>"Here's confirmation of the telegram. Read that, Ray," said Webb, +handing him the despatch from Fort Beecher. "Then come with me to +Field's. He's missing."</p> + +<p>"Missing!" cried Ray, in consternation, as he hurriedly opened the page. +"In God's name what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean he isn't in quarters and hasn't been in bed to-night. Now I need +him—and it's two o'clock."</p> + +<p>Even as he spoke the voice of the sentry at the guard-house rang out the +watch call through the still and sparkling night. It was taken up by +Number Two back of the storehouses, and his "All's well" was still +echoing among the foothills, prolonged and powerful, when Number Three, +down at the quartermaster's corral, began his soldier song; and so, +alert, cheery, reassuring, the sentries sent their deep-voiced assurance +on its unbroken round to the waking guardian at the southwest angle, and +as his final "A-a-a-ll's W-e-ell" went rolling away over bluff and +stream and prairie, Ray lifted a grave and anxious face from the fateful +paper.</p> + +<p>"Lame Wolf out? That's bad in itself! He's old Red Cloud's nephew and a +brute at best. Stabber's people there yet?" he suddenly asked, whirling +on his heel and gazing westward.</p> + +<p>"Can't make out even with my glasses. All dark as pitch among the +cottonwoods, but Kennedy, who made the ride, says he saw smokes back of +Eagle Butte just before sunset."</p> + +<p>"Then you can bet they won't be there at dawn—the warriors at least. Of +course the women, the kids and old men will stay if only for a blind. He +had forty fighting men, and Wolf's got at least two hundred. What +started the row?"</p> + +<p>"The arrest of those two young bucks on charge of killing Finn, the +sheep herder, on the Piney last week. I don't believe the Sioux began +it. There's a bad lot among those damned rustlers," said Webb, snapping +the glass into its well-worn case. "But no matter who starts, we have to +finish it. Old Plodder is worried and wants help. Reckon I'll have to +send you, Ray."</p> + +<p>"Ready whenever you say, sir," was the prompt and soldierly reply. Even +marriage had not taken the edge from Ray's keen zest for campaigning. +"Shall I have out my sergeant and cooks at once? We'll need to take +rations."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but wait with me till I wire the chief at Laramie. Come to the +office." So saying the post commander turned and strode away. The +captain glanced at the upper window where the light now dimly burned, +but blind and window were open, and a woman's form appeared.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Maidie," called the captain, softly. "May have to start +out on scout at daybreak. That's all. Home soon," and with a reassuring +wave of the hand, turned again to his stanch friend and commander.</p> + +<p>"I hate to send you—again," said Webb. "You were out in June, and the +others have had only short scouts since—"</p> + +<p>"Don't bother. What's a cavalryman for? Shall we?—I—can't believe +it—some how," and Ray stopped, glanced inquiringly at the major, and +then nodded toward the doorway of the third house on the row. The ground +floor was occupied by Field as his quarters, the up-stair rooms by +Putney and Ross.</p> + +<p>"Come in," said the major, briefly, and, pushing through the gate they +softly entered the dark hallway and struck a light in the front room. A +wood fire was smouldering on the andirons in the wide brick chimney +place. An open book, face downward, was on the centre table. Two +embroidered slippers lay as though hurriedly kicked off, one under the +sofa beyond the mantelpiece, the other half way across the worn carpet. +Striking another match at the doorway, Ray passed on to the little inner +room,—the bed chamber. On the bed, carelessly thrown, were the young +officer's best and newest forage cap, undress uniform coat and trousers. +He had used them during the evening when calling at the Hays'. On the +floor were the enamelled leather buttoned boots he wore on such +occasions. The bed was otherwise untouched. Other boots and shoes in +orderly row stood against the wall beside the plain, unpainted wardrobe. +The spurred riding boots and the knee-tight breeches were gone. Turning +back to the front room, Ray found the major, his face gray and +disturbed, holding forth to him an open envelope. Ray took it and +glanced at the superscription. "Lieutenant Beverly Field, Fort Frayne," +and returned it without a word. Both knew the strange, angular, slashing +hand-writing at a glance, for both had seen and remarked it before. It +was Nanette Flower's.</p> + +<p>Dropping the envelope on the table—he had found it on the floor—Webb +led the way to the open air. There was then no time to compare views. +There stood the sergeant.</p> + +<p>"Sir," said he, with a snap of the gloved left hand at the brown tube +nestling in the hollow of the shoulder, "Number Five reports that he has +heard galloping hoofbeats up the bench twice in the last half hour, and +thought he saw distant horsemen,—three;—couldn't say whether they were +Indians or cowboys."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sergeant," was the major's brief answer. "Send for the +telegraph operator and my orderly."</p> + +<p>The sergeant turned.</p> + +<p>"One moment," called Ray,—"your pardon, Major—My first sergeant, too, +and—sergeant, have any sentries reported horses taken out from the +stables to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Not one, sir," and, stanch and sturdy, the commander of the guard stood +ready to vouch for his men.</p> + +<p>"That's all!"</p> + +<p>A quick salute, a face to the right about and the sergeant was gone. +Webb turned and looked inquiringly at Ray.</p> + +<p>"I asked, sir," was that officer's brief explanation, "because wherever +Field has gone he wore riding dress."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER III</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">A NIGHT ENCOUNTER</a></h3> + + +<p>Comforted by abundant food, refreshed and stimulated by more than two or +three enthusiastic toasts to the health of the major the men so loved, +Trooper Kennedy, like a born dragoon and son of the ould sod, bethought +him of the gallant bay that had borne him bravely and with hardly a halt +all the long way from Beecher to Frayne. The field telegraph had indeed +been stretched, but it afforded more fun for the Sioux than aid to the +outlying posts on the Powder and Little Horn, for it was down ten days +out of twelve. Plodder, lieutenant colonel of infantry commanding at +Beecher, had been badly worried by the ugly demonstrations of the +Indians for ten days past. He was forever seeing in mind's eye the +hideous details of the massacre at Fort Phil Kearny, a few miles further +on around the shoulder of the mountains, planned and carried out by Red +Cloud with such dreadful success in '67. Plodder had strong men at his +back, whom even hordes of painted Sioux could never stampede, but they +were few in number, and there were those ever present helpless, +dependent women and children. His call for aid was natural enough, and +his choice of Kennedy, daring, dashing lad who had learned to ride in +Galway, was the best that could be made. No peril could daunt the +light-hearted fellow, already proud wearer of the medal of honor; but, +duty done, it was Kennedy's creed that the soldier merited reward and +relaxation. If he went to bed at "F" Troop's barracks there would be no +more cakes and ale, no more of the major's good grub and rye. If he went +down to look after the gallant steed he loved—saw to it that Kilmaine +was rubbed down, bedded, given abundant hay and later water—sure then, +with clear conscience, he could accept the major's "bid," and call again +on his bedward way and toast the major to his Irish heart's and +stomach's content. Full of pluck and fight and enthusiasm, and only +quarter full, he would insist, of rye, was Kennedy as he strode +whistling down the well-remembered road to the flats, for he, with +Captain Truscott's famous troop, had served some months at Frayne before +launching forth to Indian story land in the shadows of the Big Horn +range. Kennedy, in fact, essayed to sing when once out of earshot of the +guard-house, and singing, he strolled on past the fork of the winding +road where he should have turned to his right, and in the fulness of his +heart went striding southward down the slope, past the once familiar +haunt the store, now dark and deserted, past the big house of the post +trader, past the trader's roomy stables and corral, and so wended his +moonlit way along the Rawlins trail, never noting until he had chanted +over half a mile and most of the songs he knew, that Frayne was well +behind him and the rise to the Medicine Bow in front. Then Kennedy +began to laugh and call himself names, and then, as he turned about to +retrace his steps by a short cut over the bottom, he was presently +surprised, but in no wise disconcerted, to find himself face to face +with a painted Sioux. There by the path side, cropping the dewy grass, +was the trained pony. Here, lounging by the trail, the thick black +braids of his hair interlaced with beads, the quill gorget heaving at +his massive throat; the heavy blanket slung negligently, gracefully +about his stalwart form; his nether limbs and feet in embroidered +buckskin, his long-lashed quirt in hand; here stood, almost confronting +him, as fine a specimen of the warrior of the Plains as it had ever been +Trooper Kennedy's lot to see, and see them he had—many a time and oft.</p> + +<p>In that incomparable tale, "My Lord the Elephant," the great Mulvaney +comes opportunely upon a bottle of whiskey and a goblet of water. "The +first and second dhrink I didn't taste," said he, "bein' dhry, but the +fourth and fifth took hould, an' I began to think scornful of +elephants." At no time stood Kennedy in awe of a Sioux. At this time he +held him only in contempt.</p> + +<p>"How, John," said he, with an Irishman's easy insolence, "Lookin' for a +chance to steal somethin'—is it?" And then Kennedy was both amazed and +enraptured at the prompt reply in the fervent English of the far +frontier.</p> + +<p>"Go to hell, you pock-marked son-of-a-scut! Where'd <i>you</i> steal your +whiskey?"</p> + +<p>For five seconds Kennedy thought he was dreaming. Then, convinced that +he was awake, an Irishman scorned and insulted, he dashed in to the +attack. Both fists shot out from the brawny shoulders; both missed the +agile dodger; then off went the blanket, and with two lean, red, sinewy +arms the Sioux had "locked his foeman round," and the two were straining +and swaying in a magnificent grapple. At arms' length Pat could easily +have had the best of it, for the Indian never boxes; but, in a bear hug +and a wrestle, all chances favored the Sioux. Cursing and straining, +honors even on both for a while, Connaught and wild Wyoming strove for +the mastery. Whiskey is a wonderful starter but a mighty poor stayer of +a fight. Kennedy loosed his grip from time to time to batter wildly with +his clinched fists at such sections of Sioux anatomy as he could reach; +but, at range so close, his blows lacked both swing and steam, and fell +harmless on sinewy back and lean, muscular flanks. Then he tried a +Galway hitch and trip, but his lithe antagonist knew a trick worth ten +of that. Kennedy tried many a time next day to satisfactorily account +for it, but never with success. He found himself speedily on the broad +of his back, gasping for breath with which to keep up his vocal +defiance, staring up into the glaring, vengeful black eyes of his +furious and triumphant foeman. And then in one sudden, awful moment he +realized that the Indian was reaching for his knife. Another instant it +gleamed aloft in the moonlight, and the poor lad shut his eyes against +the swift and deadly blow. Curses changed to one wordless prayer to +heaven for pity and help. He never saw the glittering blade go spinning +through the air. Vaguely, faintly he heard a stern young voice ordering +"Hold there!" then another, a silvery voice, crying something in a +strange tongue, and was conscious that an unseen power had loosed the +fearful grip on his throat; next, that, obedient to that same +power,—one he dare not question,—the Indian was struggling slowly to +his feet, and then for a few seconds Kennedy soared away into cloudland, +knowing naught of what was going on about him. When he came to again, he +heard a confused murmur of talk about him, and grew dimly aware that his +late antagonist was standing over him, panting still and slightly +swaying, and that an officer, a young athlete, was saying rebukeful +words. Well he knew him, as what trooper of the ——th did +not?—Lieutenant Beverly Field; but, seeing the reopened eyes it was the +Indian again who sought to speak. With uplifted hand he turned from the +rescuer to the rescued.</p> + +<p>"You're saved this time, you cur of a Mick," were, expurgated of +unprintable blasphemy, the exact words of the semi-savage lord of the +frontier, "but by the God that made us both I'll get you before another +moon, dash dash you, and when I do I'll cut out your blackguard heart +and eat it." Then bounding on his pony, away he sped at mad gallop, +westward.</p> + +<p>For a moment no further word was spoken. The officer presently helped +the soldier to his feet and stayed him, for the latter's legs seemed +wobbly. Field let his salvage get its breath before asking questions. +Yet he was puzzled, for the man's face was strange to him. "Who are +you?" he asked, at length, "and what on earth are you doing out here +this time of night?"</p> + +<p>"Kennedy, sir. Captain Truscott's troop, at Fort Beecher. I got in with +despatches an hour ago—"</p> + +<p>"What!" cried Field. "Despatches! What did you do—"</p> + +<p>"Gave 'em to the major, sir. Beg pardon; they was lookin' for the +adjutant, sir, an' Sergeant Hogan said he wasn't home."</p> + +<p>Even in the moonlight the Irishman saw the color fade from the young +officer's face. The hand that stayed him dropped nerveless. With utter +consternation in his big blue eyes, Field stood for a moment, stunned +and silent. Then the need of instant action spurred him. "I must go—at +once," he said. "You are all right now—You can get back? You've been +drinking, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"The major's health, sir—just a sup or two."</p> + +<p>"I've no time now to listen to how you came to be out here. I'll see you +by and by." But still the young officer hesitated. One hand grasped the +rein of his horse. He half turned to mount, then turned again. +"Kennedy," he faltered, "you'd have been a dead man if we—if I—hadn't +reached you at that moment."</p> + +<p>"I know it, sir," burst in Pat, impetuously. "I'll never forget it—"</p> + +<p>"Hush, Kennedy, you <i>must</i> forget—forget that you saw—spoke with +me—forget that you saw or heard—any other soul on earth out here +to-night. Can you promise?"</p> + +<p>"I'll cut my tongue out before I ever spake the word that'll harm the +lieutenant, or the—the—or any one he says, sir. But never will I +forget! It ain't in me, sir."</p> + +<p>"Let it go at that then. Here, shake hands, Kennedy. Now, good-night!" +Another instant and Field was in saddle and speeding away toward the +post where lights were now dancing about the quartermaster's corral, and +firefly lamps were flitting down the slope toward the stables on the +flats. Ray's men were already up and doing. Slowly, stiffly following, +Pat Kennedy rubbed his aching head, with a hand that shook as never did +his resolution. His bewildered brain was puzzling over a weighty +problem. "The lieutenant's safe all right," he muttered, "but what's +gone wid the squaw that was shoutin' Sioux at that murdherin' buck?"</p> + +<p>Meantime all Fort Frayne had seemed to wake to life. No call had sounded +on the trumpet. No voice had been raised, save the invariable call of +the sentries, passing from post to post the half hours of the night; but +the stir at the guard-house, the bustle over at the barracks, the swift +footsteps of sergeants or orderlies on the plank walk or resounding +wooden galleries, speedily roused first one sleeper, then another, and +blinds began to fly open along the second floor fronts, and white-robed +forms to appear at the windows, and inquiring voices, male and female, +hailed the passerby with "What's the matter, sergeant?" and the answer +was all sufficient to rouse the entire garrison.</p> + +<p>"Captain Ray's troop ordered out, sir," or "ma'am," as the case might +be. No need to add the well-worn cause of such night +excursions—"Indians."</p> + +<p>The office was brightly lighted, and there, sleepy-eyed and silent, were +gathered many of the officers about their alert commander. Ray was down +at his stables, passing judgment on the mounts. Only fifty were to go, +the best half hundred in the sorrel troop, for it was to be a forced +march. Neither horse nor man could be taken unless in prime condition, +for a break down on part of either on the way meant delay to the entire +command, or death by torture to the hapless trooper left behind. Small +hope was there of a march made unobserved, for Stabber's band of +Ogalallas had been for weeks encamped within plain view. Less hope was +there of Stabber's holding aloof now that his brethren at the Big Horn +had declared for war. He was a recalcitrant of the first magnitude, a +sub-chief who had never missed the warpath when the Sioux were afield, +or the consolation trip to Washington between times. Where Stabber went +his young men followed unquestioning. It was a marvel that Kennedy had +succeeded in getting through. It meant that the Indian runners, or the +Indian smokes and signals, had not at once so covered the country with +scouts that couriers could by no possibility slip between them. But now +the signal fire was gleaming at Eagle Butte, and an answering blaze had +flared from Stabber's camp. Invisible from Fort Frayne, they had both +been seen by shrewd non-commissioned officers, sent scouting up the +Platte by Major Webb within half an hour of the coming of the alarm.</p> + +<p>"Ray will push ahead at once," said Webb, to his silent subordinates. +"You see Colonel Plodder has only two troops up there, and he will need +all his infantry to defend the post. I've wired to Laramie and to +Department Headquarters, and further orders will come before noon. Let +all the cavalry be ready. Then if we push out, Dade, we leave Fort +Frayne to you. They'll hardly venture south of the Platte this time."</p> + +<p>"Is—Mr. Field going with Captain Ray?" presently ventured young Ross, +who knew Ray had but one subaltern for duty at the moment, and whose +soul was burning with eagerness to accompany the first troop to take the +field.</p> + +<p>"No," said the major, shortly. "Captain Ray needs no more."</p> + +<p>"I only asked because Field isn't here, and I thought—maybe—" stumbled +Ross, ingloriously, but the mischief was done.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Field is—busy," answered the major, still more shortly, then +reddened to his bushy brows, for at the doorway, in riding dress, and +with a face the color of parchment, stood the officer in question. It +was a moment that threatened panic, but Webb met the crisis with marked +aplomb.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Field," he cried, "there's another matter. I want two good men to +slip out at once and see how many of Stabber's people start or have +started. It may be daybreak before they can tell. Sergeant Schreiber +would be a tiptop man for one—and little Duffy. You 'tend to it."</p> + +<p>And so, mercifully, he sent the lad away until the crowd should have +dispersed. Only Blake and Ray were with him when, after awhile, Mr. +Field returned and stood silently before them. Well he knew that the +post commander could hardly overlook the absence of his adjutant at such +a time.</p> + +<p>"Have you anything to tell me, Field?" was the major's only query, his +tone full of gentle yet grave reproach.</p> + +<p>"I was restless. I could not sleep, sir. I went out—purposely."</p> + +<p>"You know no horse can be taken from the stables at night except in +presence of the sergeant or corporal of the guard."</p> + +<p>"I took none, sir," was the answer, and now both faces were white. "I +rode one of—Mr. Hay's."</p> + +<p>For one moment there was no sound but the loud ticking of the big office +clock. Then came the question.</p> + +<p>"Who rode the others, Field? The sentries say they heard three."</p> + +<p>There was another moment of silence. Ray stepped on tiptoe to the door +as though he wanted not to hear. Blake looked blankly out of the window. +Then the young soldier spoke.</p> + +<p>"I—cannot tell you, sir."</p> + +<p>For full ten seconds the post commander sat with grave, pallid face, +looking straight into the eyes of his young staff officer. White as his +senior, but with eyes as unflinching, Field returned the gaze. At last +the major's voice was heard again, sad and constrained.</p> + +<p>"Field, Captain Ray starts on a forced march at once for Fort Beecher. +I—wish you to go with him."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER IV</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">THE SIGN OF THE BAR SHOE</a></h3> + + +<p>Many a time has it happened in the old days of the old army that the +post adjutant has begged to be allowed to go with some detachment sent +after Indians. Rarely has it happened, however, that, without any +request from the detachment commander or of his own, has the post +adjutant been ordered to go. No one could say of Beverly Field that he +had not abundantly availed himself of every opportunity for active +service in the past. During his first two years with the regiment he had +spent more than half the time in saddle and afield, scouting the trails +of war parties or marauding bands, or watching over a peaceable tribe +when on the annual hunt. Twice he had been out with Ray, which meant a +liberal education in plainscraft and frontier duty. Twice twenty times, +probably, had he said he would welcome a chance to go again with Captain +Ray, and now the chance had come, so had the spoken order, and, so far +from receiving it with rejoicing, it was more than apparent that he +heard it with something like dismay.</p> + +<p>But Webb was not the man to either explain or defend an order, even to a +junior for whom he cherished such regard. Field felt instinctively that +it was not because of a wish expressed in the past he was so suddenly +bidden to take the field. Ray's senior subaltern, as has been said, was +absent, being on duty at West Point, but his junior was on hand, and Ray +really did not need, and probably had not applied for, the services of +Mr. Field. It was all the major's doing, and all, reasoned he, because +the major deemed it best that for the time being his young adjutant +should be sent away from the post. Impulse prompted Field to ask wherein +he had offended or failed. Reflection taught him, however, that he would +be wise to ask no questions. It might well be that Webb knew more of +what had happened during the night than he, Beverly Field, would care to +have mentioned.</p> + +<p>"You can be ready, can you not?" asked the major.</p> + +<p>"I am ready now, sir," was the brief, firm reply, but the tone told +unerringly that the lad resented and in heart rebelled at the detail. +"To whom shall I turn over the post fund, sir?"</p> + +<p>"I do not care to have you transfer funds or—anything, Field. This is +but a temporary affair, one that will take you away perhaps a +fortnight."</p> + +<p>"I prefer that it should be permanent, sir," was the young officer's +sudden interruption, and, though his eyes were blazing, he spoke with +effort, his face still white with mingled sense of indignity and +indignation.</p> + +<p>"Gently, Mr. Field," said Webb, with unruffled calm, even while +uplifting a hand in quiet warning. "We will consider that, if need be, +on your return. Meantime, if you desire, I will receipt to you for the +post fund or any other public money."</p> + +<p>"That is the trouble, sir. The best I can do is give you an order for +it. Post treasurers, as a rule, have not had to turn over their funds at +four o'clock in the morning," which statement was true enough, however +injudicious it might be to bruit it. Mild-mannered commanding officers +sometimes amaze their subordinates by most unlooked for and unwelcome +eruptiveness of speech when they feel that an unwarrantable liberty has +been taken. Webb did not take fire. He turned icy.</p> + +<p>"The quartermaster's safe can be opened at any moment, Mr. Field," said +he, the blue gray eyes glittering, dangerously. "I presume your funds +are there."</p> + +<p>"It was because the quartermaster would <i>not</i> open it at any moment that +I took them out and placed them elsewhere," hotly answered Field, and +not until then did Webb remember that there had been quite a fiery talk, +followed by hyperborean estrangement, between his two staff officers, +and now, as the only government safe at the post was in the office of +the quartermaster, and the only other one was Bill Hay's big "Phoenix" +at the store, it dawned upon the major that it was there Mr. Field had +stowed his packages of currency—a violation of orders pure and +simple—and that was why he could not produce the money on the spot. +Webb reflected. If he let Ray start at dawn and held Field back until +the trader was astir, it might be eight o'clock before the youngster +could set forth. By that time Ray would be perhaps a dozen miles to the +northward, and with keen-eyed Indian scouts noting the march of the +troop and keeping vigilant watch for possible stragglers, it might be +sending the lad to certain death, for Plodder had said in so many words +the Sioux about him had declared for war, had butchered three ranchmen +on the Dry Fork, had fired on and driven in his herd guards and wood +choppers, and, what started with Lane Wolf's big band, would spread to +Stabber's little one in less than no time, and what spread to Stabber's +would soon reach a host of the Sioux. Moreover, there was another +reason. It would give Field opportunity for further conference +with—inmates of the trader's household, and the major had his own grave +reasons for seeking to prevent that.</p> + +<p>"Your written order will be sufficient, Mr. Field," said he. "Send me +memorandum of the amounts and I will receipt at once, so that you can go +without further thought of them. And now," with a glance at the clock, +"you have hardly half an hour in which to get ready."</p> + +<p>Raising his hand in mechanical salute, Field faced about; cast one look +at Blake, standing uncomfortably at the window, and then strode angering +away to his quarters, smarting under a sense of unmerited rebuke yet +realizing that, as matters looked, no one was more to blame than +himself.</p> + +<p>Just as the first faint flush of coming day was mantling the pallid +eastern sky, and while the stars still sparkled aloft and the big, +bright moon was sinking to the snow-tipped peaks far away to the +occident, in shadowy column a troop of fifty horse filed slowly from The +Sorrels' big corral and headed straight for the Platte. Swift and +unfordable in front of Frayne in the earlier summer, the river now went +murmuring sleepily over its stony bed, and Ray led boldly down the bank +and plunged girth deep into the foaming waters. Five minutes more and +every man had lined up safely on the northward bank. In low tone the +order was given, starting as Ray ever did, in solid column of fours. In +dead silence the little command moved slowly away, followed by the eyes +of half the garrison on the bluff. Many of these were women and +children, who gazed through a mist of tears. Ray turned in saddle as the +last of his men went by; looked long at the dim light in the upper +window of his home, where, clasping her children to her heart, his +devoted wife knelt watching them, her fond lips moving in ceaseless +prayer. Dimly she could see the tried leader, her soldier husband, +sitting in saddle at the bank. Bravely she answered the flutter of his +handkerchief in farewell. Then all was swallowed up in the shadows of +the distant prairie, and from the nursery adjoining her room there rose +a querulous wail that told that her baby daughter was waking, +indifferent to the need that sent the soldier father to the aid of +distant comrades, threatened by a merciless foe, and conscious only of +her infantile demands and expectations. Not yet ten years wed, that +brave, devoted wife and mother had known but two summers that had not +torn her husband from her side on just such quest and duty, for these +were the days of the building up of the West, resisted to the bitter +end by the red wards of the nation.</p> + +<p>The sun was just peering over the rough, jagged outline of the eastward +buttes, when a quick yet muffled step was heard on the major's veranda +and a picturesque figure stood waiting at the door. Scout, of course, a +stranger would have said at a glance, for from head to foot the man was +clad in beaded buckskin, without sign of soldier garb of any kind. +Soldier, too, would have been the expert testimony the instant the door +opened and the commanding officer appeared. Erect as a Norway pine the +strange figure stood to attention, heels and knees together, shoulders +squared, head and eyes straight to the front, the left hand, fingers +extended, after the precise teachings of the ante-bellum days, the right +hand raised and held at the salute. Strange figure indeed, yet soldierly +to the last degree, despite the oddity of the entire make-up. The +fur-trimmed cap of embroidered buckskin sat jauntily on black and glossy +curls that hung about the brawny neck and shoulders. The buckskin coat, +heavily fringed as to the short cape and the shorter skirt, was thickly +covered with Indian embroidery of bead and porcupine quill; so, too, +were the fringed trousers and leggings; so, too, the moccasins, soled +with thick, yet pliant hide. Keen black eyes shone from beneath heavy +black brows, just sprinkled, as were the thick moustache and imperial, +with gray. The lean jowls were closely shaved. The nose was straight and +fine, the chin square and resolute. The face and hands were tanned by +sun and wind well nigh as dark as many a Sioux, but in that strange +garb there stood revealed one of the famous sergeants of a famous +regiment, the veteran of a quarter century of service with the standard, +wounded time and again, bearing the scars of Stuart's sabre and of +Southern lead, of Indian arrow and bullet both; proud possessor of the +medal of honor that many a senior sought in vain; proud as the Lucifer +from whom he took his Christian name, brave, cool, resolute and ever +reliable—Schreiber, First Sergeant of old "K" Troop for many a year, +faced his post commander with brief and characteristic report:—</p> + +<p>"Sir, Chief Stabber, with over thirty warriors, left camp about three +o'clock, heading for Eagle Butte."</p> + +<p>"Well done, sergeant! I knew I could count on you," answered Webb, in +hearty commendation. "Now, one thing more. Go to 'F' Troop's quarters +and see how Kennedy is faring. He came in with despatches from Fort +Beecher, and later drank more, I fancy, than was good for him, for which +I assume all responsibility. Keep him out of mischief this morning."</p> + +<p>"I will, sir," said the sergeant, and saluting turned away while Webb +went back to set a dismantled pantry in partial order, against the +appearance of his long-suffering house-keeper, whose comments he dreaded +as he did those of no inspector general in the army. For fifteen years, +and whithersoever Webb was ordered, his bachelor <i>ménage</i> had been +presided over by Mistress Margaret McGann, wife of a former trooper, who +had served as Webb's "striker" for so many a year in the earlier days +that, when discharged for disability, due to wounds, rheumatism and +advancing years, and pensioned, as only Uncle Sam rewards his veterans, +McGann had begged the major to retain him and his buxom better half at +their respective duties, and Webb had meekly, weakly yielded, to the end +that in the fulness of time Dame Margaret had achieved an ascendancy +over the distinguished cavalry officer little short of that she had +exercised over honest Michael since the very day she consented to become +Mistress McGann. A sound sleeper was she, however, and not until morning +police call was she wont to leave her bed. Then, her brief toilet +completed, she would descend to the kitchen and set the major's coffee +on the fire, started by her dutiful spouse an hour earlier. Then she +proceeded to lay the table, and put the rooms in order against the +major's coming, and woe betide him if cigar stubs littered the bachelor +sittingroom or unrinsed glasses and half empty decanters told of even +moderate symposium over night. Returning that eventful morning from his +office at first call for reveillé, after seeing the last of Ray's +gallant troop as it moved away across the dim vista of the northward +prairie, Webb had been concerned to find his decanter of Monongahela +half empty on the pantry table and the <i>débris</i> of a hurried feast on +every side. Kennedy, who had begun in moderation, must have felt the +need of further creature comfort after his bout with the stalwart Sioux, +and had availed himself to the limit of his capacity of the major's +invitation. Webb's first thought was to partially remove the traces of +that single-handed spree; then, refilling the decanter from the big +five-gallon demijohn, kept under lock and key in the cupboard—for +Michael, too, had at long intervals weaknesses of his own—he was +thinking how best to protect Kennedy from the consequences of his, +Webb's, rash invitation when Schreiber's knock was heard.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes more and the sergeant was back again.</p> + +<p>"Sir, I have to report that Trooper Kennedy has not been seen about the +quarters," said he.</p> + +<p>"Then try the stables, sergeant," answered the veteran campaigner, and +thither would Schreiber next have gone, even had he not been sent. And, +sure enough, there was Kennedy, with rueful face and a maudlin romaunt +about a moonlit meeting with a swarm of painted Sioux, over which the +stable guard were making merry and stirring the trooper's soul to wrath +ungovernable.</p> + +<p>"I can prove ut," he howled, to the accompaniment of clinching fists and +bellicose lunges at the laughing tormentors nearest him. "I can whip the +hide off'n the scut that says I didn't. Ask Lootn't Field, bejabers! He +saw it. Ask—Oh, Mother of God! what's this I'm sayin'?"—And there, +with stern, rebuking gaze, stood the man they knew and feared, every +soul of them, as they did no commissioned soldier in the ——th, +Sergeant Schreiber, the redoubtable, and Schreiber had heard the insane +and damaging boast.</p> + +<p>"Come with me, Kennedy," was all he said, and Kennedy snatched his +battered felt headgear down over his eyes and tacked woefully after his +swift-striding master, without ever another word.</p> + +<p>But it was to his own room Schreiber took the unhappy Irishman, not to +the quarters of Company "F." He had heard words that, coupled with +others that fell through the darkness on his keenly listening ears some +two hours earlier, had given him cause for painful thought. "Lie down +here, Kennedy. Pull off your boots," said he, "and if you open your fool +head to any living soul until I give you leave, py Gott—I'll gill you!" +It was Schreiber's way, like Marryatt's famous Boatswain, to begin his +admonitions in exact English, and then, as wrath overcame him, to lapse +into dialect.</p> + +<p>It was but a few minutes after seven when Major Webb, having previously +despatched a messenger to the post trader's to say he had need to see +Mr. Hay as soon as possible, mounted his horse and, followed by Sergeant +Schreiber and an orderly, rode quietly past the guard-house, touching +his hat to the shouted "Turn out the guard—commanding officer" of the +sentry on Number One. Mr. Hay was dressing hurriedly, said the servant, +so Webb bade Schreiber and the orderly ride slowly down to the flats and +await him at the forks of the road. It was but five minutes before Hay +appeared, pulling on his coat as he shot from the door, but even before +he came the major had been carefully, cautiously scanning the blinds of +the second story, even while feigning deep interest in the doings of a +little squad of garrison prisoners—the inevitable inmates of the +guard-house in the days before we had our safeguard in shape of the +soldier's club—the post exchange—and now again in the days that follow +its ill-judged extinction. The paymaster had been at Frayne but five +days earlier. The prison room was full of aching heads, and Hay's +coffers' of hard-earned, ill-spent dollars. Webb sighed at sight of the +crowded ranks of this whimsically named "Company Q," but in no wise +relaxed his vigilance, for the slats of the blind of the corner window +had partially opened. He had had a glimpse of feminine fingers, and +purposely he called Hay well out into the road, then bent down over him:</p> + +<p>"All your horses in and all right, this morning, Hay?"</p> + +<p>"None have been out," said Hay, stoutly, "unless they've gone within the +hour. I never let them have the keys, you know, over night. Pete brought +them to me at eight last evening and got 'em at six this morning, the +usual time."</p> + +<p>"Where does he get them—without waking you?" asked Webb.</p> + +<p>"They hang behind the door in my sleeping room. Pete gets them when he +takes my boots to black at six o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Come over to the stables," said the commanding officer, and, wondering, +Hay followed.</p> + +<p>They found the two hostlers busily at work grooming. In his box stall, +bright as a button, was "Harney," Hay's famous runner, his coat smooth +as satin. Hay went rapidly from stall to stall. Of the six saddlers +owned by him not one gave the faintest sign of having been used over +night, but Webb, riding through the gangway, noted that "Crapaud," the +French halfbreed grooming in the third stall, never lifted his head. +Whatever evidence of night riding that might earlier have existed had +been deftly groomed away. The trader had seen suspicion in the soldier's +eye, and so stood forth, triumphant:—</p> + +<p>"No, Major Webb," said he, in loud, confident, oracular tone, "no horse +of mine ever gets out without my knowing it, and never at night unless +you or I so order it."</p> + +<p>"No?" queried the major, placidly. "Then how do you account for—this?"</p> + +<p>Among the fresh hoof prints in the yielding sand, with which the police +party had been filling the ruts of the outer roadway, was one never made +by government horse or mule. In half a dozen places within a dozen rods, +plain as a pikestaff, was the print of a bar shoe, worn on the off fore +foot of just one quadruped at the post—Hay's swift running "General +Harney."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER V</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">A GRAVE DISCOVERY</a></h3> + + +<p>Only an hour was the major away from his post. He came back in time for +guard mounting and the reports of the officers-of-the-day. He had reason +to be on the parade at the "assembly of the details," not so much to +watch the work of the post adjutant <i>pro tempore</i>, as the effect of the +sudden and unlooked for change on certain of the customary spectators. +He had swiftly ridden to the camp of the recreant Stabber and purposely +demanded speech with that influential chieftain. There had been the +usual attempt on part of the old men left in charge to hoodwink and to +temporize, but when sharply told that Stabber, with his warriors, had +been seen riding away toward Eagle Butte at three in the morning, the +sages calmly confessed judgment, but declared they had no other purpose +than a hunt for a drove of elk reported seen about the famous Indian +race course in the lower hills of the Big Horn. Circling the camp, +however, Webb had quickly counted the pony tracks across the still dewy +bunchgrass of the bench, and found Schreiber's estimate substantially +correct. Then, stopping at the lodge of Stabbers's uncle, old "Spotted +Horse," where that superannuated but still sagacious chief was squatted +on his blanket and ostentatiously puffing a long Indian pipe, Webb +demanded to know what young men remained in the village. Over a hundred +strong, old men, squaws and children, they thronged about him, silent, +big-eyed and attentive, Schreiber interpreting as best he could, +resorting to the well-known sign language when the crafty Sioux +professed ignorance of the meaning of his words:—</p> + +<p>"No young men. All gone," was the positive declaration of the venerable +head of the bailiwick, when compelled at last to answer. But Schreiber +had studied the pony herd and knew better. Moreover, not more than six +of their ponies had been led along with the war party that set forth in +the early hours of the moonlit morning. Others, both men and mounts, +unavoidably left behind, would surely be sent forward at the first +possible opportunity, and, much as Webb might wish to turn back to +capture the party, well as he might know that other bands were in revolt +and Stabber gone to help them, he was powerless under his orders to +interfere until by some openly hostile act these laggards of the little +band invited his reprisal. The rule of the road, as prescribed by the +civil authorities, to which the soldier had sworn obedience, being +practically, "Don't defend until you are hit. Don't shoot until you are +shot."</p> + +<p>Webb came cantering back assured that these frowsy, malodorous lodges +concealed, perhaps, half a score of fighting men who were a menace to +the neighborhood and who could be counted on to make it more than +interesting for any couriers that might have to be sent between the fort +and the forces at the front. Calling Schreiber to his side, as, with +long easy stride their trained mounts went loping swiftly homeward, he +gave instructions the veteran heard with kindling eyes. Then, parting +from him at the corrals, the commander rode on and dismounted at his +quarters just as the trumpeters were forming on the broad, grassy level +of the parade.</p> + +<p>Even without a band young Field had managed to make his guard mount a +pretty and attractive ceremony. Frayne was a big post and needed a daily +guard of twenty-four men, with the usual quota of non-commissioned +officers. Cowboys, herders, miners, prospectors, rustlers (those pirates +of the plains) and occasional bands of Indians, Sioux or Arapahoe, were +forever hovering about its borders in search of supplies, solid or +fluid, and rarely averse to the conversion of public property to +personal use. Like many a good citizen of well-ordered municipalities +within the confines of civilization, they held that what belonged to the +government belonged to them, and the fact that some officer would have +to pay for whatsoever they stole, from a horse to a hammer, cut no +figure in their deliberations. Frayne had long been a favorite place for +fitting out depleted stock, animal, vegetable or mineral, and there had +been times when Webb found as many as forty men almost too small a +guard, and so gave it to be understood that sentries whose carbines were +unlawfully discharged at night, without the formality of preliminary +challenge or other intimation of business intentions, would be held +blameless, provided they had something to show for their shot. A +remarkable feature of the winter's depredation had been that Hay's +corral was never molested, although unguarded by the garrison and quite +as much exposed as the most remote of the government shops, shanties or +stables.</p> + +<p>Field mounted his guard, except in cold or stormy weather, in full +uniform, and the daily "march past" in review brought many of the +garrison ladies, most of the children and all of the dogs to the scene. +Some of the households breakfasted just before,—some just after—guard +mounting, but, as a rule, no one sat at table when almost everybody else +was gathered along the westward edge of the broad parade. It was there +the plans for the social day were discussed and determined. Rides, +drives, hunts or picnics away from the post; dances, dinners, croquet or +tennis within the garrison limits. It was the hour when all the girls +were out, looking fair and fresh as daisies, and while the mothers +sedately gossiped along the row of broad verandas, their daughters +blithely chatted in little groups, or, as might often be, paced slowly +with downcast eyes and mantling cheeks at the side of some young gallant +who had no thought for other duty than that of the thrilling moment. And +here they were, well nigh a dozen of them, of all ages from twelve to +twenty, as the major sent his mount to the stables and made quick survey +of the scene, and a moment's glance was sufficient to show that among +them all there was stir and excitement beyond that which would be +caused by so common an incident as the sending forth of a troop on +scout.</p> + +<p>It was the fact that Field had gone and that young Ross was acting in +his place that set them all to speculating on the cause. One of their +number, promenading with Lieutenant Hartley, glanced up at Major Webb as +they passed him by, with such a world of mingled question and reproach +in her soft blue eyes that his heart for the moment smote him. He had +never seen Esther Dade looking so languid or so wan, yet more <i>of</i> her +and <i>for</i> her had he been thinking during the week gone by than of any +other girl in or out of the army. To-day, however, there was another he +eagerly sought to see, and, with something akin to keen disappointment, +noted that she was not among the strollers along the board walk or the +chatting groups about the steps and gateways. Not once during her brief +visit had she as yet missed guard mounting. Now her absence was +significant. In the very eyes of the little party hastening toward +him—three young girls and a brace of subalterns—he read question and +cross-question, and was thankful to see Hay, the trader, trudging up the +walk to join him. So seldom did the old frontiersman enter the +quadrangle that people remarked upon his coming;—remarked still more +when Webb hurried down to meet him.</p> + +<p>"You're right about the horses, major," said Hay, mopping a moist and +troubled face with a big bandana. "My racer and my best single footer, +Dan, were out last night. Dan's saddle cloth was wet and so was +Harney's. Some one outside has got false keys,—I'll put new padlocks on +at once,—but for the life of me I can't think who would play me such a +trick. To <i>steal</i> the horses,—run 'em off to Rawlins or up the +Sweetwater or off to the Hills—I could understand that! but to borrow +them for an hour or two,—why, it beats me hollow!" And Hay in deep +perplexity leaned against the low fence and almost imploringly gazed +into the major's face. They all leaned on Webb.</p> + +<p>"Any idea who they were?" asked the commander.</p> + +<p>"Not the skin of a shadow, 'cept that one man rode shorter stirrups'n I +do. They forgot to set 'em back. They had my California saddle on Dan +and that light Whitman of mine on Harney."</p> + +<p>"Sure it was two men?" queried Webb, looking straight into the trader's +eyes.</p> + +<p>"What else could it be?" demanded Hay, in no little excitement.</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought possibly Miss Flower might have been moved to take a +moonlight ride. No reason why she shouldn't, you know, and not wishing +to disturb you——"</p> + +<p>"Then she would have used her own side-saddle. What's she doing with a +man's? Besides, she'd have told me!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! You've seen her then this morning? I thought perhaps she wasn't +up," hazarded Webb.</p> + +<p>"Up? Why, hang it, she was up at daybreak—up hours ago, my wife says. +Haven't you seen her? She's over here somewhere?"</p> + +<p>No, Webb had not seen her, and together the two started in search, first +to the flagstaff, and there at the point of bluff beyond the +Rays',—there she stood, gazing up the Platte toward the Indian village +through a pair of signal glasses that weighed heavily in her daintily +gloved hands. Captain Tracy, a bachelor assistant surgeon, stood +faithfully by her side, listening to her lively chatter, with ears that +absorbed and eyes that worshipped.</p> + +<p>"Come away," said Webb. "I have an order on you for Field's currency in +your safe. When are you going to try to get your cash to bank?" And Webb +keenly eyed his man as he asked the question.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow or next day sure,—even if I have to go part way with the +stage myself. When do you want this money?" said Hay, tapping the +envelope Webb had given him.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, if agreeable to you. I prefer to keep such funds at the +quartermaster's. Oh—Good morning, Mrs. Ray!" he cheerily called, +lifting his cap, at sight of a young matron at an upper window. "Can you +see them still?" he added, for the elder of the two boys was peering +through a long telescope, perched on its brass tripod upon a little +shelf projecting from the sill. Many a time had the "Rays' spyglass" +been the last to discern some departing troop as it crossed the low +divide ten miles away to the north. Many a time had the first +announcement of "courier coming" reached headquarters through Master +Sandy, the first born of their olive branches. There were unshed tears +in the gentle voice that answered. There was wordless anxiety in the +sweet, pallid face that smiled so bravely through its sorrow. "The troop +passed out of sight quarter of an hour ago, major," said Mrs. Ray. "But +Sandy could see the flankers on their left until within the last five +minutes."</p> + +<p>"<i>Way</i> out on their left, major!" interposed that young gentleman, big +with importance. "If old Stabber tries any of his tricks with <i>that</i> +troop he'll—he'll get his belly full!" and Master Sandy plainly +intimated both in tone and manner, not to mention the vernacular of the +soldier, that Stabber might take liberties with any other troop or +company at the post, but would best beware of Daddy's. And yet, not +three months agone he had stoutly taken up the cudgels for the Frayne +garrison, as a whole, against the field, the wordy battle with the son +and heir of the colonel commanding at Laramie culminating in a combat +only terminated by the joint efforts of the stable sergeant and sentry, +for both youngsters were game as their sires. What Sandy Ray was now +praying to see was an attack by Stabber's band upon the isolated troop, +but Stabber, it may be said, knew a trick worth ten of that. There was +no sense in pitching into the sorrel troop on even terms when by waiting +another day, perhaps, and the answer of Lame Wolf to the appeal of his +speedy messenger, he might outnumber and overwhelm them with five to +one.</p> + +<p>"We should be hearing from Omaha and Laramie by ten o'clock, Mrs. Ray," +said the major, reassuringly, "and I will send you word at once. And, of +course, Corporal Ray," he continued, and now with martial formality +addressing the lad at the telescope, "I can rely upon you to report at +once in case you see anything suspicious toward the Big Horn."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," answered the boy, straightening up to attention. Then, +scrupulously exchanging salutes, the old soldier and the young parted +company, and the major returned to receive the reports of the old and +new officers of the day. These gentlemen were still with him, Captain +Chew, of the Infantry, and the senior first lieutenant for duty with the +----th, when Hay came hurrying up the board walk from the direction of +the store. For reasons of his own, Webb had sent his orderly to the +guard-house to say to the officers in question that he would await them +at his quarters instead of the little building known as the adjutant's +office, in which were the offices of the commander, the record room in +which were placed the desks of the sergeant-major and his three clerks, +and the sleeping rooms of the special duty soldiers. It had happened +more than once in the past that garrison stories of matters not supposed +to be known outside the office had been traced back to that desk room, +and now Webb's questions of his old officer of the day, and his +instructions to the new were not things he cared to have bruited about +the post. He was listening intently to the captain's report of the +sentries' observations during the night gone by when Hay reached the +gate and stopped, not wishing to intrude at such a moment.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Mr. Hay," said the commander, cordially. "This all will +interest you," and, thus bidden, the trader joined the soldiers three on +the veranda, and some of the young people of the garrison, setting up +their croquet arches on the parade, looked curiously toward the group, +and wondered what should keep the old officer-of-the-day so long. +Sauntering down the walk, smiling radiantly upon the occupants of the +various verandas that she passed, then beaming between times into the +face of her smitten escort, her black eyes and white teeth flashing in +the rare sunshine, Nanette Flower was gradually nearing the major's +quarters. She was barely twenty yards away when, in obedience to some +word of the major, Mr. Hay held forth two white packages that, even at +the distance, could be recognized, so far as the outer covering was +concerned, as official envelopes. She was too far away, perhaps, to hear +what was said.</p> + +<p>"It seems," began Webb, to his officers, as he mechanically opened the +first packet, "that Field took fire at Wilkins's growls about the bother +of keeping his funds, so the youngster stowed his money with Hay. He +insisted on turning over everything before he left, so I receipted to +him. Let's see," he continued, glancing at the memorandum in his hand. +"Three hundred and seventy-two dollars and eighty-five cents post fund, +and four hundred belonging to various enlisted men. I may as well count +it in your presence."</p> + +<p>By this time the long, lean fingers had ripped open the package marked +four hundred, and were extracting the contents,—a sheet of official +paper with figures and memoranda, and then a flat package, apparently, +of currency. Topmost was a five dollar treasury note; bottom-most +another of the same denomination. Between them, deftly cut, trimmed and +sized, were blank slips of paper to the number of perhaps thirty and the +value of not one cent. With paling faces the officers watched the +trembling fingers slash open the second, its flap, as was that of the +first envelope, securely gummed,—not sealed. A nickel or two and a few +dimes slid out before the packet came. It was of like consistency with +the first—and of about the same value. Webb lifted up his eyes and +looked straight into the amazed,—almost livid, face of the trader.</p> + +<p>"My God! Major Webb," cried Hay, aghast and bewildered. "Don't look at +me like that! No man on earth has ever accused me of a crime. This means +that not only my stable but my safe has been robbed,—and there is a +traitor within my gates."</p> + +<p>Dr. Tracy, absorbed in contemplation of Miss Flower's radiant face, and +in the effort to make his own words eloquent, had no ears for those of +others. He never heeded the trader's excited outburst. He only saw her +suddenly flinch, suddenly pale, then sway. His ready arm was round her +in a twinkling. In a twinkling she twisted free from the undesired +clasp.</p> + +<p>"Just—my foot turned!—a pebble!" she gasped.</p> + +<p>But when, all assiduity, Tracy would have seated her on the horseblock +and examined the delicate ankle, she refused straightway, and with +almost savage emphasis, and with rigid lips from which all loveliness +had fled, bade him lead on home, where, despite protest and appeal, +personal and professional, she dismissed him curtly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER VI</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">FIRST SIGHT OF THE FOE</a></h3> + + +<p>Ray's gallant half hundred, as has been said, took the route for the +north at break of day. Before them spread the open prairie, apparently +level and unbroken for full five miles to the front and either flank, +the distant slopes and ridges bounding the level expanse growing more +distinct with every moment, and presently lighting up in exulting +radiance in response to the rosy blushes of the eastward sky. Scorning +the dusty stage road, the troop commander pointed to a distant height +just visible against the northward horizon, bade the leading guide march +straight on that; then gave the order "Right by Twos," that he might the +more readily note the gait and condition of every horse and the bearing +and equipment of his rider. There was still time to weed out weaklings +of either class should any such there be. Riding slowly along the left +flank, one after another, he carefully scanned every man and mount in +his little detachment, then, at quicker pace, passed around to the +eastward side of the column, and as critically, carefully studied them +from that point of view. A light of quiet satisfaction shone in his +fine, dark eyes as he finished, for, next to his wife and children, +that troop was Ray's supreme delight. The preliminary look-over by +lantern light had been all sufficient. This later inspection on the move +revealed not a steed amiss, not an item of equipment either misplaced or +lacking. "Steady as planets," barring the irrepressible tendency of some +young, high-spirited horse to dance a bit until quieted by the monotony +of the succeeding miles, at quick, light-hoofed walk, the sorrels +tripped easily along in precise, yet companionable couples. "One yard +from head to croup," said the drill book of the day, and, but for that, +the riders might have dropped their reins upon the pommel as practically +unnecessary. But, for the first hour or so, at least, the tendency +toward the rear of column was ever to crowd upon the file leaders, a +proceeding resented, not infrequently, in less disciplined commands than +Ray's, by well-delivered kicks, or at least such signs of equine +disapprobation as switching tail or set-back ears. But Ray's troop +horses moved like so many machines, so constant and systematic had been +their drill; and Ray's men rode in the perfection of uniform, so far as +armament and equipment were concerned. Each greatcoat, precisely rolled, +was strapped with its encircling poncho at the pommel. Each blanket, as +snugly packed, with the sidelines festooned upon the top, was strapped +at the cantle. Lariat and picket pin, coiled and secured, hung from the +near side of the pommel. The canteen, suspended from its snap hook, hung +at the off side. Saddle-bags, with extra horse shoes, nails, socks, +underwear, brushes and comb, extra packages of carbine and revolver +cartridges and minor impedimenta, equally distributed as to weight, +swung from the cantle and underneath the blanket roll. From the broad, +black leather carbine sling, over each trooper's left shoulder, the +hard-shooting brown barrelled little Springfield hung suspended, its +muzzle thrust, as was the fashion of the day, into the crude socket +imposed so long upon our frontier fighters by officials who had never +seen the West, save, as did a certain writer of renown, from a car +window, thereby limiting their horizon. Ray despised that socket as he +did the Shoemaker bit, but believed, with President Grant, that the best +means to end obnoxious laws was their rigorous enforcement. Each man's +revolver, a trusty brown Colt, hung in its holster at the right hip. +Each man was girt with ammunition belt of webbing, the device of an +old-time Yankee cavalryman that has been copied round the world, the +dull-hued copper cartridges bristling from every loop. Each man wore, as +was prescribed, the heavy, cumbrous cavalry boot of the day and +generation, but had stowed in his saddle-bags light moccasins and +leggings with which to replace them when, farther afield, their +clear-headed commander should give the word. Each man, too, wore the +gauntlets of Indian-tanned buckskin, a special pattern that Ray had been +permitted to use experimentally. Each man was clad in dark blue flannel +shirt and blouse, the latter soon probably to be stored with the big, +weighty boots in Truscott's saddle room at Beecher, with, probably too, +many of the light blue riding breeches, saddle-pieced with canvas—the +uniform at the start destined, in the case of veteran troopers, at +least, to be shed in favor of brown duck hunting trousers, or even, +among certain extremists, fringed, beaded and embroidered buckskin, than +which the present chronicler knows no more uncomfortable garb when +soaked by pelting rains or immersion in some icy mountain stream. Even +the brown campaign hats, uniformly "creased," as the fifty left the +ford, would soon be knocked out of all semblance to the prescribed +shape, and made at once comfortable and serviceable. Add to these items +the well-filled haversack and battered tin quart cup, (for on a forced +march of two or three days Captain Ray would have no pack mules,) and +the personal equipment of his men was complete. As for the mounts, each +sorrel tripped easily along under the sextuple folds of the saddle +blanket, and the black-skinned McClellan saddle tree, with its broad +horsehair cincha and hooded wooden stirrups, minus the useless skirts +and sweat leathers. Neither breast strap, crupper nor martingale +hampered the free movements of the sturdy, stocky little weight +carriers. The black, single-reined curb bridle, fastened as to the +throat latch by a light buckle, was slipped on over the headstall of the +so-called watering bridle, whose toggled and detachable snaffle bit was +generally "toted" from start to finish of a field scout in the saddle +bags,—a twist of the flexible lariat, Indian fashion, between the +complaisant jaws of his pet, being the troop's ready substitute. Add to +this that, full, free and unmutilated, in glossy waves the beautiful +manes and tails tossed in the upland breeze (for the heresies of +Anglomania never took root in the American cavalry) and you have Ray's +famous troop as it looked, fresh started from old Fort Frayne this +glorious autumn morning of 188-, and with a nod of approbation, and "It +couldn't be better, sergeant," to his devoted right hand man, the +veteran senior non-commissioned officer of the troop, Ray rang out the +command "At ease," and placed himself beside the silent young lieutenant +at the head of column.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/001.jpg" alt="Ray's Troop" /> +<a name="RAY" id="RAY"></a> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Ray's Troop.</span> +</div> + +<p>As has been said, Ray's senior subaltern was on detached service. His +junior, Mr. Clayton, had joined but the year before, and this threw Mr. +Field in command of the leading platoon and to the side of the leading +guide. Now, as the senior officer took the head of column and Mr. +Clayton fell back to the rear, the silence of the first mile of march +was broken and, though sitting erect in saddle and forbidden to lounge +or "slouch," the troop began its morning interchange of chaff and +comment. Every mother's son of them rejoiced to be once more afield with +a chance of stirring work ahead.</p> + +<p>"It's time to throw out our advance, Field," said Ray, in kindly, +cordial tone, as he scanned the low divide still some miles ahead and +reined in beside the stern-faced young soldier. "Send Sergeant Scott +forward with three men and the same number on each flank—corporals in +charge."</p> + +<p>He had more than liked Webb's adjutant. He had been his stanchest +friend and supporter among the troop and company commanders, and was +eager to befriend him now. He had expressed no wish to have him sent on +the hurried move, but well he knew the post commander's reasons and +approved his course. Still, now that Field was being removed, for the +time at least, from the possibility of an entangling alliance that might +prove disastrous, in every way in his power Ray meant to show the +mortified, indeed sorely angered, officer that his personal regard for +him had suffered no change whatever. If he could succeed in winning +Field's confidence it might well be that he could bring him to see that +there were good and sufficient grounds for the post commander's +action—that for Field's own good, in fact, it was a most desirable +move. The soul of loyalty and square dealing himself, Ray had never for +a moment dreamed that anything other than a foolish escapade had +occurred—a ride by moonlight, perhaps, demanded of her devotee by a +thoughtless, thoroughbred coquette, whose influence over the young +fellow was beginning to mar his usefulness, if not indeed his future +prospects. Just what to think of Nanette Flower Ray really did not know. +Marion, his beloved better half, was his unquestioned authority in all +such matters, and it was an uncommon tenet of that young matron never to +condemn until she had cause. Instinctively she shrank from what she had +seen of Miss Flower, even though her woman's eye rejoiced in the +elegance of Miss Flower's abundant toilets; and, conscious of her +intuitive aversion, she would utter no word that might later prove +unjust. Oddly enough, that instinctive aversion was shared by her +closest friend and neighbor, Mrs. Blake; but, as yet, the extent of +their condemnation had found vent only in the half whimsical, half +petulant expression on part of the younger lady—Blake's beautiful wife, +"I wish her name weren't—so near like mine," for "Nan" had been her pet +name almost from babyhood. Vaguely conscious were they both, these lords +of creation, Messrs. Blake and Ray, that the ladies of their love did +not approve of Miss Flower, but Ray had ridden forth without ever asking +or knowing why, and so, unknowing, was ill prepared to grapple with the +problem set before him. It is easier to stem a torrent with a shingle +than convince a lover that his idol is a shrew.</p> + +<p>Without a word of reply, Field reined out of column, glanced along the +double file of his platoon, nodded a signal "Fall out" to Sergeant +Scott, and the men nearest him at the front, merely said "Advance +guard," and then proceeded to choose his corporals and men for flankers. +No need to tell Scott what to do! He had been leading scouts in Arizona +long ere Field had even dreamed of West Point. In five minutes, riding +at easy lope, carbines advanced, three little parties of four troopers +each were spreading far out to the front and flank, guarding the little +column against the possibility of sudden assault from hidden foe. Here +upon the level prairie one would think such precaution needless, but +every acre of the surface was seamed and gullied by twisting little +water courses, dry as a chip at the moment, and some of them so deep as +to afford cover even for the biggest pony of the wild warriors of the +plains. Then, to the front, the barrier ridges, streaked with deep +winding ravines, were now billowing against the northward sky, and once +among those tangled land waves no chances could be taken now that it was +known that the Sioux had declared for war, and that Stabber's band was +out to join their red brethren in the oft recurring outbreak. Until +their lands were criss-crossed by the railways and their mountain haunts +re-echoed to the scream of the iron horse, next to nothing would start +an Indian war: it took so long to reach the scene with troops in +sufficient numbers to command their respect.</p> + +<p>And at this moment the situation was grave in the extreme. There had +been bad blood and frequent collision between the cattlemen, herders, +"hustlers,"—especially hustlers,—and the hunting parties of the Sioux +and the Northern Cheyenne, who clung to the Big Horn Range and the +superb surrounding country with almost passionate love and with jealous +tenacity. There had been aggression on both sides, then bloodshed, then +attempts on part of frontier sheriffs to arrest accused or suspected red +men, and equally determined and banded effort to prevent arrest of +accused and identified whites. By due process of law, as administered in +the days whereof we write, the Indian was pretty sure to get the worst +of every difference, and therefore, preferred, not unnaturally, his own +time-honored methods of settlement. In accordance therewith, had they +scalped the sheriff's posse that had shot two of their young braves who +had availed themselves of a purposely given chance to escape, and then +in their undiscriminating zeal, the Sioux had opened fire from ambush on +Plodder's hunting parties and the choppers at the wood camp, who +defended themselves as best they could, to the end that more men, red +and white, were killed. The Indians rallied in force and closed in about +Fort Beecher, driving the survivors to shelter within its guarded lines, +and then, when Plodder needed every man of his force to keep the foe at +respectful distance, so that his bullets could not reach the quarters +occupied by the women and children at the post, there reached him by +night a runner from the stage station far over to the southeast, on a +dry fork of the Powder, saying that the north and south bound stages had +taken refuge there, with only ten men, all told, to stand off some fifty +warriors, and therefore imploring assistance. Not daring to send a +troop, Plodder called for volunteers to bear despatches to Major Webb, +at Frayne, and Pat Kennedy, with half a dozen brave lads, had promptly +stepped forward. Kennedy had managed to slip through the encircling +Sioux by night, and to reach Fort Frayne after a daring and almost +desperate ride. Then Ray was ordered forth, first to raise the siege at +the stage station, then, either to hold that important relay ranch or go +on to reinforce Plodder as his judgment and the situation might dictate.</p> + +<p>He knew enough of the stout adobe walls of the corral on the Dry Fork, +and of the grit of the few defenders, to feel reasonably sure that, +with ammunition, provisions and water in plenty, they could easily hold +out a week if need be against the Sioux, so long as they fought on the +defensive and the Indians were not strongly reinforced. He reasoned that +Stabber and his people were probably gone to strengthen the attack, and +that having an hour's start at least, and riding faster, they would get +there somewhat ahead of him. But one of his own old sergeants, a veteran +of twenty years in the cavalry, was now stationmaster on the Dry Fork, +and all the Sioux from the Platte to Paradise couldn't stampede old Jim +Kelly. Many a forced march had Ray made in the past, and well he knew +that the surest way to bring his horses into action, strong and sound at +the finish, was to move "slow and steady" at the start, to move at the +walk until the horses were calm and quiet, was his rule. Then on this +bright September day would come the alternating trot and lope, with +brief halts to reset saddles; then, later still, the call upon his +willing men and mounts for sustained effort, and by sunset he and they +could count on riding in, triumphant, to the rescue, even though Stabber +himself should seek to bar the way.</p> + +<p>And that Stabber meant to watch the road, if not to block it, became +evident before the head of column began the gradual ascent of Moccasin +Ridge, from whose sharp crest the little band could take their last +look, for the time, at least, at the distant walls of Frayne. Somewhere +toward seven-thirty Corporal Connors' foremost man, far out on the left +flank, riding suddenly over a low divide, caught sight of a bonneted +warrior bending flat over his excited pony and lashing that nimble, +fleet-footed creature to mad gallop in the effort to reach the cover of +the projecting point of bluff across the shallow ravine that cut in +toward the foothills. Stone, the trooper, lifted his campaign hat on +high once, and then lowered his arm to the horizontal, hat in hand, +pointing in the direction the darting savage was seen, and thus, without +a syllable having been spoken at the front, word was passed in to Ray +that one Indian had been sighted far out to the northwest.</p> + +<p>"They may try to hold us among the breaks of the Mini Pusa," said he, to +his still unreconciled second in command. Field had been civil, +respectful, but utterly uncommunicative in his replies to the captain's +repeated cordialities. Any attempt to even remotely refer to the causes +that led to his being ordered out with the detachment had been met with +chilling silence. Now, however, the foe had been seen and could be +counted on to resist if his rallied force much exceeded that of the +troop, or to annoy it by long-range fire if too weak to risk other +encounter. The command halted one moment at the crest to take one long, +lingering look at the now far-distant post beyond the Platte; then, +swinging again into saddle, moved briskly down into the long, wide +hollow between them and the next divide, well nigh three miles across, +and as they reached the low ground and traversed its little draining +gully, a muttered exclamation "Look there!" from the lips of the first +sergeant, called their attention again to the far left front. Stone, +the trooper who had reported the first Indian, had turned his horse over +to the second man, as had the corporal on that flank, and together they +were crouching up along the eastward face of a billowing hillock, while, +straight to the front Sergeant Scott, obedient to a signal from his left +hand man, was speeding diagonally along the rise to the north, for all +three advance troopers had halted and two were cautiously dismounting. +Ray watched one moment, with kindling eyes, then turned to his young +chief of platoons:</p> + +<p>"Take your men, Field, and be ready to support. There's something behind +that second ridge!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER VII</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">BLOOD WILL TELL</a></h3> + + +<p>As Webb had predicted, even before nine o'clock, came prompt, spirited +response from Laramie, where the colonel had ordered the four troops to +prepare for instant march, and had bidden the infantry to be ready for +any duty the general might order. From Omaha,—department +headquarters,—almost on the heels of the Laramie wire came cheery word +from their gallant chief: "Coming to join you noon train to-day. +Cheyenne 1:30 to-morrow. Your action in sending Ray's troop approved. +Hold others in readiness to move at a moment's notice. Wire further news +North Platte, Sidney or Cheyenne to meet me."</p> + +<p>So the note of preparation was joyous throughout the barracks on the +eastward side and mournful among the married quarters elsewhere. But +even through the blinding tears with which so many loving women wrought, +packing the field and mess kits of soldier husbands whose duties kept +them with their men at barracks or stables, there were some, at least, +who were quick to see that matters of unusual moment called certain of +the major's stanchest henchmen to the office, and that grave and earnest +consultation was being held, from which men came with sombre faces and +close-sealed lips. First to note these indications was the indomitable +helpmate of old Wilkins, the post quartermaster. She had no dread on his +account, for rheumatism and routine duties, as the official in charge of +Uncle Sam's huge stack of stores and supplies, exempted her liege from +duty in the field; and, even while lending a helping hand where some +young wife and mother seemed dazed and broken by the sudden call to +arms, she kept eyes and ears alert as ever, and was speedily confiding +to first one household, then another, her conviction that there was a +big sensation bundled up in the bosom of the post commander and his +cronies, and she knew, she said, it was something about Field. +Everybody, of course, was aware by eight o'clock that Field had gone +with Ray, and while no officer presumed to ask if it was because Ray, or +Field, had applied for the detail, no woman would have been restrained +therefrom by any fear of Webb. Well he realized this fact and, dodging +the first that sought to waylay him on the walk, he had later intrenched +himself, as it were, in his office, where Dade, Blake and the old post +surgeon had sat with him in solemn conclave while Bill Hay brought his +clerk, bar-keeper, store-keeper, Pete, the general utility man, and even +"Crapaud," the halfbreed, to swear in succession they had no idea who +could have tampered with either the safe or the stables. Closely had +they been cross-examined; and, going away in turn, they told of the +nature of the cross-examination; yet to no one of their number had been +made known what had occurred to cause such close questioning. Hay had +been forbidden to speak of it, even to his household. The +officers-of-the-day were sworn to secrecy. Neither Wilkins nor the +acting adjutant was closeted with the council, and neither, therefore, +could do more than guess at the facts. Yet that somebody knew, in part +at least, the trend of suspicion, was at once apparent to Webb and his +councilors when, about nine o'clock, he took Blake and Dade to see those +significant "bar shoe" hoof prints. Every one of them had disappeared.</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" said Webb, "I know <i>now</i> I should have set a sentry with +orders to let no man walk or ride about here. See! He's used his foot to +smear this—and this—and here again!"</p> + +<p>There in a dozen places were signs old Indian trailers read as they +would read an open book. Places where, pivoting on the heel, a heavy +foot had crushed right and left into the yielding soil of the roadway, +making concentric, circular grooves and ridges of sandy earth, where, +earlier in the morning Dan's and Harney's dainty hoof prints were the +only new impressions. For nearly fifty yards had this obliterating +process been carried on, and in a dozen spots, until the road dipped +over the rounding edge and, hard and firm now, went winding down to the +flats. Here Webb, with Dade and Hay, returned, while Blake meandered on, +musing over what he had been told. "It's a government heel, not a +cowboy's," had Hay said, hopefully, of the print of that pivoting lump +of leather.</p> + +<p>"That gives no clue to the wearer," answered Blake. "Our men often sell +their new boots, or give their old ones, to these hangers-on about the +post. So far as I'm concerned, the care with which the print has been +erased is proof to me that the major saw just what he said. Somebody +about Hay's place was mighty anxious to cover his tracks."</p> + +<p>But a dozen "somebodies" besides the stablemen hung there at all hours +of the day, infesting the broad veranda, the barroom and stores, +striving to barter the skin of coyote, skunk or beaver, or, when they +had nothing to sell, pleading for an unearned drink. Half a dozen of +these furtive, beetle-browed, swarthy sons of the prairie lounged there +now, as the elder officers and the trader returned, while Blake went on +his way, exploring. With downcast eyes he followed the road to and +across a sandy watercourse in the low ground, and there, in two or three +places found the fresh imprint of that same bar shoe, just as described +by Webb. Then with long, swift strides he came stalking up the hill +again, passing the watchful eyes about the corral without a stop, and +only checking speed as he neared the homestead of the Hays, where, once +again, he became engrossed in studying the road and the hard pathways at +the side. Something that he saw, or fancied that he saw, perhaps a dozen +yards from the trader's gate, induced him to stop, scrutinize, turn, +and, with searching eyes, to cross diagonally the road in the direction +of the stables, then again to retrace his steps and return to the +eastward side. Just as he concluded his search, and once more went +briskly on his way, a blithe voice hailed him from an upper window, and +the radiant face and gleaming white teeth of Nanette Flower appeared +between the opening blinds. One might have said he expected both the +sight and question.</p> + +<p>"Lost anything, Captain Blake?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing but—a little time, Miss Flower," was the prompt reply as, +without a pause, the tall captain, raising his forage-cap, pushed +swiftly on. "But I've found something," muttered he to himself, between +his set teeth, and within five minutes more was again closeted with the +post commander.</p> + +<p>"You saw it?" asked Webb.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Three or four places—down in the arroyo. More than that—Where's +Hay?" he broke off suddenly, for voices were sounding in the adjoining +room.</p> + +<p>"Here, with Dade and the doctor."</p> + +<p>"Then—" But Blake got no further. Breathless and eager, little Sandy +Ray came bounding through the hallway into the presence of the officers. +He could hardly gasp his news:</p> + +<p>"Major, you told me to keep watch and let you know. There's a courier +coming—hard! Mother saw him—too, through the—spyglass. She says +they—see him, too at Stabber's—and she's afraid——"</p> + +<p>"Right!" cried Webb. "Quick, Blake; rush out half a dozen men to meet +him. Those devils may indeed cut him off. Thank you, my little man," he +added, bending down and patting the dark curly head, as Blake went +bounding away. "Thank you, Sandy. I'll come at once to the bluff. We'll +save him. Never you fear."</p> + +<p>In less than no time, one might say, all Fort Frayne seemed hurrying to +the northward bluff. The sight of tall Captain Blake bounding like a +greyhound toward his troop barracks, and shouting for his first +sergeant,—of Major Webb almost running across the parade toward the +flagstaff,—of Sandy rushing back to his post at the telescope,—of the +adjutant and officer of the day tearing away toward the stables, where +many of the men were now at work, were signs that told unerringly of +something stirring, probably across the Platte. As luck would have it, +in anticipation of orders to move, the troop horses had not been sent +out to graze, and were still in the sunshiny corrals, and long before +the news was fully voiced through officers' row, Blake and six of his +men were in saddle and darting away for the ford, carbines advanced the +instant they struck the opposite bank.</p> + +<p>From the bluff Webb had shouted his instructions. "We could see him a +moment ago," for half a dozen field glasses were already brought to +bear, "six miles out,—far east of the road. Feel well out to your left +to head off any of Stabber's people. Three of them have been seen +galloping out already."</p> + +<p>"Aye, aye, sir," came the answering shout, as Blake whirled and tore +away after his men. There had been a time in his distant past when the +navy, not the army, was his ambition, and he still retained some of the +ways of the sea. Just as Webb feared, some few of Stabber's young +warriors had been left behind, and their eagle-eyed lookout had sighted +the far-distant courier almost as soon as Sandy's famous telescope. Now +they were hastening to head him off.</p> + +<p>But he seemed to have totally vanished. Level as appeared the northward +prairie from the commanding height on which stood the throng of eager +watchers, it was in reality a low, rolling surface like some lazily +heaving sea that had become suddenly solidified. Long, broad, shallow +dips or basins lay between broad, wide, far-extending, yet slight, +upheavals. Through the shallows turned and twisted dozens of dry +arroyos, all gradually trending toward the Platte,—the drainage system +of the frontier. Five miles out began the ascent to the taller divides +and ridges that gradually, and with many an intervening dip, rose to the +watershed between the Platte and the score of tiny tributaries that +united to form the South Cheyenne. It was over Moccasin, or Ten Mile, +Ridge, as it was often called, and close to the now abandoned stage +road, Ray's daring little command had disappeared from view toward eight +o'clock. It was at least two, possibly three, miles east of the +stage-road that the solitary courier had first been sighted, and when +later seen by the major and certain others of the swift gathering +spectators, he was heading for Frayne, though still far east of the +highroad.</p> + +<p>And now Mrs. Ray, on the north piazza, with Webb by her side and Nannie +Blake, Mrs. Dade and Esther in close attendance, was briefly telling the +major what she had seen up stream. One glance through Sandy's glass had +told her the little fellow had not watched in vain.</p> + +<p>Then, with the ready binocular, she had turned to the Indian encampment +up the Platte, and almost instantly saw signs of commotion,—squaws and +children running about, ponies running away and Indian boys pursuing. +Then, one after another, three Indians,—warriors, presumably,—had +lashed away northward and she had sent Sandy on the run to tell the +major, even while keeping watch on this threatening three until they +shot behind a long, low ridge that stretched southward from the +foothills. Beyond doubt they were off in hopes of bagging that solitary +horseman, speeding with warning of some kind for the shelter of Fort +Frayne.</p> + +<p>By this time there must have been nearly two hundred men, women and +children lining the crest of the bluff, and speaking in low, tense +voices when they spoke at all, and straining their eyes for the next +sight of the coming courier or the swift dash of the intercepting Sioux. +Well out now, and riding at the gallop, Blake and his half dozen, widely +separating so as to cover much of the ground, were still in view, and +Dade and his officers breathed more freely. "See what a distance those +beggars of Stabber's will have to ride," said the veteran captain to the +little group about him. "They dare not cross that ridge short of three +miles out. It's my belief they'll see Blake and never cross at all."</p> + +<p>Then up rose a sudden shout. "There he is!" "There he comes!" "See!" +"See!" and fifty hands pointed eagerly northeastward where a little +black dot had suddenly popped into view out of some friendly, winding +watercourse, four miles still away, at least count, and far to the right +and front of Blake's easternmost trooper. Every glass was instantly +brought to bear upon the swiftly coming rider, Sandy's shrill young +voice ringing out from the upper window. "It isn't one of papa's men. +His horse is a gray!" Who then could it be? and what could it mean, this +coming of a strange courier from a direction so far to the east of the +travelled road? Another moment and up rose another shout. +"Look!"—"There they are!" "Sioux for certain!" And from behind a little +knob or knoll on the meridian ridge three other black dots had swept +into view and were shooting eastward down the gradual slope. Another +moment and they were swallowed up behind still another low divide, but +in that moment they had seen and been seen by the westernmost of Blake's +men, and now, one after another as the signals swept from the left, the +seven swerved. Their line of direction had been west of north. Now, +riding like mad, they veered to the northeast, and a grand race was on +between the hidden three and the would-be rescuers;—all heading for +that part of the low-rolling prairie where the lone courier might next +be expected to come into view;—friends and foes alike, unconscious of +the fact that, following one of those crooked arroyos with its stiff and +precipitous banks, he had been turned from his true course full three +quarters of a mile, and now, with a longer run, but a clear field ahead, +was steering straight for Frayne.</p> + +<p>Thus the interest of the on-lookers at the bluff became divided. Women +with straining eyes gazed at the lonely courier, and then fearfully +scanned the ridge line between him and the northward sky; praying with +white lips for his safety; dreading with sinking hearts that at any +moment those savage riders should come darting over the divide and +swooping down upon their helpless prey. Men, with eyes that snapped and +fists that clinched, or fingers that seemed twitching with mad desire to +clasp pistol butt or sabre hilt, or loud barking carbine, ran in sheer +nervous frenzy up and down the bluffs, staring only at Blake's +far-distant riders, swinging their hats and waving them on, praying only +for another sight of the Sioux in front of the envied seven, and craving +with all their soldier hearts to share in the fight almost sure to +follow. On the Rays' piazza, with pallid face and quivering lips, Esther +Dade clung to her mother's side. Mrs. Ray had encircled with her arm the +slender waist of Nannie Blake, whose eyes never for an instant quit +their gaze after the swift-speeding dots across the distant prairie. All +her world was there in one tall, vehement horseman. Other troopers, +mounting at the stables, had spurred away under Captain Gregg, and were +splashing through the ford. Other denizens of Fort Frayne, hearing of +the excitement, came hurrying to the bluff, hangers-on from the trader's +store and corral, the shopman himself, even the bar-keeper in his white +jacket and apron; two or three panting, low-muttering halfbreeds, their +eyes aflame, their teeth gleaming in their excitement; then Hay himself, +and with him,—her dark face almost livid, her hair disordered and lips +rigid and almost purple, with deep lines at the corners of her +mouth,—Nanette Flower. Who that saw could ever forget her as she forced +her way through the crowd and stood at the very brink, saying never a +word, but swiftly focussing her ready glasses? Hardly had she reached +the spot when wild, sudden, exultant, a cheer burst fiercely from the +lips of the throng. "Look!" "Look!" "By God, they've got 'em!" yelled +man after man, in mad excitement. Three black dots had suddenly swept +into view, well to the right of Blake's men, and came whirling down +grade straight for the lone courier on the gray. Theirs had been the +short side, ours the long diagonal of the race. Theirs was the race, +perhaps, but not the prize, for he had turned up far from the expected +point. Still they had him, if only,—if only those infernal troopers +failed to see them. There was their hope! Plainly in view of the high +bluff at the fort, they were yet hidden by a wave of the prairie from +sight of the interceptors, still heading for the ridge the warriors had +just left behind. Only for a second or two, however. A yell of fierce +rejoicing went up from the crowd on the bluff as the easternmost of +Blake's black specks was seen suddenly to check, then to launch out +again, no longer to the north, but straight to his right, followed +almost immediately by every one of the seven. Then, too, swerved the +would-be slayers, in long, graceful circles, away from the wrath to +come. And, while the unconscious courier still rode, steadily loping +toward the desired refuge, away for the breaks and ravines of the +Sleeping Bear lashed the thwarted Sioux,—away in hopeless stern chase +spurred the pursuers, and while women sobbed and laughed and screamed, +and men danced and shouted and swore with delight, one dark face, livid, +fearsome, turned back from the bluff, and Dr. Tracy, hastening to the +side of his enchantress, caught, in amaze, these words, almost hissed +between set and grinding teeth.</p> + +<p>"Seven to three—Shame!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER VIII</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">MORE STRANGE DISCOVERIES</a></h3> + + +<p>But Frayne was far from done with excitement for the day. For a while +all eyes seemed centred on the chase, now scattered miles toward the +east, and, save for two of the number left behind, blown, spent and +hopelessly out of the race, soon lost to view among the distant swales +and ravines. Then everyone turned to welcome the coming harbinger, to +congratulate him on his escape, to demand the reason for his daring +essay. Gregg and his men were first to reach him, and while one of them +was seen through the levelled glasses to dismount and give the courier +his fresh horse, thereby showing that the gray was well nigh exhausted, +the whole party turned slowly toward the post. Then one of their number +suddenly darted forth from the group and came spurring at top speed +straight for the ford.</p> + +<p>"That means news of importance," said Webb, at the instant. "And Gregg +and all of his squad are coming in,—not following Blake. That means he +and they are more needed elsewhere. Come on, Mr. Ross. We'll go down and +meet that fellow. Orderly, have my horse sent to the ford." So, followed +by three or four of the younger officers,—the married men being +restrained, as a rule, by protesting voices, close at hand,—the +commanding officer went slipping and sliding down a narrow, winding +pathway, a mere goat track, many of the soldiers following at respectful +distance, while all the rest of the gathered throng remained at the +crest, eagerly, almost breathlessly awaiting the result. They saw the +trooper come speeding in across the flats from the northeast; saw as he +reached the "bench" that he was spurring hard; heard, even at the +distance, the swift batter of hoofs upon the resounding sod; could +almost hear the fierce panting of the racing steed; saw horse and rider +come plunging down the bank and into the stream, and shoving breast deep +through the foaming waters; then issue, dripping, on the hither shore, +where, turning loose his horse, the soldier leaped from saddle and +saluted his commander. But only those about the major heard the stirring +message:</p> + +<p>"Captain Gregg's compliments, sir. It's Rudge from the Dry Fork. +Sergeant Kelly feared that Kennedy hadn't got through, for most of Lame +Wolf's people pulled away from the Fork yesterday morning, coming this +way, and the sergeant thought it was to unite with Stabber to surround +any small command that might be sent ahead from here. Rudge was ordered +to make a wide sweep to the east, so as to get around them, and that's +what took him so long. He left not two hours after Kennedy."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/003.jpg" alt="The soldier leaped from his saddle" /> +<a name="SOLDIER" id="SOLDIER"></a><br /> +"<span class="smcap">The soldier leaped from his saddle.</span>" +</div> + +<p>In spite of his years of frontier service and training in self control, +Webb felt, and others saw, that his face was paling. Ray, with only +fifty men at his back, was now out of sight—out of reach—of the post, +and probably face to face with, if not already surrounded by, the +combined forces of the Sioux. Not a second did he hesitate. Among the +swarm that had followed him was a young trumpeter of "K" Troop, reckless +of the fact that he should be at barracks, packing his kit. As luck +would have it, there at his back hung the brazen clarion, held by its +yellow braid and cord. "Boots and Saddles, Kerry, Quick!" ordered the +major, and as the ringing notes re-echoed from bluff and building wall +and came laughing back from the distant crags at the south, the little +throng at the bank and the crowd at the point of the bluff had scattered +like startled coveys,—the men full run for the barracks and stables, +never stopping to "reason why."</p> + +<p>Nearly half an hour later, gray-haired Captain Dade stood at the point +of bluff near the flagstaff, Esther, pale and tearful, by his side, +waving adieu and Godspeed to Webb, who had halted in saddle on reaching +the opposite bank and was watching his little column through the +ford,—three stanch troops, each about sixty strong, reinforced by half +a dozen of Ray's men left behind in the forward rush at dawn, but +scorning disqualification of any kind now that danger menaced their +beloved captain and their comrades of the sorrel troop. In all the +regiment no man was loved by the rank and file as was Billy Ray. +Brilliant soldiers, gifted officers, sterling men were many of his +comrades, but ever since he first joined the ——th on the heels of the +civil war, more than any one of its commissioned list, Ray had been +identified with every stirring scout and campaign, fight or incident in +the regimental history. Truscott, Blake, Hunter and Gregg among the +junior captains had all had their tours of detached duty—instructing at +West Point, recruiting in the big Eastern cities, serving as +aide-de-camp to some general officer, but of Ray it could be said he had +hardly been east of the Missouri from the day he joined until his +wedding day, and only rarely and briefly since that time. More than any +officer had he been prominent in scout after scout—Arizona, Mexico, +Texas, the Indian Territory, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, the +Dakotas, Montana, even parts of Idaho and Utah he knew as he used to +know the roads and runways of the blue grass region of his native state. +From the British line to the Gulfs of Mexico and California he had +studied the West. The regiment was his home, his intense pride, and its +men had been his comrades and brothers. The veterans trusted and swore +by, the younger troopers looked up to and well nigh worshipped him, and +now, as the story that the Sioux had probably surrounded the sorrel +troop went like wild fire through the garrison, even the sick in +hospital begged to be allowed to go, and one poor lad, frantic through +fever and enforced confinement, broke from the hold of the half-hearted +attendant; tore over to "K" Troop barracks, demanding his "kit" of +Sergeant Schreiber, and, finding the quarters deserted, the men all gone +to stables, dared to burst into that magnate's own room in search of his +arms and clothing, and thereby roused a heavily sleeping soldier, who +damned him savagely until, through wild raving, he gathered that some +grave danger menaced Captain Ray. Even his befuddled senses could +fathom that! And while guards and nurses bore the patient, shrieking and +struggling, back to hospital, Kennedy soused his hot head in the cooling +waters of their frontier lavatory and was off like a shot to the +stables.</p> + +<p>It was long before he found his horse, for the guard had taken Kilmaine +to "F" Troop's stables, and Kennedy had been housed by "K." It was +longer still before he could persuade the guard that he "had a right," +as he put it, to ride after the major. Not until Captain Dade had been +consulted would they let him go. Not, indeed, until in person Kennedy +had pleaded his cause with that cool-headed commander. Dade noted the +flushed and swollen face, but reasoned that nothing would more speedily +shake the whiskey from his system than a long gallop in that glorious +air and sunshine. "Major Webb is following the trail of Captain Ray," +said he. "You follow the major's. You can't miss him, and there are no +more Indians now to interpose. You should catch him by noon—then give +him this."</p> + +<p>"This" was a copy of a late despatch just in from Laramie, saying that +the revolt had reached the Sioux at the agencies and reservations on the +White Earth, and would demand the attention of every man at the post. No +reinforcement, therefore, could be looked for from that quarter until +the general came. It was no surprise to Dade. It could be none to Webb, +for old Red Cloud had ever been an enemy, even when bribed and petted +and fed and coddled in his village on the Wakpa Schicha. His nephew led +the bolt afield. No wonder the old war chief backed him with abundant +food, ammunition and eager warriors sent "from home."</p> + +<p>But it was after eleven when Kennedy drove his still wearied horse +through the Platte and, far to the north, saw the dun dust cloud that +told where Webb's little column was trotting hard to the support of the +sorrels. His head was aching and he missed the morning draught of +soldier coffee. He had eaten nothing since his cold lunch at the +major's, and would have been wise had he gone to Mistress McGann and +begged a cup of the fragrant Java with which she had stimulated her +docile master ere he rode forth, but the one idea uppermost in Kennedy's +muddled brain was that the sorrels were trapped by the Sioux and every +trooper was needed to save them. At three in the morning he felt equal +to fighting the whole Sioux nation, with all its dozen tribes and +dialects. At 3:30 he had been whipped to a stand by just one of their +number, and, "Mother av Moses," one that spoke English as well, or as +ill, as any man in the ——th.</p> + +<p>Sore in soul and body was Kennedy, and sore and stiff was his gallant +bay, Kilmaine, when these comrades of over three years' service shook +the spray of the Platte from their legs and started doggedly northward +on the trail. Northward they went for full three miles, Kilmaine sulky +and protesting. The dust cloud was only partially visible now, hidden by +the ridge a few miles ahead, when, over that very ridge, probably four +miles away to the right front, Kennedy saw coming at speed a single +rider, and reined to the northeast to meet him. Blake and his men had +gone far in that direction. Two of their number, with horses too slow +for a chase after nimble ponies, had, as we have seen, drifted back, and +joined, unprepared though they were for the field, the rear of Webb's +column. But now came another, not aiming for Webb, but heading for +Frayne. It meant news from the chase that might be important. It would +take him but little from the direct line to the north, why not meet him +and hear? Kennedy reined to the right, riding slowly now and seeking the +higher level from which he could command the better view.</p> + +<p>At last they neared each other, the little Irish veteran, sore-headed +and in evil mood, and a big, wild-eyed, scare-faced trooper new to the +frontier, spurring homeward with panic in every feature, but rejoicing +at sight of a comrade soldier.</p> + +<p>"Git back; git back!" he began to shout, as soon as he got within +hailing distance. "There's a million Indians just over the ridge. +They've got the captain——"</p> + +<p>"What captain?" yelled Kennedy, all ablaze at the instant. "Spake up, ye +shiverin' loon!"</p> + +<p>"Blake! He got way ahead of us——"</p> + +<p>"Then it's to him you should be runnin', not home, ye cur! Turn about +now! Turn about or I'll——" And in a fury Pat had seized the other's +rein, and, spurring savagely at Kilmaine,—both horses instantly waking, +as though responsive to the wrath and fervor of their little master,—he +fairly whirled the big trooper around and, despite fearsome protests, +bore him onward toward the ridge, swift questioning as they rode. How +came they to send a raw rookie on such a quest? Why, the rookie gasped +in explanation that he was on stable guard, and the captain took the +first six men in sight. How happened it that the captain got so far +ahead of him? There was no keepin' up with the captain. He was on his +big, raw-boned race horse, chasin' three Indians that was firin' and had +hit Meisner, but there was still three of the troop to follow him, and +the captain ordered "come ahead," until all of a sudden, as they filed +round a little knoll, the three Indians they'd been chasin' turned about +and let 'em have it, and down went another horse, and Corporal Feeney +was killed sure, and he, the poor young rookie, saw Indians in every +direction, "comin' straight at 'em," and what else could he do but +gallop for home—and help? All this, told with much gasping on his part, +and heard with much blasphemy by Kennedy, brought the strangely assorted +pair at swift gallop over the springy turf back along the line of that +panicky, yet most natural retreat. Twice would the big fellow have +broken away and again spurred for home, but the little game cock held +him savagely to his work and so, together, at last they neared the +curtaining ridge. "Now, damn you!" howled Kennedy, "whip out your +carbine and play you're a man till we see what's in front! an' if ye +play false, the first shot from this barker," with a slap at the butt of +his Springfield, "goes through your heart."</p> + +<p>And this was what they saw as, together, they rounded the hillock and +came in view of the low ground beyond.</p> + +<p>Half way down the long, gradual slope, in a shallow little dip, possibly +an old buffalo wallow, two or three horses were sprawled, and a tiny +tongue of flame and blue smoke spitting from over the broad, brown backs +told that someone, at least, was on the alert and defensive. Out on the +prairie, three hundred yards beyond, a spotted Indian pony, heels up, +was rolling on the turf, evidently sorely wounded. Behind this rolling +parapet crouched a feathered warrior, and farther still away, sweeping +and circling on their mettlesome steeds, three more savage braves were +darting at speed. Already they had sighted the coming reinforcements, +and while two seemed frantically signalling toward the northwest, the +third whirled his horse and sped madly away in that direction.</p> + +<p>"Millions, be damned!" yelled Kennedy. "There's only three. Come on, ye +scut!" And down they went, full tilt at the Sioux, yet heading to cover +and reach the beleaguered party in the hollow. Someone of the besieged +waved a hat on high. Two more carbines barked their defiance at the +feathered foe, and then came a pretty exhibit of savage daring and +devotion. Disdainful of the coming troopers and of the swift fire now +blazing at them from the pit, the two mounted warriors lashed their +ponies to mad gallop and bore down straight for their imperilled +brother, crouching behind the stricken "pinto." Never swerving, never +halting, hardly checking speed, but bending low over and behind their +chargers' necks, the two young braves swept onward and with wild whoop +of triumph, challenge and hatred, gathered up and slung behind the rider +of the heavier pony the agile and bedizened form on the turf; then +circled away, defiant, taunting, gleeful, yes and even more:—With +raging eyes, Kennedy sprang from saddle and, kneeling, drove shot after +shot at the scurrying pair. Two of the three troopers at the hollow +followed suit. Even the big, blubbering lad so lately crazed with fear +unslung his weapon and fired thrice into empty space, and a shout of +wrath and renewed challenge to "come back and fight it out" rang out +after the Sioux, for to the amaze of the lately besieged, to the +impotent fury of the Irishman, in unmistakable, yet mostly unquotable, +English, the crippled warrior was yelling mingled threat and +imprecation.</p> + +<p>"Who was it, Kennedy?—and where did you ever see him before?" a moment +later, demanded Captain Blake, almost before he could grasp the +Irishman's hands and shower his thanks, and even while stanching the +flow of blood from a furrow along his sun-burnt cheek. "What's that he +said about eating your heart?"</p> + +<p>And Kennedy, his head cleared now through the rapture of battle, minded +him of his promise to Field, and lied like a hero. "Sure, how should I +know him, sorr? They're all of the same spit."</p> + +<p>"But, he called you by name. I heard him plainly. So did Meisner, here," +protested Blake. "Hello, what have you there, corporal?" he added, as +young Feeney, the "surely killed," came running back, bearing in his +hand a gaily ornamented pouch of buckskin, with long fringes and heavy +crusting of brilliant beads.</p> + +<p>"Picked it up by that pony yonder, sir," answered the corporal, with a +salute. "Beg pardon, sir, but will the captain take my horse? His is hit +too bad to carry him."</p> + +<p>Two, indeed, of Blake's horses were crippled, and it was high time to be +going. Mechanically he took the pouch and tied it to his waist belt. +"Thank God no <i>man</i> is hurt!" he said. "But—now back to Frayne! Watch +those ridges and be ready if a feather shows, and spread out a +little—Don't ride in a bunch."</p> + +<p>But there was bigger game miles to the west, demanding all the attention +of the gathered Sioux. There were none to spare to send so far, and +though three warriors,—one of them raging and clamoring for further +attempt despite his wounds,—hovered about the retiring party, Blake and +his fellows within another hour were in sight of the sheltering walls of +Frayne; and, after a last, long-range swapping of shots, with Blake and +Meisner footing it most of the way, led their crippled mounts in safety +toward that Rubicon of the West—the swift flowing Platte. They were +still three miles out when Blake found leisure to examine the contents +of that beaded pouch, and the first thing drawn from its depths was +about the last a Christian would think to find in the wallet of a +Sioux—a dainty little billet, scented with wood violet,—an envelope of +delicate texture, containing a missive on paper to match, and the +envelope was addressed in a strange, angular, characteristic hand that +Blake recognized at once, to a man of whom, by that name at least, he +had never heard before:</p> + +<p class="smcap center">"Mr. Ralph Moreau,</p> +<p class="t"><i>En Ville.</i>"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER IX</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">BAD NEWS FROM THE FRONT</a></h3> + + +<p>It might well be imagined that a man returning from such a morning's +work as had been Blake's could be excused from duty the rest of the day. +He and his little party had had a spirited running fight of several +hours with an evasive and most exasperating trio of warriors, better +mounted for swift work than were the troopers. He had managed eventually +to bring down one of the Indians who lingered a little too long within +short range of the carbines, but it was the pony, not the rider, that +they killed. Meanwhile other Indians had appeared on distant divides, +and one feathered brave had galloped down to meet his comrades, and fire +a few shots at the pursuing pale faces. But at no time, until near their +supports and far from the fort, had the Sioux halted for a hand to hand +fight, and Blake's long experience on the frontier had stood him in good +stead. He saw they were playing for one of two results;—either to lure +him and his fellows in the heat of pursuit far round to the northwest, +where were the united hundreds of Lame Wolf and Stabber stalking that +bigger game, or else to tempt Blake himself so far ahead of his fellows +as to enable them to suddenly whirl about, cut him off, and, three on +one, finish him then and there; then speed away in frenzied delight, +possessors of a long-coveted scalp.</p> + +<p>They well knew Blake,—almost as well as they did Ray. Many a year he +had fought them through the summer and fed them through the winter. +They, their squaws and pappooses, had fattened on his bounty when the +snows were deep and deer were gone, and their abundant rations had been +feasted or gambled away. Many of their number liked him well, but now +they were at the war game again, and, business is business with the +aborigines. Blake was a "big chief," and he who could wear at his belt +the scalp of so prominent a pale face leader would be envied among his +people. "Long Legs," as they called him, however, was no fool. Brave and +zealous as he was, Blake was not rash. He well knew that unless he and +his few men kept together they would simply play into the hands of the +Indians. It would have been easy for him, with his big racer, to +outstrip his little party and close with the Sioux. Only one of the +troopers had a horse that could keep pace with Pyramus, but nothing he +could gain by such a proceeding would warrant the desperate risk. +Matchless as we have reason to believe our men, we cannot so believe our +mounts. Unmatched would better describe them. Meisner's horse might have +run with the captain's, until crippled by the bullets of the Sioux, but +Bent's and Flannigan's were heavy and slow, and so it resulted that the +pursuit, though determined, was not so dangerous to the enemy but that +they were able to keenly enjoy it, until the swift coming of Kennedy +and his captive comrade turned the odds against them, for then two of +Blake's horses had given out through wounds and weakness, and they had +the pursuers indeed "in a hole."</p> + +<p>That relief came none too soon. Blake and his fellows had been brought +to a stand; but now the Sioux sped away out of range; the crippled party +limped slowly back to the shelter of Frayne, reaching the post long +hours after their spirited start, only to find the women and children, +at least, in an agony of dread and excitement, and even Dade and his +devoted men looking grave and disturbed. Unless all indications failed, +Ray and his people must have been having the fight of their lives. Two +couriers had galloped back from Moccasin Ridge to say that Major Webb's +scouts could faintly hear the sound of rapid firing far ahead, and that, +through the glass, at least a dozen dead horses or ponies could be seen +scattered over the long slope to the Elk Tooth range, miles further on. +Webb had pushed forward to Ray's support, and Blake, calling for fresh +horses for himself and two of his men, bade the latter get food and +field kits and be ready to follow him. Then he hastened to join his +devoted young wife, waiting with Mrs. Ray upon the piazza. Dade, who had +met him at the ford, had still much to tell and even more to hear; but +at sight of those two pale, anxious faces, lifted his cap and called out +cheerily, "I hand him over to you, Mrs. Blake, and will see him later," +then turned and went to his own doorway, and took Esther's slender form +in his strong arms and kissed the white brow and strove to think of +something reassuring to say, and never thought to ask Blake what he had +in that fine Indian tobacco pouch swinging there at his belt, for which +neglect the tall captain was more than grateful. It was a woman's +letter, as we know, and that, he argued, should be dealt with only in a +woman's way.</p> + +<p>Sorely puzzled as Blake had been by the discovery, he had been able on +the long homeward march,—walking until in sight of Frayne and safety, +then galloping ahead on the corporal's horse,—to think it out, as he +said, in several ways. Miss Flower had frequently ridden up the valley +and visited the Indian village across the Platte. Miss Flower might +easily have dropped that note, and some squaw, picking it up, had +surrendered it to the first red man who demanded it, such being the +domestic discipline of the savage. The Indian kept it, as he would any +other treasure trove for which he had no use, in hopes of reward for its +return, said Blake. It was queer, of course, that the Indian in whose +pouch it was found should have been so fluent a speaker of English, yet +many a Sioux knew enough of our tongue to swear volubly and talk ten +words of vengeance to come. There were several ways, as Blake reasoned, +by which that letter might have got into the hands of the enemy. But at +any rate, with everything said, it was a woman's letter. He had no right +to read it. He would first confide in his wife, and, if she said so, in +Mrs. Ray. Then what they decided should decide him.</p> + +<p>But now came a new problem. Despite the long morning of peril and chase +and excitement, there was still much more ahead. His men were in saddle; +his troop was afield; the foe was in force on the road to the north; the +battle, mayhap, was on at the very moment, and Frayne and home was no +place for him when duty called at the distant front. Only, there was +Nan, silent, tremulous, to be sure, and with such a world of piteous +dread and pleading in her beautiful eyes. It was hard to have to tell +her he must go again and at once, hard to have to bid her help him in +his hurried preparations, when she longed to throw herself in his arms +and be comforted. He tried to smile as he entered the gate, and thereby +cracked the brittle, sun-dried court plaster with which a sergeant had +patched his cheek at the stables. The would-be glad-some grin started +the blood again, and it trickled down and splashed on his breast where +poor Nan longed to pillow her bonny head, and the sight of it, despite +her years of frontier training, made her sick and faint. He caught her +in his left arm, laughing gayly, and drew her to the other side. "Got +the mate to that scoop of Billy's," he cried, holding forth his other +hand to Mrs. Ray. "'Tisn't so deep, perhaps, but 'twill serve, 'twill +do, and I'll crow over him to-night. Come in with us, Mrs. Ray. I—I've +something to show you."</p> + +<p>"One minute," said that wise young matron. "Let me tell the children +where to find me. Sandy and Billy are on post at the telescope. They +wouldn't leave it even for luncheon." With that she vanished, and +husband and wife were alone.</p> + +<p>"You must go, Gerald," she sobbed—"I know it, but—isn't there <i>some</i> +way?—Won't Captain Dade send more men with you?"</p> + +<p>"If he did, Nan, they'd only hamper me with horses that drag behind. Be +brave, little woman. Webb has swept the way clear by this time! Come, I +need your help."</p> + +<p>And the door closed on the soldier and his young wife. They never saw +that Nanette Flower, in saddle, was riding swiftly up the row, and, for +the first time since her coming to Frayne, without an escort. Dade +reappeared upon his front gallery in time to greet her, but Esther, +after one quick glance, had darted again within. Dade saw unerringly +that Miss Flower was in no placid frame of mind. Her cheeks were pale; +her mouth had that livid look that robbed her face of all beauty; but +her eyes were full and flashing with excitement.</p> + +<p>"What news, captain?" she hailed, and the joyous, silvery ring had gone +from her voice. "They tell me Captain Blake is back—two horses +crippled, two men hit, including himself."</p> + +<p>"His own share is a scratch he wouldn't think of mentioning outside the +family, Miss Flower," answered Dade, with grim civility. He had his +reasons for disapproving of the young woman; yet they were not such as +warranted him in showing her the least discourtesy. He walked to his +gate and met her at the curb beyond and stood stroking the arching neck +of her spirited horse—"Harney" again.</p> + +<p>"Did they—were there any Indians—killed?" she asked, with anxiety +scarcely veiled.</p> + +<p>"Oh, they downed one of them," answered the captain, eying her closely +the while and speaking with much precision, "a fellow who cursed them +freely in fluent English." Yes, she was surely turning paler.—"A bold, +bad customer, from all accounts. Blake thought he must be of Lame Wolf's +fellows, because he—seemed to know Kennedy so well and to hate him. +Kennedy has only just come down from Fort Beecher, where Wolf's people +have been at mischief."</p> + +<p>"But what became of him? What did they do with him?" interrupted the +girl, her lips quivering in spite of herself.</p> + +<p>"Oh,—left him, I suppose," answered the veteran, with deliberate +design. "What else could they do? There was no time for ceremony. His +fellow savages, you know, can attend to that."</p> + +<p>For a moment she sat there rigid, her black eyes staring straight into +the imperturbable face of the old soldier. No one had ever accused Dade +of cruelty or unkindness to man or woman, especially to woman; yet here +he stood before this suffering girl and, with obvious intent, pictured +to her mind's eye a warrior stricken and left unburied or uncared for on +the field. Whatever his reasons, he stabbed and meant to stab, and for +just one moment she seemed almost to droop and reel in saddle; then, +with splendid rally, straightened up again, her eyes flashing, her lip +curling in scorn, and with one brief, emphatic phrase ended the +interview and, whirling Harney about, smote him sharply with her whip, +and darted away:—</p> + +<p>"True!" said she. "Civilized warfare!"</p> + +<p>"If that girl isn't more than half savage," said Dade, to himself, as +Harney tore away out of the garrison on the road to the ford, "I am more +than half Sioux. Oh, for news of Ray!"</p> + +<p>Ray indeed! It was now nearly four o'clock. Telegrams had been coming +and going over the Laramie wire. "The Chief," as they called their +general, with only one of his staff in attendance, had reached Cheyenne +on time, and, quitting the train, declining dinner at the hotel and +having but a word or two with the "Platform Club,"—the little bevy of +officers from Fort Russell whose custom it was to see the westbound +train through almost every day—had started straightway for Laramie +behind the swiftest team owned by the quartermaster's department, while +another, in relay, awaited him at the Chugwater nearly fifty miles out. +Driving steadily through the starlit night, he should reach the old +frontier fort by dawn at the latest, and what news would Dade have to +send him there? Not a word had he uttered to either the officers who +respectfully greeted, or reporters who eagerly importuned, him as to the +situation at Frayne; but men who had served with him in Arizona and on +the Yellowstone many a year before, knew well that grave tidings had +reached him. Dade had, in fact, supplemented Webb's parting despatch +with another saying that Blake's little party, returning, had just been +sighted through the telescope nine miles out, with two men afoot. But +not until the general reached Lodge Pole Creek did the message meet him, +saying that Webb's advance guard could hear the distant attack on Ray. +Not until he reached the Chugwater in the early night could he hope to +hear the result.</p> + +<p>It was nightfall when the awful suspense of the garrison at Frayne was +even measurably lifted. Blake, with three troopers at his back, had then +been gone an hour, and was lost in the gloaming before Dr. Tracy's +orderly, with a face that plainly told the nervous tension of his two +hours' ride, left his reeking, heaving horse at the stables and climbed +the steep path to the flagstaff, the shortest way to the quarters of the +commanding officer. Despite the gathering darkness, he had been seen by +a dozen eager watchers and was deluged with questions by trembling, +tearful women and by grave, anxious men.</p> + +<p>"There's been a fight; that's all I know," he said. "I was with the pack +mules and the ambulances and didn't get to see it. All I saw was dead +ponies way out beyond Ten Mile Ridge. Where's the major?—I mean the +captain?" No! the orderly didn't know who was killed or wounded, or that +anybody was killed and wounded. All he knew was that Dr. Tracy came +galloping back and ordered the ambulances to scoot for the front and him +to spur every bit of the way back to Frayne with the note for Captain +Dade.</p> + +<p>All this was told as he eagerly pushed his way along the board walk; +soldiers' wives hanging on his words and almost on him; officers' wives +and daughters calling from the galleries or running to the gates, and +Dade heard the hubbub almost as quickly as did Esther, who hurried to +the door. By the light of the hall lamp the commander read the pencilled +superscription of the gummed envelope and the word "Immediate" at the +corner. The same light fell on a dozen anxious, pleading faces beyond +the steps. His hand shook in spite of himself, and he knew he could not +open and read it in their presence. "One moment," he said, his heart +going out to them in sympathy as well as dread. "You shall hear in one +moment," and turned aside into the little army parlor.</p> + +<p>But he could not turn from his wife and child. They followed and stood +studying his pale face as he read the fateful words that told so little, +yet so much:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Reached Ray just in time. Sharp affair. Dr. Waller will have to +come at once, as Tracy goes on with us to rescue stage people at +Dry Fork. Better send infantry escort and all hospital attendants +that can be possibly spared; also chaplain. Sergeants Burroughs and +Wing, Corporal Foot and Troopers Denny, Flood, Kerrigan and +Preusser killed. Many wounded—Lieutenant Field seriously.</p></div> + +<p class="smcap r">Webb.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER X</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">"I'LL NEVER GO BACK"</a></h3> + + +<p>A sharp affair indeed was that of this September day!—a fight long +talked of on the frontier if soon forgotten in "the States." Obedient to +his orders to push to the relief of the imperilled party on the Dry +Fork, Ray had made good time to Moccasin Ridge, even though saving +horses and men for the test of the later hours. Well he knew his march +would be watched by some of Stabber's band, but little did he dream at +starting that Indian strategy would take the unusual form of dropping +what promised to be a sure thing, leaving the people at the stage +station to the guardianship of less than a dozen braves, and launching +out with a big band to aid a little one in attack on one lone detachment +that might not come at all. But Lame Wolf reasoned that the people +penned at the stage station were in no condition to attempt escape. They +were safe whenever he chose to return to them, and Lame Wolf knew this +of Stabber—that he had long been a hanger-on about the military +reservations, that he had made a study of the methods of the white +chiefs, that he was able to almost accurately predict what their course +would be in such event as this, and that Stabber had recently received +accessions whose boast it was that they had information at first hand of +the white chief's plans and intentions. Stabber had sent swift runners +to Lame Wolf urging him to bring his warriors to aid him in surrounding +the first troops sent forth from Frayne. Stabber had noted, year after +year, that it was the almost invariable policy of our leaders to order a +small force at the start, and then, when that was crushed, to follow it +with the big one that should have been sent in the first place. +Kennedy's successful coming was known to Stabber quite as soon as it was +to Webb. It may well be that Stabber let him through, feeling confident +what the result would be, and then, despite a certain jealousy, not +confined entirely to savage rival leaders, Lame Wolf had confidence in +Stabber's judgment. Ray had expected long range flank fire, and possibly +occasional resistance in front; but, assured of Stabber's paucity in +numbers and believing Lame Wolf too busy to send Stabber substantial +aid, he thought a sharp lesson or two would clear his front of such +Indians as sought to check him, and so rode serenely forward, rejoicing +in his mission and in his game and devoted little command.</p> + +<p>"Something beyond that second ridge," he had said to Field, in sending +him forward with the bulk of the platoon, and Field, who had been silent +and brooding, woke at the summons and, all animation at the scent of +danger, spurred swiftly ahead to join the advance and see for himself +what manner of hindrance awaited them, leaving the baker's dozen of his +platoon to trot steadily on under lead of its sergeant, while Ray, with +his trumpeter, followed mid way between his advance and Clayton's +platoon, intact, moving quietly at the walk and held in reserve.</p> + +<p>Ordinarily Ray would himself have ridden to the far front and personally +investigated the conditions, but he was anxious that Field should +understand he held the full confidence of his temporary commander. He +wished Field to realize that now he had opportunity for honorable +distinction, and a chance to show what was in him and, having sent him +forward, Ray meant to rely on his reports and be ready to back, if +possible, his dispositions. Nothing so quickly demolishes prejudice in +garrison as prowess in the field. Not infrequently has an officer gone +forth under a cloud and returned under a crown. It is so much easier to +be a hero in a single fight than a model soldier through an entire +season—at least it was so in the old days.</p> + +<p>But the moment Mr. Field dismounted and, leaving his horse with the +others along the slope, had gone crouching to the crest, he levelled his +glasses for one look, then turned excitedly and began rapid signals to +his followers. Presently a young trooper came charging down, making +straight for Ray. "The lieutenant's compliments," said he, "but there's +a dozen Sioux in sight, and he wishes to know shall he charge."</p> + +<p>A dozen Sioux in sight! That was unusual. Ordinarily the Indian keeps in +hiding, lurking behind sheltering crests and ridges in the open country, +or the trees and underbrush where such cover is possible. A dozen in +sight?</p> + +<p>"How far ahead, Murray?" asked the captain, as he shook free his rein +and started forward at the gallop. "Did you see them yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Most of 'em were bunched by the roadside, jabbing with their +lances at something or other. Two or three were closer in. They must ha' +been watching us, for they only quit the ridge just before we came up. +Then they skedaddled." The vernacular of the civil war days, long since +forgotten except about the few Veteran Soldiers' Homes in the East, was +still in use at times in regiments like the ——th, which had served the +four years through with the Army of the Potomac. Old sergeants give the +tone to younger soldiers in all the customs of the service. The captain +and the two men now with him had caught up with Field's swift trotting +support by this time, and the eyes of the men kindled instantly at sight +of their leader speeding easily by, cool, confident and as thoroughly at +home as though it were the most ordinary skirmish drill. Those who have +never tried it, do not quite realize what it means to ride in closed +ranks and compact column, silent and unswerving, straight forward over +open fields toward some equally silent crest, that gives no sign of +hostile occupancy, and yet may suddenly blaze with vengeful fires and +spit its hissing lead into the faces of the advancing force. Even here +where the ridge was already gained by two or three of the advance, +proving, therefore, that the enemy could not be in possession, men saw +by the excitement manifest in the signals of the lieutenant, and indeed +of Sergeant Scott, who had spent fifteen years in the ranks, that +Indians must be close at hand. The crest was barely five hundred yards +in front of the section, and they were still "bunched," a splendid mark +if the foe saw fit by sudden dash to regain the ridge and pour in rapid +fire from their magazine rifles. Every ward of the nation, as a rule, +had his Winchester or Henry,—about a six to one advantage to the red +men over the sworn soldier of the government in a short range fight. The +lieutenant was a brave lad and all that, and could be relied on to "do +his share in a shindy," as the sergeant put it, but when it came to +handling the troop to the best advantage, giving them full swing when +they met the foe on even terms and a fair field, but holding them clear +of possible ambuscade, then "Captain Billy is the boss in the business," +was the estimate of his men, and every heart beat higher at sight of +him. He would know just what to do for them, and knowing, would do it.</p> + +<p>Even as he went loping by Ray had half turned, with something like a +smile in his dark eyes and a nod of his curly head to the sergeant +commanding, and a gesture of the gauntleted hand,—a horizontal sweep to +right and left, twice repeated,—had given the veteran his cue, and with +another moment Winsor had the dozen in line at open, yet narrow, +intervals, with carbines advanced and ready for business. They saw their +captain ride swiftly up the gentle slope until close to the crest, then +off he sprang, tossed his reins to the trumpeter and went hurrying +afoot to join the lieutenant. They saw him kneeling as though to level +his glasses and look fixedly forward; saw Field run back to his horse +and mount in a twinkling; saw him whirl about as though coming to place +himself at their head, yet rein in at once—his charger's fore feet +ploughing the turf at some word from their leader. Field was eager to +charge, but Ray had seen for himself and for his men, and Ray said, no. +Another moment and all at the front were again in saddle—Field back +with the advance, Ray coolly seated astride his pet sorrel,—scouting a +second ridge, far to the north, with his glasses, and sending, as +before, Scott and his three troopers straight on to the front, and +signalling to the flankers to continue the move. Ten seconds' study of +the position in the long, wide, shallow depression before him had +fathomed the scheme of the savage. The little knot of Indians, +jabbering, yelping, prodding and circling about some unseen object on +the turf, feigning ignorance of the soldiers' coming, was at the +old-time trick to get the foremost troopers to charge and chase, to draw +them on in all the dash and excitement of the moment, far ahead—three +miles, perhaps—of the main body, and so enable all the lurking band +behind that second curtain, the farther ridge, to come swooping down to +surround, overwhelm and butcher the luckless few, then be off to safe +distance long before the mass of the troop could possibly reach the +scene.</p> + +<p>"No you don't, Stabber!" laughed Ray, as Field, not a little chagrined, +and the dozen at his back, came trotting within hearing distance. "That +dodge was bald-headed when I was a baby. Look, Field," he continued. +"They were jabbing at nothing there on the prairie. That was a fake +captive they were stabbing to death. See them all scooting away now. +They'll rally beyond that next ridge, and we'll do a little fooling of +our own."</p> + +<p>And so, with occasional peep at feathered warriors on the far left +flank, and frequent hoverings of small parties on the distant front, +Ray's nervy half hundred pushed steadily on. Two experiments had +satisfied the Sioux that the captain himself was in command and they had +long since recognized the sorrels. They knew of old Ray was not to be +caught by time-worn tricks. They had failed to pick off the advance, or +the officers, as the troop approached the second ridge. Lame Wolf's big +band was coming fast, but only a dozen of his warriors, sent lashing +forward, had as yet reached Stabber. The latter was too weak in numbers +to think of fighting on even terms, and as Ray seemed determined to come +ahead, why not let him? Word was sent to Wolf not to risk showing south +of the Elk Tooth spur. There in the breaks and ravines would be a famous +place to lie in ambush, leaving to Stabber the duty of drawing the +soldiers into the net. So there in the breaks they waited while Ray's +long skirmish line easily manœuvred the red sharp-shooters out of their +lair on the middle divide. Then, reforming column, the little command +bore straight away for the Elk.</p> + +<p>But all these diversions took time. Twenty miles to the north of Frayne +stretched the bold divide between the Elk Fork, dry as a dead tooth much +of the year, and the sandy bottom of the Box Elder. Here and there +along the ridge were sudden, moundlike upheavals that gave it a +picturesque, castellated effect, for, unlike the general run of the +country, the Elk Tooth seemed to have a backbone of rock that shot forth +southeastward from the southern limit of the beautiful Big Horn range; +and, in two or three places, during some prehistoric convulsion of +nature, it had crushed itself out of shape and forced upward a mass of +gleaming rock that even in the course of centuries had not been +overgrown with grass. "Elk teeth" the Indians had called these odd +projections, and one of them, the middle one of the three most +prominent, was a landmark seen for many a mile except to the south and +west. Eagle Butte was the only point south of the Big Horn and in the +valley of the Platte from which it could be seen, and famous were these +two points in the old days of the frontier for the beacon fires that +burned or the mirror signals that flashed on their summits when the war +parties of the Sioux were afield.</p> + +<p>It was the sight of puffs of smoke sailing skyward from the crest of the +middle tooth that caught Ray's attention the moment he reached the +second ridge. A moment more had been devoted to recalling some of his +eager men who, from the extreme right of the swinging skirmish line, had +broken away in pursuit of certain intentional laggards. Then a dozen of +the Indians, finding themselves no longer followed, gathered at +comparatively safe distance across the prairie, and, while in eager +consultation, found time for taunting, challenging and occasionally +firing at the distant and angering troopers, whom Sergeant Scott had +sharply ordered back, and Ray, after calm survey of these fellows +through his glass, had then levelled it at the trio of buttes along the +distant ridge and turned to Field, sitting silent and disappointed by +his side.</p> + +<p>"There, Field," said the captain. "Take this glass and look at those +signal smokes—Stabber has more men now at his call than he had when he +started, and more yet are coming. They were just praying you would +charge with a handful of men. They would have let you through, then +closed around and cut you off. Do you see, boy?"</p> + +<p>Field touched his hat brim. "You know them best, sir," was the brief +answer. "What I wanted was a chance at those fellows hanging about our +front and calling us names."</p> + +<p>"You'll get it, I'm thinking, before we're an hour older. They know +whither we're bound and mean to delay us all they can. Ah, Clayton," he +added, as the junior lieutenant rode up to join them, while his platoon +dismounted to reset saddles behind the screen of the skirmish line. "Men +look full of fight, don't they? There, if anywhere, is where we'll get +it. I've just been showing Field those signal smokes. Mount and follow +when we're half way down to that clump of cottonwoods yonder. We must +reach those people at the stage station to-night, and I may have to give +these beggars a lesson first. Watch for my signal and come ahead lively +if I turn toward you and swing my hat. All ready, Field. Shove ahead."</p> + +<p>And this was the last conference between the three officers that +eventful morning. As once again the advance guard pushed cautiously +forward toward the banks of the arroyo in the bottom, Ray turned to +Field. "Skirmish work suits you better than office duty, Field. You look +far livelier than you did yesterday. Don't you begin to see that the +major was right in sending you out with us?" And the dark eyes of the +trained and experienced soldier shone kindly into the face of the +younger man.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to be with you, Captain Ray," was the prompt answer. "It +isn't—my being sent, but the <i>way</i> I was sent, or the—cause for which +I was sent that stings me. I thought then, and I think now, that if you +had been post commander it wouldn't have been done. I don't know yet +what charge has been laid at my door——"</p> + +<p>"There was no time to talk of reasons, Field," interposed Ray, though +his keen eyes were fixed on the distant ridge ahead, beyond which the +last of the Indians had now disappeared. The outermost troopers, with +Sergeant Scott, were within a few hundred yards of the little clump of +cottonwoods that marked the site of a water hole. To the right and left +of it curved and twisted the dry water course between its low, jagged, +precipitous banks. Behind the advance, full four hundred yards, rode the +skirmish line from the first platoon, a dozen strong. Far out to the +east and west the flankers moved steadily northward, keenly watching the +slopes beyond them and scanning the crooked line of the arroyo ahead. +Not a sign at the moment could be seen of the painted foe, yet every man +in the troop well knew they swarmed by dozens behind the buttes and +ridges ahead. Ray and Field, riding easily along in rear of the line, +with only the trumpeter within earshot, relaxed in no measure the +vigilance demanded by the situation, yet each was deeply concerned in +the subject of the talk.</p> + +<p>"There was no time. We had to start at once," continued Ray. "Wait until +you are back at the old desk, Field, and you'll find the major is, and +was, your stanch friend in this matter—"</p> + +<p>"I'll never go back to it, captain!" broke in Field, impetuously. "If +ordered to resume duty as adjutant, come what may, I shall refuse."</p> + +<p>But before Ray could interpose again there came sudden and stirring +interruption. From a point far down the "swale," from behind the low +bank of the stream bed, three rifle shots rang out on the crisp morning +air. The horse of the leading flanker, away out to the right, reared and +plunged violently, the rider seeming vainly to strive to check him. +Almost instantly three mounted warriors were seen tearing madly away +northeastward out of the gully, their feathers streaming in the wind. +Field spurred away to join his men. Ray whirled about in saddle, and +swung his broad-brimmed scouting hat high above his head, in signal to +Clayton; then shouted to Field. "Forward to the cottonwoods. Gallop!" he +cried. "We need them first of all!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XI</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">A FIGHT WITH A FURY</a></h3> + + +<p>The noonday sun was staring hotly down, an hour later, on a stirring +picture of frontier warfare, with that clump of cottonwoods as the +central feature. Well for Ray's half hundred, that brilliant autumn +morning, that their leader had had so many a year of Indian campaigning! +He now seemed to know by instinct every scheme of his savage foe and to +act accordingly. Ever since the command had come in sight of the Elk +Tooth the conviction had been growing on Ray that Stabber must have +received many accessions and was counting on the speedy coming of +others. The signal smokes across the wide valley; the frequent essays to +tempt his advance guard to charge and chase; the boldness with which the +Indians showed on front and flank; the daring pertinacity with which +they clung to the stream bed for the sake of a few shots at the foremost +troopers, relying, evidently, on the array of their comrades beyond the +ridge to overwhelm any force that gave close pursuit; the fact that +other Indians opened on the advance guard and the left flankers, and +that a dozen, at least, tore away out of the sandy arroyo the moment +they saw the line start at the gallop;—all these had tended to convince +the captain that, now at last, when he was miles from home and succor, +the Sioux stood ready in abundant force to give him desperate battle.</p> + +<p>To dart on in chase of the three warriors would simply result in the +scattering of his own people and their being individually cut off and +stricken down by circling swarms of their red foes. To gather his men +and attempt to force the passage of the Elk Tooth ridge meant certain +destruction of the whole command. The Sioux would be only to glad to +scurry away from their front and let them through, and then in big +circle whirl all about him, pouring in a concentric fire that would be +sure to hit some, at least, exposed as they would be on the open +prairie, while their return shots, radiating wildly at the swift-darting +warriors, would be almost as sure to miss. He would soon be weighted +down with wounded, refusing to leave them to be butchered; unable, +therefore, to move in any direction, and so compelled to keep up a +shelterless, hopeless fight until, one by one, he and his gallant +fellows fell, pierced by Indian lead, and sacrificed to the scalping +knife as were Custer's three hundred a decade before.</p> + +<p>No, Ray knew too much of frontier strategy to be so caught. There stood +the little grove of dingy green, a prairie fortress, if one knew how to +use it. There in the sand of the stream bed, by digging, were they sure +to find water for the wounded, if wounded there had to be. There by the +aid of a few hastily thrown intrenchments he could have a little plains +fort and be ready to repel even an attack in force. Horses could be +herded in the depths of the sandy shallows. Men could be distributed in +big circle through the trees and along the bank; and, with abundant +rations in their haversacks and water to be had for the digging, they +could hold out like heroes until relief should come from the south.</p> + +<p>Obviously, therefore, the cottonwood grove was the place, and thither at +thundering charge Field led the foremost line, while Ray waved on the +second, all hands cheering with glee at sight of the Sioux darting +wildly away up the northward slope. Ten men in line, far extended, were +sent right forward half way across the flats, ordered to drive the +Indians from the bottom and cripple as many as possible; but, if menaced +by superior numbers, to fall back at the gallop, keeping well away from +the front of the grove, so that the fire of its garrison might not be +"masked." The ten had darted after the scurrying warriors, full half way +to the beginning of the slope, and then, just as Ray had predicted, down +came a cloud of brilliant foemen, seeking to swallow the little ten +alive. Instantly their sergeant leader whirled them about and, pointing +the way, led them in wide circle, horses well in hand, back to the dry +wash, then down into its sandy depths. Here every trooper sprang from +saddle, and with the rein looped on the left arm, and from the shelter +of the straight, stiff banks, opened sharp fire on their pursuers, just +as Clayton's platoon, dismounting at the grove, sprang to the nearest +cover and joined in the fierce clamor of carbines. Racing down the +slope at top speed as were the Sioux, they could not all at once check +the way of their nimble mounts, and the ardor of the chase had carried +them far down to the flats before the fierce crackle began. Then it was +thrilling to watch them, veering, circling, sweeping to right or left, +ever at furious gallop, throwing their lithe, painted bodies behind +their chargers' necks, clinging with one leg and arm, barely showing so +much as an eyelid, yet yelping and screeching like so many coyotes, not +one of their number coming within four hundred yards of the slender +fighting line in the stream bed; some of them, indeed, disdaining to +stoop, riding defiantly along the front, firing wildly as they rode, yet +surely and gradually guiding their ponies back to the higher ground, +back out of harm's way; and, in five minutes from the time they had +flashed into view, coming charging over the mile away ridge, not a red +warrior was left on the low ground,—only three or four luckless ponies, +kicking in their last struggles or stiffening on the turf, while their +riders, wounded or unhurt, had been picked up and spirited away with the +marvellous skill only known to these warriors of the plains.</p> + +<p>Then Ray and his men had time to breathe and shout laughing comment and +congratulation. Not one, as yet, was hit or hurt. They were secure for +the time in a strong position, and had signally whipped off the first +assault of the Sioux.</p> + +<p>Loudly, excitedly, angrily these latter were now conferring again far +up the slope to the north. At least an hundred in one concourse, they +were having hot discussion over the untoward result of the dash. Others, +obedient to orders from the chief, were circling far out to east and +west and crossing the valley above and below the position of the +defence. Others, still, were galloping back to the ridge, where, against +the sky line, strong bodies of warriors could be plainly seen, moving +excitedly to and fro. Two little groups slowly making their way to the +crest gave no little comfort to the boys in blue. Some, at least, of the +charging force had been made to feel the bite of the cavalry weapon, and +were being borne to the rear.</p> + +<p>But no time was to be wasted. Already from far up the stream bed two or +three Indians were hazarding long-range shots at the grove, and Ray +ordered all horses into a bend of the "wash," where the side lines were +whipped from the blanket straps and the excited sorrels securely +hoppled. Then, here, there and in a score of places along the bank and +again at the edge of the cottonwoods, men had been assigned their +stations and bidden to find cover for themselves without delay. Many +burrowed in the soft and yielding soil, throwing the earth forward in +front of them. Others utilized fallen trees or branches. Some two or +three piled saddles and blanket rolls into a low barricade, and all, +while crouching about their work, watched the feathered warriors as they +steadily completed their big circle far out on the prairie. Bullets came +whistling now fast and frequently, nipping off leaves and twigs and +causing many a fellow to duck instinctively and to look about him, +ashamed of his dodge, yet sure of the fact that time had been in the +days of the most hardened veteran of the troop when he, too, knew what +it was to shrink from the whistle of hostile lead. It would be but a +moment or two, they all understood, before the foe would decide on the +next move; then every man would be needed.</p> + +<p>Meantime, having stationed Field on the north front, with orders to note +every movement of the Sioux, and having assigned Clayton to the minor +duty of watching the south front and the flanks, Ray was moving cheerily +among his men, speeding from cover to cover, suggesting here, helping +there, alert, even joyous in manner. "We couldn't have a better roost, +lads," he said. "We can stand off double their number easy. We can hold +out a week if need be, but you bet the major will be reaching out after +us before we're two days older. Don't waste your shots. Coax them close +in. Don't fire at a galloping Indian beyond three hundred yards. It's +waste of powder and lead."</p> + +<p>Cheerily, joyously they answered him, these his comrades, his soldier +children, men who had fought with him, many of their number, in a dozen +fields, and men who would stand by him, their dark-eyed little captain, +to the last. Even the youngest trooper of the fifty seemed inspired by +the easy, laughing confidence of the lighter hearts among their number, +or the grim, matter of fact pugnacity of the older campaigners. It was +significant, too, that the Indians seemed so divided in mind as to the +next move. There was loud wrangling and much disputation going on in +that savage council to the north. Stabber's braves and Lame Wolf's +followers seemed bitterly at odds, for old hands in the fast-growing +rifle pits pointed out on one side as many as half a dozen of the +former's warriors whom they recognized and knew by sight, while Ray, +studying the shifting concourse through his glasses, could easily see +Stabber himself raging among them in violent altercation with a tall, +superbly built and bedizened young brave, a sub-chief, apparently, who +for his part, seemed giving Stabber as good as he got. Lame Wolf was not +in sight at all. He might still be far from the scene, and this tall +warrior be acting as his representative. But whoever or whatever he was +he had hearty following. More than three-fourths of the wrangling +warriors in the group seemed backing him. Ray, after a few words to +Sergeant Winsor, crawled over beside his silent and absorbed young +second in command, and, bringing his glasses to bear, gazed across a low +parapet of sand long and fixedly at the turbulent throng a thousand +yards away.</p> + +<p>"It's easy to make out Stabber," he presently spoke. "One can almost +hear that foghorn voice of his. But who the mischief is that red villain +opposing him? I've seen every one of their chiefs in the last five +years. All are men of forty or more. This fellow can't be a big chief. +He looks long years younger than most of 'em, old Lame Wolf, for +instance, yet he's cheeking Stabber as if he owned the whole outfit." +Another long stare, then again—"Who the mischief can he be?"</p> + +<p>No answer at his side, and Ray, with the lenses still at his eyes, took +no note for the moment that Field remained so silent. Out at the front +the excitement increased. Out through the veil of surging warriors, the +loud-voiced, impetuous brave twice burst his way, and seemed at one and +the same time, in his superb poise and gesturings, to be urging the +entire body to join him in instant assault on the troops, and hurling +taunt and anathema on the besieged. Whoever he was, he was in a +veritable fury. As many as half of the Indians seemed utterly carried +away by his fiery words, and with much shouting and gesticulation and +brandishing of gun and lance, were yelling approbation of his views and +urging Stabber's people to join them. More furious language followed and +much dashing about of excited ponies.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever seen that fellow before?" demanded Ray, of brown-eyed +Sergeant Winsor, who had spent a lifetime on the plains, but Winsor was +plainly puzzled.</p> + +<p>"I can't say for the life of me, sir," was the answer. "I don't know him +at all—and yet—"</p> + +<p>"Whoever he is, by Jove," said Ray, "he's a bigger man this day than +Stabber, for he's winning the fight. Now, if he only leads the dash as +he does the debate, we can pick him off. Who are our best shots on this +front?" and eagerly he scanned the few faces near him. "Webber's tiptop +and good for anything under five hundred yards when he isn't excited, +and Stoltz, he's a keen, cool one. No! not you, Hogan," laughed the +commander, as a freckled faced veteran popped his head up over a nearby +parapet of sand, and grinned his desire to be included.</p> + +<p>"I've never seen the time you could hit what you aimed at. Slip out of +that hole and find Webber and tell him to come here—and you take his +burrow." Whereupon Hogan, grinning rueful acquiescence in his +commander's criticism, slid backwards into the stream bed and, followed +by the chaff of the three or four comrades near enough to catch the +words, went crouching from post to post in search of the desired +marksman.</p> + +<p>"You used to be pretty sure with the carbine in the Tonto Basin when we +were after Apaches, sergeant," continued Ray, again peering through the +glasses. "I'm mistaken in this fellow if he doesn't ride well within +range, and we must make an example of him. I want four first class shots +to single him out."</p> + +<p>"The lieutenant can beat the best I ever did, sir," said Winsor, with a +lift of the hand toward the hat brim, as though in apology, for Field, +silent throughout the brief conference, had half risen on his hands and +knees and was edging over to the left, apparently seeking to reach the +shelter of a little hummock close to the bank.</p> + +<p>"Why, surely, Field," was the quick reply, as Ray turned toward his +junior. "That will make it complete."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/004.jpg" alt="With one magnificent red arm uplifted" /> +<a name="WITH" id="WITH"></a><br /> +"<span class="smcap">With one magnificent red arm uplifted.</span>" +</div> + +<p>But a frantic burst of yells and war whoops out at the front put sudden +stop to the words. The throng of warriors that had pressed so close +about Stabber and the opposing orator seemed all in an instant to split +asunder, and with trailing war bonnet and followed by only two or three +of his braves, the former lashed his way westward and swept angrily out +of the ruck and went circling away toward the crest, while, with loud +acclamation, brandishing shield and lance and rifle in superb barbaric +tableau, the warriors lined up in front of the victorious young leader +who, sitting high in his stirrups, with one magnificent red arm +uplifted, began shouting in the sonorous tongue of the Sioux some urgent +instructions. Down from the distant crest came other braves as though to +meet and ask Stabber explanation of his strange quitting the field. Down +came a dozen others, young braves mad for battle, eager to join the +ranks of this new leader, and Ray, who had turned on Field once more, +fixed his glasses on that stalwart, nearly stark naked, brilliantly +painted form, foremost of the Indian array and now at last in full and +unimpeded view.</p> + +<p>"By the gods of war!" he cried. "I never saw that scoundrel before, but +if it isn't that renegade Red Fox—Why, here, Field! Take my glass and +look. You were with the commissioners' escort last year at the Black +Hills council. You must have seen him and heard him speak. Isn't this +Red Fox himself?"</p> + +<p>And to Ray's surprise the young officer's eyes were averted, his face +pale and troubled, and the answer was a mere mumble—"I didn't meet +Fox—there, captain."</p> + +<p>He never seemed to see the glass held out to him until Ray almost thrust +it into his hand and then persisted with his inquiry.</p> + +<p>"Look at him anyhow. You may have seen him somewhere. Isn't that Red +Fox?"</p> + +<p>And now Ray was gazing straight at Field's half hidden face. Field, the +soul of frankness hitherto, the lad who was never known to flinch from +the eyes of any man, but to answer such challenge with his own,—brave, +fearless, sometimes even defiant. Now he kept the big binocular fixed on +the distant hostile array, but his face was white, his hand unsteady and +his answer, when it came, was in a voice that Ray heard in mingled pain +and wonderment. Could it be that the lad was unnerved by the sight? In +any event, he seemed utterly unlike himself.</p> + +<p>"I—cannot say, sir. It was dark—or night at all events,—the only time +I ever heard him."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XII</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">THE ORDEAL BY FIRE</a></h3> + + +<p>That action had been resolved upon, and prompt action, was now apparent. +Stabber, fighting chief though he had been in the past, had had his +reason for opposing the plans of this new and vehement leader; but +public sentiment, stirred by vehement oratory, had overruled him, and he +had bolted the field convention in a fury. Lame Wolf, a younger chief +than Stabber, had yet more power among the Ogalallas, being Red Cloud's +favorite nephew, and among the Indians at least, his acknowledged +representative. Whenever called to account, however, for that nephew's +deeds, the wary old statesman promptly disavowed them. It was in search +of Lame Wolf, reasoned Ray, that Stabber had sped away, possibly hoping +to induce him to call off his followers. It was probably the deeper +strategy of Stabber to oppose no obstacle to Ray's advance until the +little troop was beyond the Elk Tooth ridge, where, on utterly +shelterless ground, the Indian would have every advantage. He knew Ray +of old; knew well that, left to himself, the captain would push on in +the effort to rescue the stage people and he and his command might +practically be at the mercy of the Sioux, if only the Sioux would +listen and be patient. Stabber knew that to attack the troopers now +entrenching at the cottonwoods meant a desperate fight in which the +Indians, even if ultimately triumphant, must lose many a valued brave, +and that is not the thoroughbred Indian's view of good generalship. +Stabber was old, wily and wise. The new chief, whoever he might be, +seemed possessed of a mad lust for instant battle, coupled with a +possible fear that, unless the golden moment were seized, Ray might be +reinforced and could then defy them all. Indeed there were veteran +campaigners among the troopers who noted how often the tall red chief +pointed in sweeping gesture back to Moccasin Ridge—troopers who even at +the distance caught and interpreted a few of his words. "That's it, +sir," said Winsor, confidently to Ray. "He says 'more soldiers coming,' +and—I believe he knows."</p> + +<p>At all events he had so convinced his fellows and, even before Stabber +reached the middle tooth—where sat a little knot of mounted Indians, +signalling apparently to others still some distance to the north,—with +a chorus of exultant yells, the long, gaudy, glittering line of braves +suddenly scattered and, lashing away to right and left, dozens of them +darted at top speed to join those already disposed about that big +circle, while others still, the main body, probably seventy strong, +after some barbaric show of circus evolutions about their leader, once +more reined up for some final injunctions from his lips. Then, with a +magnificent gesture of the hand, he waved them on and, accompanied by +only two young riders, rode swiftly away to a little swell of the +prairie just out of range of the carbines, and there took his station to +supervise the attack.</p> + +<p>"Damn him!" growled old Winsor. "He's no charger like Crazy Horse. He's +a Sitting Bull breed of general—like some we had in Virginia," he +added, between his set teeth, but Ray heard and grinned in silent +appreciation. "Set your sights and give 'em their first volley as they +reach that scorched line," he called to the men along the northward +front, and pointed to a stretch of prairie where the dry grass had +lately been burned away. "Five hundred yards will do it. Then aim low +when they rush closer in."</p> + +<p>"Look at the middle tooth, captain," came the sudden hail from his left. +"Mirror flashes! See!" It was Field who spoke, and life and vim had +returned to his voice and color to his face. He was pointing eagerly +toward the highest of the knobs, where, all on a sudden, dazzling little +beams of light shot forth toward the Indians in the lowlands, tipping +the war bonnet and lance of many a brave with dancing fire. Whatever +their purport, the signals seemed ignored by the Sioux, for presently +two riders came sweeping down the long slope, straight for the point +where sat Red Fox, as, for want of other name, we must for the present +call him—who, for his part, shading his eyes with his hand, sat gazing +toward the westward side of his warrior circle, evidently awaiting some +demonstration there before giving signal for action elsewhere. Obedient +to his first instructions, the main body had spread out in long, +irregular skirmish rank, their mettlesome ponies capering and dancing in +their eagerness. Chanting in chorus some shrill, weird song, the line +was now slowly, steadily advancing, still too far away to warrant the +wasting of a shot, yet unmistakably seeking to close as much as possible +before bursting in with the final charge.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/005.jpg" alt="Some few of their number borne away by their comrades" /> +<a name="SOME" id="SOME"></a><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Some few of their number borne away by their comrades.</span>" +</div> + +<p>And still the red leader sat at gaze, oblivious for the moment of +everything around him, ignoring the coming of orders possibly from Lame +Wolf himself. Suddenly the silver armlets once more gleamed on high. +Then, clapping the palm of his right hand to his mouth, Red Fox gave +voice to a ringing war whoop, fierce, savage and exultant, and, almost +at the instant, like the boom and rumble that follows some vivid +lightning flash, the prairie woke and trembled to the thunder of near a +thousand hoofs. From every point of the compass—from every side, +yelling like fiends of some orthodox hell, down they came—the wild +warriors of the frontier in furious rush upon the silent and almost +peaceful covert of this little band of brothers in the dusty garb of +blue. One, two, three hundred yards they came, centering on the leafy +clump of cottonwoods, riding at tearing gallop, erect, defiant, daring +at the start, and giving full voice to their wild war cry. Then bending +forward, then crouching low, then flattening out like hunted squirrel, +for as the foremost in the dash came thundering on within good carbine +range, all on a sudden the watch dogs of the little plains fort began to +bark. Tiny jets of flame and smoke shot from the level of the +prairie, from over dingy mounds of sand, from behind the trunks of +stunted trees, from low parapet of log or leather. Then the entire grove +seemed veiling itself in a drifting film of blue, the whole charging +circle to crown itself with a dun cloud of dust that swept eastward over +the prairie, driven by the stiff, unhampered breeze. The welkin rang +with savage yell, with answering cheer, with the sputter and crackle of +rifle and revolver, the loud bellow of Springfield, and then, still +yelping, the feathered riders veered and circled, ever at magnificent +speed, each man for himself, apparently, yet all guided and controlled +by some unseen, yet acknowledged, power; and, in five minutes, save +where some hapless pony lay quivering and kicking on the turf, the low +ground close at hand was swept clean of horse or man. The wild attack +had been made in vain. The Sioux were scampering back, convinced, but +not discomfited. Some few of their number, borne away stunned and +bleeding by comrade hands from underneath their stricken chargers,—some +three or four, perhaps, who had dared too much,—were now closing their +eyes on the last fight of their savage lives.</p> + +<p>To Ray and to many of his men it was all an old story. Stabber would +never have counselled or permitted attack on seasoned troopers, fighting +behind even improvised shelter. Something, perhaps, had occurred to +blind his younger rival to the peril of such assault, and now, as three +or four little parties were seen slowly drifting away toward the ridge, +burdened by some helpless form, other couriers came thundering down at +Red Fox, and wild excitement prevailed among the Elk Teeth. More signals +were flashing. More Indians came popping into view, their feathered +bonnets streaming in the rising wind, and about the prairie wave, where +the savage general had established field headquarters, a furious +conference was going on. Stabber had again interposed, and with grim but +hopeful eyes, Ray and his fellows watched and noted. Every lull in the +fight was so much gain for them.</p> + +<p>"Twelve fifty-two," said the dark-eyed commander, swinging his watch +into the pocket of his hunting shirt, and sliding backward into the +stream bed. "All serene so far. Watch things on this front, Field, while +I make the rounds and see how we came out."</p> + +<p>"All serene so far" it was! Not a man hurt. Two of the sorrels had been +hit by flying bullets and much amazed and stung thereat, but neither was +crippled. Bidding their guards to dig for water that might soon be +needed, Ray once more made his way to the northward side and rejoined +Field and Winsor.</p> + +<p>In an almost cloudless sky of steely blue the sun had just passed the +meridian and was streaming hotly down on the stirring picture. Northward +the ridge line and the long, gradual slope seemed alive with swarms of +Indian warriors, many of them darting about in wild commotion. About the +little eminence where Stabber and the Fox had again locked horns in +violent altercation, as many as a hundred braves had gathered. About the +middle knob, from whose summit mirror flashes shot from time to time, +was still another concourse, listening, apparently, to the admonitions +of a leader but recently arrived, a chieftain mounted on an American +horse, almost black, and Ray studied the pair long and curiously through +his glasses. "Lame Wolf, probably," said he, but the distance was too +great to enable him to be certain. What puzzled him more than anything +was the apparent division of authority, the unusual display of discord +among the Sioux. These were all, doubtless, of the Ogalalla tribe, Red +Cloud's own people, yet here were they wrangling like ward "heelers" and +wasting precious time. Whatever his antecedents this new comer had been +a powerful sower of strife and sedition, for, instead of following +implicitly the counsels of one leader, the Indians were divided now +between three.</p> + +<p>True to its practice, the prairie wind was sweeping stronger and +stronger with every moment, as the sun-warmed strata over the wide, +billowing surface sought higher levels, and the denser, cooler current +from the west came rushing down. And now all sounds of the debate were +whisked away toward the breaks of the South Shyenne,[*] and it was no +longer possible for old Sioux campaigners to catch a word of the +discussion. The leaves of the cottonwoods whistled in the rising gale, +and every time a pony crossed the stream bed and clambered the steep +banks out to the west, little clouds of dun-colored dust came sailing +toward the grove, scattered and spent, however, far from the lair of the +defence.</p> + +<p>[* Oddly enough, that method of spelling the river's name became +official.]</p> + +<p>But, while the discussion seemed endless among the Indians on the +northward side, never for a moment was the vigilance of the circle +relaxed. South, east and west the slopes and lowlands were dotted with +restless horsemen, and from young Clayton came the word that through his +glass he could make out three or four warriors far away toward the +Moccasin Ridge. "That's good," said Ray. "It means they, too, are +looking for a column coming out from Frayne. But where on earth did all +these rascals come from? There must be four hundred now in sight."</p> + +<p>Well might he ask and marvel! Stabber's little village had never more +than fifty warriors. Lame Wolf's band was counted at less than two +hundred and forty fighting men, and these, so said the agents of the +omniscient Bureau, were all the Ogalallas away from the shelter of the +reservation when the trouble started. No more should be allowed to go, +was the confident promise, yet a fortnight nearly had elapsed since the +frontier fun began. News of battle sweeps with marvellous speed through +Indian haunted lands, and here were warriors by the score, come to +strengthen the hands of kindred in the field, and, more were coming. The +mirror signals plainly told them that. Yet it was now well nigh one +o'clock and not another hostile move was made. Fox then was being held +by stronger hands. It meant that Lame Wolf had listened to reason,—and +Stabber, and would permit no fresh attack until his numbers should be so +increased that resistance would practically be vain. It meant even +more—that the Indian leader in chief command felt sure no force was +yet within helping distance of the corralled troopers. He could, +therefore, take his time.</p> + +<p>But this was a theory Ray would not whisper to his men. He knew Webb. He +knew Webb would soon read the signs from the north and be coming to his +relief, and Ray was right. Even as he reasoned there came a message from +across the grove. Lieutenant Clayton said the Indians he had seen away +to the south were racing back. "Thank God!" was the murmured answer no +man heard. "Now, lads, be ready!" was the ringing word that roused the +little troop, like bugle call "To Arms." And even as eager faces lifted +over the low parapets to scan the distant foe, fresh signals came +flashing down from the northward ridge, fresh bands of warriors came +darting to join the martial throng about the still wrangling chieftains, +and then, all on a sudden, with mighty yelling and shrill commotion, +that savage council burst asunder, and, riding at speed, a dozen braves +went lashing away to the westward side, while with fierce brandishing of +arms and shields and much curveting and prancing of excited ponies, the +wild battle lines were formed again. The Sioux were coming for the +second trial.</p> + +<p>"Meet them as before! Make every shot tell!" were the orders passed from +man to man and heard and noted amidst the whistling of the wind and the +sounds of scurry and commotion at the front. Then, silent and crouching +low, the soldiers shoved the brown barrels of their carbines forth again +and waited. And then the grim silence of the little fortress was +broken, as, with startling, sudden force there went up a shout from the +westward side:—</p> + +<p>"My God, boys, they're setting fire to the prairie!"</p> + +<p>Ray sprang to his feet and gazed. Away out to the west and southwest, +whence came the strong breeze blowing from the Sweetwater Hills, half a +dozen dark, agile forms, bending low, were scudding afoot over the +sward, and everywhere they moved there sprang up in their tracks little +sheets of lambent flame, little clouds of bluish, blinding smoke, and +almost in less time than it takes to tell it, a low wall of fire, +started in a dozen places, reaching far across the low ground, fencing +the valley from stream bed to the southward slopes, crowned by its +swift-sailing crest of hot, stifling fume, came lapping and seething and +sweeping across the level, licking up the dry buffalo grass like so much +tow, mounting higher and fiercer with every second, and bearing down +upon the little grove and its almost helpless defenders in fearful +force, in resistless fury—a charge no bullet could stop, an enemy no +human valor could hope to daunt or down.</p> + +<p>"Quick, men!" yelled Ray. "Out with you, you on the west front! Stay you +here, you others! Watch the Sioux! They'll be on us in an instant!" And +away he sped from the shelter of the bank, out from the thick of the +cottonwoods, out to the open prairie, straight toward the coming torrent +of flame still, thank God, full seven hundred yards away, but leaping +toward them with awful strides. Out with him rushed Field, and out from +Clayton's front sped half a dozen old hands, every man fumbling for his +match box; out until they had reached a line with their captain, already +sprawled upon the turf, and there, full an hundred yards from the grove, +they spread in rude skirmish line and, reckless of the mad chorus of +yells that came sweeping down the wind, reckless of the clamor of the +coming charge, reckless of the whistling lead that almost instantly +began nipping and biting the turf about them, here, there and +everywhere, they, too, had started little fires; they, too had run their +line of flame across the windward front; they, too, had launched a wall +of flame sailing toward the grove, and then, back through blinding smoke +they ran for their saddle blankets, just as the sharp sputter of shots +burst forth on the northward side, and the Sioux, with magnificent dash, +came thundering within range.</p> + +<p>Then followed a thrilling battle for life—two red enemies now enrolled +against the blue. "Fight fire with fire" is the old rule of the prairie. +Ray had promptly met the on-coming sweep of the torrent by starting a +smaller blaze that should at least clear the surface close at hand, and, +by eating off the fuel, stop, possibly, the progress of the greater +flame.</p> + +<p>But the minor blaze had also to be stopped lest it come snapping and +devouring within the grove. It is no easy matter to check a prairie fire +against a prairie gale when every human aid is summoned. It is desperate +work to try to check one when to the fires of nature are added the +furious blaze of hostile arms, every rifle sighted by savage, vengeful +foe. "Check it, lads, ten yards out!" shouted Ray, to his gallant +fellows, now lost in the smoke, while he again rushed across the front +to meet the charging Sioux. With his brave young face all grime, Field +was already at work, guiding, urging, aiding his little band. "Both +hands! Both hands!" he cried, as, wielding his folded blanket, he smote +the fringe of flame. "Stamp it out! Great God! Wing, are you hit?"</p> + +<p>For answer the sergeant by his side went plunging down, face foremost, +and little Trooper Denny, rushing to aid his young officer in the effort +to raise the stricken man, as suddenly loosed his hold and, together +again, these two sworn comrades of many a campaign lay side by side, as +they had lain in camp and bivouac all over the wide frontier, and poor +Denny could only gasp a loyal word of warning to his officer. "Get back, +sir; for God's sake, get back!" ere the life blood came gushing from his +mouth. Bending low, Field grabbed the faithful fellow in his strong arms +and, calling to the nearmost men to look to Wing, bore his helpless +burden back through stifling smoke clouds; laid him on the turf at the +foot of a cottonwood, then ran again to the perilous work of fighting +the flame, stumbling midway over another prostrate form. "Both hands! +Both hands!" he yelled as again his blanket whirled in air; and so, by +dint of desperate work, the inner line of flame at last was stayed, but +every man of the gallant little squad of fire fighters had paid the +penalty of his devotion and felt the sting of hissing lead—Field the +last of all. Westward now, well nigh an hundred yards in width, a broad, +black, smoking patch stretched across the pathway of the swift-coming +wall of smoke and flame, a safeguard to the beleaguered command worth +all the soldier sacrifice it cost. In grand and furious sweep, the +scourge of the prairie sent its destroying line across the wide level to +the south of the sheltering grove, but in the blood and sweat of heroic +men the threatening flames of the windward side had sputtered out. The +little garrison was safe from one, at least, of its dread and merciless +foes, though five of its best and bravest lay dead or dying, and others +still sore stricken, in the midst of the smoking grove.</p> + +<p>"Field, old boy," said Ray, with brimming eyes, as he knelt and clasped +the hand of the bleeding lad, while the Sioux fell back in wrath and +dismay from the low-aimed, vengeful fire of the fighting line. "This +means the Medal of Honor for you, if word of mine can fetch it!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XIII</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">WOUNDED—BODY AND SOUL</a></h3> + + +<p>To say the Sioux were furious at the failure of their second attempt +would be putting it far too mildly. The fierce charge from the northward +side, made under cover of the blinding smoke sent drifting by the gale +across the level flats, had been pushed so close to the grove that two +red braves and half a dozen ponies had met their death within sixty +paces of the rifle pits. There lay the bodies now, and the Indians dare +not attempt to reach them. The dread, wind-driven flame of the prairie +fire, planned by the Sioux to burn out the defence, to serve as their +ally, had been turned to their grave detriment.</p> + +<p>Ray and his devoted men had stopped the sweep of so much of the +conflagration as threatened their little stronghold, but, ranging +unhampered elsewhere, the seething wall rolled on toward the east, +spreading gradually toward its flanks, and so, not only consuming vast +acres of bunch grass, but checking the attack that should have been made +from the entire southern half of the Indian circle. Later, leaping the +sandy stream bed a little to the west of the cottonwoods, it spread in +wild career over a huge tract along the left bank, and now, reuniting +with the southern wing some distance down the valley, was roaring away +to the bluffs of the Mini Pusa, leaving death and desolation in its +track. Miles to the east the war parties from the reservation, riding to +join Lame Wolf, sighted the black curtain of smoke, swift sailing over +the prairie, and changed their course accordingly. Not so many miles +away to the south Webb's skirmishers, driving before them three or four +Sioux scouts from the northward slope of the Moccasin Ridge, set spurs +to their horses and took the gallop, the main body following on.</p> + +<p>With their eyelids blistered by heat and smoke, Ray's silent, determined +little band could see nothing of the coming force, yet knew relief was +nigh; for, close at hand, both east and west, large bodies of the enemy +could be seen swift riding away to the north.</p> + +<p>They had hoped, as "Fox" had planned and promised, to burn out and +overwhelm the little troop at the grove before the column from Frayne +could possibly reach the spot. They had even anticipated the probable +effort of the command to check the flames, and had told off some fifty +braves to open concentric fire on any party that should rush into the +open with that object in view. They had thought to send in such a storm +of lead, even from long range, that it should daunt and drive back those +who had dared the attempt. They had stormed indeed, but could neither +daunt nor drive back. Ray's men had braved death itself in the desperate +essay, and, even in dying, had won the day.</p> + +<p>But their losses had been cruel. Three killed outright; three dying and +eight more or less severely wounded had reduced their fighting strength +to nearly thirty. The guards of the sorrels, herded in the stream bed, +had all they could do to control the poor, frightened creatures, many of +them hit, several of them felled, by the plunging fire from the far +hillsides. Even though driven back, the Sioux never meant to give up the +battle. On every side, leaving their ponies at safe distance, by dozens +the warriors crawled forward, snake-like, to the edge of the burned and +blackened surface, and from there poured in a rapid and most harassing +fire, compelling the defence to lie flat or burrow further, and wounding +many horses. The half hour that followed the repulse of their grand +assault had been sorely trying to the troop, for the wounded needed aid, +more men were hit, and there was no chance whatever to hit back. Moving +from point to point, Ray carried cheer and courage on every side, yet +was so constantly exposed as to cause his men fresh anxiety. Even as he +was bending over Field a bullet had nipped the right shoulderstrap, and +later another had torn through the crown of his campaign hat. In all the +years of their frontier fighting they had never known a hotter fire; but +Ray's voice rang out through the drifting vapor with the same old cheer +and confidence. "They can't charge again till the ground cools off," he +cried. "By that time they'll have their hands full. See how they're +scudding away at the southward even now. Just keep covered and you're +all right." And, barring a growl or two from favored old hands who +sought to make the captain take his own medicine and himself keep +covered, the answer was full of cheer.</p> + +<p>And so they waited through the hot smoke and sunshine of the autumn +afternoon, and, even while comforting the wounded with assurance of +coming relief, kept vigilant watch on every hostile move, and at last, +toward three o'clock, the sharp fire about them slackened away, the +smouldering roots of the bunch grass had burned themselves out. The +smoke drifted away from the prairie, and, as the landscape cleared to +the south and west, a cheer of delight went up from the cottonwoods, for +the slopes three miles away were dotted here and there and everywhere +with circling, scurrying war ponies—they and their wild riders steadily +falling back before a long rank of disciplined horsemen, the extended +skirmish line of Webb's squadron, backed by supports at regular +intervals, and all heading straight on for the broad lowlands of the +Elk.</p> + +<p>"Send six of your men over to the south front, sergeant," were Ray's +orders to Winsor, as he hurried over to join Clayton again. "They may +try one final charge from that side, and give us a chance to empty a few +more saddles." Creeping and crouching through the timber the chosen men +obeyed, and were assigned to stations under Clayton's eye. The +precaution was wise indeed, for, just as the captain foresaw, a rally in +force began far out over the southward slopes, the Indians gathering in +great numbers about some chieftain midway between the coming force and +the still beleaguered defenders of the grove. Then, brandishing lance +and shield and rifle, as before, they began spreading out across the +prairie, heading now for the cottonwoods, while others still faced and +fired on the far blue skirmish line. The fierce wind, sweeping across +the direction of the attack, deadened all sound of hoof or war chant, +but there was no mistaking the signs, no doubt of the intent, when, in a +little moment more, the earth began to tremble beneath the dancing pony +feet, telling, almost with the swiftness of sight, that the grand +advance had again begun. But other eyes were watching too. Other +soldiers, keen campaigners as these at the Elk, were there afield, and +almost at the moment the wild barbaric horde burst yelling into their +eager gallop, and before the dust cloud hid the distant slopes beyond, +the exultant shout went up from the captain's lips, as he threw down his +glass and grabbed his carbine. "It's all right, men! The major's coming +at their heels. Now let 'em have it!"</p> + +<p>In former days there had been scenes of wild rejoicing, sometimes of +deep emotion, when relief came to some Indian-besieged detachment of the +old regiment. Once, far to the south in the wild, romantic park country +of Colorado, a strong detachment had been corralled for days by an +overwhelming force of Utes. Their commander,—a dozen of their best +men,—all the horses killed and many troopers sorely wounded. They had +been rescued at last by their skilled and gallant colonel, after a long +and most scientific march by both night and day. Another time, still +farther in their past, and yet within a dozen years, away down the broad +valley of the very stream of which this little Elk was a tributary, the +Cheyennes had hemmed in and sorely hammered two depleted troops that +owed their ultimate rescue to the daring of the very officer who so +coolly, confidently headed the defence this day—to a night ride through +the Indian lines that nearly cost him his brave young life, but that +brought Captain Truscott with a fresh and powerful troop sweeping in to +their succor with the dawn. Then there had been men who strained other +men to their hearts and who shed tears like women, for gallant comrades +had bitten the dust in the desperate fighting of the day before, and +hope itself had almost gone—with the ammunition of the beleaguered +command.</p> + +<p>Now, with heavier losses than had befallen Wayne in '76, Ray's command +beheld with almost tranquil hearts the coming of the fierce array in +final charge. Behind them, not two miles, to be sure, rode in swift, +well-ordered pursuit the long line of comrade troopers. But there had +been intervening years of campaign experiences that dulled to a degree +the earlier enthusiasms of the soldier, and taught at least the +assumption of professional composure that was the secret wonder of the +suckling trooper, and that became his chief ambition to acquire. It is +one thing to charge home at a hard-fighting command when friends and +comrades back the effort and cheer the charging line. It is another to +charge home conscious that other chargers are coming at one's heels. +Magnificent as a spectacle, therefore, this closing dash of Lame Wolf's +warriors was but a meek reminder of their earlier attack. Long before +they came within four hundred yards of the leafy stronghold,—the +moment, indeed, the brown Springfields began their spiteful bark,—to +right and left the warriors veered, far out on either flank. Screeching +and yelling as was their savage way, they tore madly by, flattened out +against their ponies' necks and, those who could use their arms at all, +pumping wild shots that whistled harmless over the heads of the +defenders and bit the blackened prairie many a rod beyond. Only jeers +rewarded the stirring spectacle,—jeers and a few low-aimed, sputtering +volleys that brought other luckless ponies to their knees and sprawled a +few red riders. But in less than five minutes from the warning cry that +hailed their coming, Lame Wolf and his hosts were lining Elk Tooth ridge +and watching with burning hate and vengeful eyes the swift, steady +advance of Webb's long blue fighting line, and the utter unconcern of +the defence. Even before the relieving squadron was within carbine range +certain of Ray's men had scrambled out upon the northward bank and, +pushing forward upon the prairie, were possessing themselves of the arms +and ornaments of the two dead warriors whom the Sioux had strived in +vain to reach and bear within their lines. Ray and Clayton at the moment +were strolling placidly forth upon the southward "bench" to receive and +welcome the little knot of comrades sent galloping in advance to greet +them. There was perhaps just a suspicion of exaggerated nonchalance +about their gait and bearing—a regimental weakness, possibly—and no +other officer save Lieutenant Field happened to be within earshot when +Winsor's voice on the other front was heard in hoarse command:</p> + +<p>"Come back there, you fellows! Back or you're goners!"</p> + +<p>The sight had proved too much for some of the Sioux. Down again at +furious speed came a scattered cloud of young braves, following the lead +of the tall, magnificent chief who had been the hero of the earlier +attack,—down into the low ground, never swerving or checking pace, +straight for the grove, the three or four inquisitive blue-coats in the +meantime scurrying for shelter; and the yell that went up at sight of +the Indian dash and the quick reopening of the sputtering fire brought +Ray, running once again to the northward edge of the timber, wondering +what could be amiss. Field was lying on his blanket, just under the +bank, as the captain darted by, and grinned his gratification as he +heard the brief, assuring words: "Webb's here—all hands with him." An +instant later a bullet whizzed through the roots of the old cottonwood +above his head, and from far out afield, deadened by the rush of the +wind, a dull crackle of shots told that something had recalled the Sioux +to the attack, and for three minutes there was a lively fusillade all +along the northward side. Then it slowly died away, and other voices, +close at hand,—someone speaking his name,—called the lad's attention. +He was weak from loss of blood, and just a little dazed and flighty. He +had meant three hours agone that when next he encountered his post +commander his manner should plainly show that senior that even a second +lieutenant had rights a major was bound to respect. But, only mistily +now, he saw bending over him the keen, soldierly features,—the kind, +winsome gray eyes, filled with such a world of concern and +sympathy,—and heard the deep, earnest tones of the voice he knew so +well, calling again his name and mingling cordial praise and anxious +inquiry, and all the rancor seemed to float away with the smoke of the +last carbine shots. He could only faintly return the pressure of that +firm, muscular hand, only feebly smile his thanks and reassurance, and +then he, too, seemed floating away somewhere into space, and he could +not manage to connect what Webb had been saying with the next words that +fastened on his truant senses. It must have been hours later, too, for +darkness had settled on the valley. A little fire was burning under the +shelter of the bank. A little group of soldiers were chatting in low +tone, close at hand. Among them, his arm in a sling, stood a stocky +little chap whose face, seen in the flickering light, was familiar to +him. So was the eager brogue in which that little chap was speaking. A +steward was remonstrating, and only vaguely at first, Field grasped the +meaning of his words:—</p> + +<p>"The captain said you were not to try to follow, Kennedy, at least not +until Dr. Waller saw you. Wait till he gets here. He can't be three +miles back now."</p> + +<p>"To hell wid ye!" was the vehement answer. "D'ye think I'd be +maundherin' here wid the whole command gone on afther thim bloody Sioux. +I've made my mark on wan o' thim, an' he's the buck I'm afther."</p> + +<p>"He's made his mark on <i>you</i>, Kennedy," broke in a soldier voice. "You +mad fool, trying to tackle a chief like that—even if he was hit, for he +had his whole gang behind him."</p> + +<p>"Sure he dared me out, an'—what's this he called me? a d——d whiskey +thafe!—me that niver——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, shut up, Kennedy," laughed a brother Irishman. "You were full as a +goat at 'K' Troop's stables—Where'd ye get the whiskey if——"</p> + +<p>"I'll lay you, Lanigan, when I get two hands agin, though I misdoubt wan +would do it. It's me horse I want now and lave to go on wid the capt'n. +Ready now, sir," he added, with sudden change of tone and manner, for a +tall, slender form came striding into the fire light, and Field knew +Blake at the instant, and would have called but for the first word from +the captain's lips.</p> + +<p>"<i>Your</i> heart's safe, Kennedy. I wish your head was. Your past master in +blasphemy out there won't eat it, at all events."</p> + +<p>"Did ye get him, sorr,—afther all?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> didn't. His English spoiled my aim. 'Twas Winsor shot him. Now, +you're to stay here, you and Kilmaine. The doctor may bring despatches, +and you follow us with the first to come." An orderly had led forth a +saddled horse, and Blake's foot was already in the stirrup. "They say +it was Red Fox himself, Kennedy," he added. "Where on earth did you meet +him before?"</p> + +<p>"Shure, <i>I</i> niver knew him, sorr," was the quick reply, as Blake's long, +lean leg swung over the big charger's back and the rider settled in +saddle.</p> + +<p>"But he knew <i>you</i> perfectly well. He dared you by name, when we closed +on them—you and Mr. Field."</p> + +<p>And when an hour later the veteran surgeon came and knelt by the side of +the young officer reported seriously wounded, and took his hand and felt +his pulse, there was something in the situation that seemed to call for +immediate action. "We'll get you back to Frayne to-morrow, Field," said +Waller, with kind intent. "Don't—worry now."</p> + +<p>"Don't do that, doctor," feebly, surprisingly moaned the fevered lad. +"Don't take me back to Frayne!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XIV</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">A VANISHED HEROINE</a></h3> + + +<p>Within forty-eight hours of the coming of Trooper Kennedy with his +"rush" despatches to Fort Frayne, the actors in our little drama had +become widely separated. Webb and his sturdy squadron, including Ray and +such of his troop as still had mounts and no serious wounds, were +marching straight on for the Dry Fork of the Powder. They were two +hundred fighting men; and, although the Sioux had now three times that +many, they had learned too much of the shooting powers of these seasoned +troopers, and deemed it wise to avoid close contact. The Indian fights +well, man for man, when fairly cornered, but at other times he is no +true sportsman. He asks for odds of ten to one, as when he wiped out +Custer on the "Greasy Grass," or Fetteman at Fort Phil Kearny,—as when +he tackled the Gray Fox,—General Crook—on the Rosebud, and Sibley's +little party among the pines of the Big Horn. Ray's plucky followers had +shot viciously and emptied far too many saddles for Indian equanimity. +It might be well in any event to let Webb's squadron through and wait +for further accessions from the agencies at the southeast, or the big, +turbulent bands of Uncapapas and Minneconjous at Standing Rock, or the +Cheyennes along the Yellowstone.</p> + +<p>So back went Lame Wolf and his braves, bearing Stabber with them, +flitting northward again toward the glorious country beyond the +"Chakadee," and on went Webb, with Blake, Gregg, Ray and their juniors, +with Tracy to take care of such as might be wounded on the way; and, +later still, the old post surgeon reached the Elk with guards and +hospital attendants, and on the morrow row began his homeward march with +the dead and wounded,—a sad and solemn little procession. Only twenty +miles he had to go, but it took long hours, so few were the ambulances, +so rough the crossings of the ravines; and, not until near nightfall was +the last of the wounded,—Lieutenant Field,—borne in the arms of +pitying soldiers into the old post hospital, too far gone with fever, +exhaustion and some strong mental excitement to know or care that his +strange plea had been, perforce, disregarded;—to know or care later +that the general himself, the commander they loved and trusted, was +bending over him at dawn the following day. Ordering forward all +available troops from the line of the railway, "the Chief" had stopped +at Laramie only long enough for brief conference with the post +commander; then, bidding him come on with all his cavalry, had pushed +ahead for Frayne. It couldn't be a long campaign, perhaps, with winter +close at hand, but it would be a lively one. Of that the chief felt well +assured.</p> + +<p>Now, there was something uncanny about this outbreak on the part of the +Sioux, and the general was puzzled. Up to September the Indians had been +busy with the annual hunt. They were fat, well-fed, prosperous,—had got +from the government pretty much everything that they could ask with any +show of reason and, so they said, had been promised more. The rows +between the limited few of their young men and some bullies among the +"rustlers" had been no more frequent nor serious than on previous +summers, when matters had been settled without resort to arms; but this +year the very devil seemed to have got into the situation. Something, or +probably somebody, said the general, had been stirring the Indians up, +exciting—exhorting possibly, and almost the first thing the general did +as he climbed stiffly out of his stout Concord wagon, in the paling +starlight of the early morning, was to turn to Dade, now commanding the +post, and to say he should like, as soon as possible, to see Bill Hay. +Meantime he wished to go in and look at the wounded.</p> + +<p>It was not yet five o'clock, but Dr. Waller was up and devoting himself +to the needs of his patients, and Dade had coffee ready for the general +and his single aide-de-camp, but not a sip would the general take until +he had seen the stricken troopers. He knew Field by reputation, well and +favorably. He had intimately known Field's father in the old days, in +the old army, when they served together on the then wild Pacific shores +"where rolls the Oregon." The great civil war had divided them, for +Field had cast his soldier fortune with his seceding State, but all that +was a thing of the past. Here was the son, a loyal soldier of the flag +the father had again sworn allegiance to when he took his seat in the +House of Representatives. The general thought highly of Field, and was +sore troubled at his serious condition. He knew what despatches would be +coming from the far South when the telegraph line began the busy +clicking of the morning. He was troubled to find the lad in high fever +and to hear that he had been out of his head. He was more than troubled +at the concern, and something like confusion, in the old doctor's face.</p> + +<p>"You don't think him dangerously wounded, do you?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Not dangerously, general," was the reply. "It's—well, he seems to have +something on his mind." And more than this the doctor would not say. It +was not for him to tell the chief what Webb had confided ere he left the +post—that most of the currency for which Field was accountable was so +much waste paper. Field lay muttering and tossing in restless misery, +unconscious most of the time, and sleeping only when under the influence +of a strong narcotic. Dade, with sadness and constraint apparent in his +manner, hung back and did not enter the bare hospital room where, with +only a steward in attendance, the young soldier lay. The doctor had gone +with the general to the bedside, but the captain remained out of earshot +at the door.</p> + +<p>First call for reveillé was just sounding on the infantry bugles as the +trio came forth. "I have sent for Hay already, general," Dade was +saying, as they stood on the wooden veranda overlooking the valley of +the murmuring river; "but will you not come now and have coffee? He can +join us over at my quarters."</p> + +<p>Already, however, the orderly was hurrying back. They met him when not +half way over to the line of officers' quarters. The few men for duty in +the two companies of infantry, left to guard the post, were gathering in +little groups in front of their barracks, awaiting the sounding of the +assembly. They knew the chief at a glance, and were curiously watching +him as he went thoughtfully pacing across the parade by the side of the +temporary commander. They saw the orderly coming almost at a run from +the direction of the guard-house, saw him halt and salute, evidently +making some report, but they could not guess what made him so suddenly +start and run at speed toward the southward bluff, the direction of the +trader's corral and stables, while Captain Dade whirled about and +signalled Sergeant Crabb, of the cavalry, left behind in charge of the +few custodians of the troop barracks. Crabb, too, threw dignity to the +winds, and ran at the beck of his superior officer.</p> + +<p>"Have you two men who can ride hard a dozen miles or so—and carry out +their orders?" was the captain's sharp demand.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, sir," answered Crabb, professionally resentful that such +question should be asked of men of the ——th Cavalry.</p> + +<p>"Send two to report to me at once, mounted. Never mind breakfast."</p> + +<p>And by this time, apparently, the chief, the post commander and possibly +even the aide-de-camp had forgotten about the waiting coffee. They still +stood there where they had halted in the centre of the parade. The +doctor, coming from hospital, was signalled to and speedily joined them. +The bugle sounded, the men mechanically formed ranks and answered to +their names, all the while watching from the corner of their eyes the +group of officers, now increased by two infantry subalterns, Lieutenants +Bruce and Duncan, who raised their caps to the preoccupied general, such +salutation being then a fashion, not a regulation of the service, and +stood silently awaiting instructions, for something of consequence was +surely at hand. Then the orderly again appeared, returning from his +mission, out of breath and speaking with difficulty.</p> + +<p>"Craps—I mean the Frenchman, sir, says it was after four, perhaps half +past, when they started, Pete drivin'. He didn't see who was in it. +'Twas the covered buckboard he took, sir—the best one."</p> + +<p>And then, little by little, it transpired that Hay, the post trader whom +the general had need to see, had taken his departure by way of the +Rawlins road, and without so much as a whisper of his purpose to any +one.</p> + +<p>"I knew he had thought of going. He told Major Webb so," said Dade, +presently. "But that was before the outbreak assumed proportions. He had +given up all idea of it yesterday and so told me."</p> + +<p>"Has anything happened to—start him since then?" demanded the bearded +general, after a moment's thought.</p> + +<p>Dade and the doctor looked into each other's eyes, and the latter turned +away. It was not his affair.</p> + +<p>"W-ell, something has happened, general," was Dade's slow, constrained +reply. "If you will step this way—I'll see you later, gentlemen—" this +to his subalterns—"I'll explain as far as I can."</p> + +<p>And while Dr. Waller fell back and walked beside the aide-de-camp, +gladly leaving to the post commander the burden of a trying explanation, +the general, slowly pacing by the captain's side, gave ear to his story.</p> + +<p>"Hay cleaned up quite a lot of money," began the veteran, "and had +intended starting it to Cheyenne when this Indian trouble broke out. The +courier reached us during the night, as you know, and the major ordered +Ray to start at dawn and Field to go with him."</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought Field was post adjutant!" interposed the general.</p> + +<p>"He was, but—well—I beg you to let Major Webb give you his own +reasons, general," faltered Dade, sorely embarrassed. "He decided that +Field should go——"</p> + +<p>"He <i>asked</i> to go, I suppose—It runs in the blood," said the general, +quickly, with a keen look from his blue-gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"I think not, sir; but you will see Webb within a few days and he will +tell you all about it. What I know is this, that Field was ordered to go +and that he gave the major an order on Hay for two packages containing +the money for which he was accountable. Field and Wilkins had had a +falling out, and, instead of putting the cash in the quartermaster's +safe, Field kept it at Hay's. At guard mounting Hay brought the package +to the major, who opened both in presence of the officers of the day. +Each package was supposed to contain three or four hundred dollars. +Neither contained twenty. Some paper slips inserted between five dollar +bills made up the packages. Field was then far to the north and past +conferring with. Hay was amazed and distressed—said that someone must +have duplicate keys of his safe as well as of his stables."</p> + +<p>"Why the stables?" asked the chief, pausing at the gate and studying the +troubled face of the honored soldier he so well knew and so fully +trusted. He was thinking, too, how this was not the first occasion that +the loss of public money had been hidden for the time in just that +way—slips inserted between good currency.</p> + +<p>"Because it transpires that some of his horses were out that very night +without his consent or ken. No one for a moment, to my knowledge, has +connected Field with the loss of the money. Hay thought, however, it +threw suspicion on <i>him</i>, and was mightily upset."</p> + +<p>"Then his sudden departure at this time, without a word to anybody +looks—odd," said the general, thoughtfully. "But <i>he</i> had no need of +money. He's one of the wealthiest men in Wyoming. And she—his +wife,—needs nothing. He gives her all she can possibly want." By this +time they were at the door. A lamp still burned dimly in the hallway, +and Dade blew it out, as he ushered the general into the cosily lighted +dining-room.</p> + +<p>"You'll excuse Mrs. Dade and Esther, I hope, sir. They are not yet +up—quite overcome by anxiety and excitement,—there's been a lot about +Frayne the last two days.—Take this chair, General. Coffee will be +served at once. No, sir, as you say, the Hays have no need of money—he +and his wife, that is."</p> + +<p>"But you suspect—whom?" asked the general, the blue-gray eyes intent on +the troubled face before him, for Dade's very hesitancy told of some +untold theory. The doctor and the aide had taken seats at the other end +of the table and dutifully engaged in low-toned conversation.</p> + +<p>"That is a hard question for me to answer, General," was the answer. "I +have no right to suspect anybody. We had no time to complete the +investigation. There are many hangers-on, you know, about Hay's store, +and indeed, his house. Then his household, too, has been increased, as +perhaps you did not know. Mrs. Hay's niece—a very brilliant young +woman—is visiting them, and she and Field rode frequently together."</p> + +<p>The general's face was a study. The keen eyes were reading Dade as a +skilled physician would interpret the symptoms of a complicated case. +"How old—and what is she like, Dade?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"The women can answer that better than I, sir. They say she must be +twenty-four;—Mrs. Hay says nineteen—She is very dark and very +handsome—at times. Most of our young men seem to think so, at least. +She certainly rides and dances admirably, and Mr. Field was constantly +her partner."</p> + +<p>The general began to see light. "Field was constantly with her, was he? +Riding just by themselves or with others when they went out?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"By themselves, sir. I doubt if any other of our equestriennes would +care to ride at her pace. She rather outstrips them all. The major told +me they seemed to go—well, every time he saw them, at least,—up to +Stabber's village, and that was something he disapproved of, though I +dare say she was simply curious to see an Indian village, as an Eastern +girl might be."</p> + +<p>"Possibly," said the general. "And what did you tell me—she is Mrs. +Hay's niece? I don't remember <i>his</i> having any niece when they were at +Laramie in '66, though I knew something of Mrs. Hay, who was then but a +short time married. She spoke Sioux and <i>patois</i> French better than +English in those days. What is the young lady's name?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Flower, sir. Nanette Flower."</p> + +<p>The chief dropped his head on his hand and reflected. "It's a good +twenty years, and I've been knocking about all over the West since then, +but, I'd like to see Mrs. Hay and that young woman, Dade, whether we +overhaul Bill or not. I must go on to Beecher at once."</p> + +<p>"You will wait for the cavalry from Laramie, will you not, sir?" asked +the captain, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I can't. I'll get a bath and breakfast and forty winks later; then see +Mrs. Hay and Bill, if he is back. They ought to catch him before he +reaches Sage Creek. There are your couriers now," he added, at the sound +of spurred heels on the front piazza.</p> + +<p>The captain stepped forth into the hallway. A trooper stood at the front +door, his hand lifted in salute. Another, in saddle, and holding the +reins of his comrade's horse, was at the gate. A rustle of feminine +drapery swept downward from the upper floor, and Dade glanced up, half +dreading to see Esther's face. But it was his wife who peered over the +balustrade. "I shall be down in ten minutes," she said, in low tone. +"Esther is sleeping at last. How did—he—seem this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Sleeping, too, but only fitfully. Dr. Waller is here," and then Dade +would have ended the talk. He did not wish to speak further of Field or +his condition. But she called again, low-toned, yet dominant, as is many +a wife in and out of the army.</p> + +<p>"Surely you are not letting the general start with only two men!"</p> + +<p>"No, he goes by and by." And again Dade would have escaped to the +piazza, but once again she held him.</p> + +<p>"Then where are you sending these?"</p> + +<p>"After Mr. Hay. He—made an early start—not knowing perhaps, the +general was coming."</p> + +<p>"Start!" she cried, all excitement now. "Start!—Start for where?" and +the dressing sacque in aspen-like agitations came in full view at the +head of the stairs.</p> + +<p>"Rawlins, I suppose. I don't know what it means."</p> + +<p>"But <i>I</i> do!" exclaimed his better half, in emotion uncontrollable. "<i>I</i> +do! It means that she has <i>made</i> him,—that <i>she</i> has gone, too—I mean +Nanette Flower!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XV</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">A WOMAN'S PLOT</a></h3> + + +<p>Woman's intuition often far outstrips the slower mental process of the +other sex. The mother who has to see a beloved daughter's silent +suffering, well knowing another girl to be, however indirectly, the +cause of it, sees all manner of other iniquities in that other girl. +Kind, charitable and gentle was Mrs. Dade, a wise mother, too, as well +as most loving, but she could look with neither kindness nor charity on +Miss Flower. She had held her peace; allowed no word of censure or +criticism to escape her when the women were discussing that young lady; +but all the more vehement was her distrust, because thus pent up and +repressed. With the swiftness of feminine thought, for no man had yet +suspected, she fathomed the secret of the trader's sudden going; and, +carried away by the excitement of the moment and the belief that none +but her husband could hear, she had made that startling announcement. +And her intuition was unerring. Nanette Flower was indeed gone.</p> + +<p>Yet for nearly an hour she stood alone in her conviction. Her husband +quickly cautioned silence, and, going forth, gave instructions to the +couriers that sent them speeding for the Rawlins road. But at seven +o'clock Mrs. Hay herself appeared and asked to see the general, who was +taking at the moment his accustomed bracer, tonic and stimulant,—the +only kind he was ever known to use—a cold bath. So it was to Mrs. Dade, +in all apparent frankness and sincerity, the trader's wife began her +tale.</p> + +<p>Everyone at Frayne well knew that her anxiety as to the outcome of the +battle on the Elk had well nigh equalled that of the wives and +sweethearts within the garrison. While her niece, after the first day's +excitement, kept to her room, the aunt went flitting from house to +house, full of sympathy and suggestion, but obviously more deeply +concerned than they had ever seen her. Now, she seemed worried beyond +words at thought of her husband's having to go at just this time. It was +mainly on Nanette's account, she said. Only last night, with the mail +from Laramie, had come a letter posted in San Francisco the week before, +telling Miss Flower that her dearest friend and roommate for four years +at school, who had been on an extended bridal tour, would pass through +Rawlins, eastward bound, on Friday's train, and begging Nanette to meet +her and go as far at least as Cheyenne. Her husband, it seems, had been +hurriedly recalled to New York, and there was no help for it. Nanette +had expected to join her, and go all the way East in late October or +early November; had given her promise, in fact, for she was vastly +excited by the news, and despite headache and lassitude that had +oppressed her for two days past, she declared she must go, and Uncle +Will must take her. So, with only a small trunk, hastily packed, of her +belongings, and an iron-bound chest of the trader's, the two had started +before dawn in Uncle Bill's stout buckboard, behind his famous four mule +team, with Pete to drive, and two sturdy ranchmen as outriders, hoping +to reach the Medicine Bow by late afternoon, and rest at Brenner's +Ranch.</p> + +<p>Confidentially, Mrs. Hay told Mrs. Dade that her husband was glad of the +excuse to take the route up the Platte instead of the old, rough trail +southeastward over the mountains to Rock Creek, for he had a large sum +in currency to get to the bank, and there were desperados along the +mountain route who well knew he would have to send that money in, and +were surely on lookout to waylay him—or it. Ever since pay-day two or +three rough characters had been hanging about the store, and Hay +suspected they were watching his movements, with the intention of +getting word to their comrades in crime the moment he started, and it +was almost as much to steal a march on them, as to oblige Nanette, he so +willingly left before it was light. The Rawlins road followed the Platte +Valley all the way to Brenner's, and, once there, he would feel safe, +whereas the Rock Creek trail wound through gulch, ravine and forest most +of the distance, affording many a chance for ambuscade. Of course, said +Mrs. Hay, if her husband had for a moment supposed the general would +wish to see him, he would not have gone, adding, with just a little +touch of proper, wifelike spirit, that on the general's previous visits +he had never seemed to care whether he saw Mr. Hay or not.</p> + +<p>All this did Mrs. Dade accept with courteous yet guarded interest. They +were seated in the little army parlor, talking in low tone; for, with +unfailing tact, Mrs. Hay had asked for Esther, and expressed her +sympathy on hearing of her being unnerved by the excitement through +which they had passed. Well she knew that Field's serious condition had +not a little to do with poor Esther's prostration, but that was +knowledge never to be hinted at. Dade himself she did not wish to meet +just now. He was too direct a questioner, and had said and looked things +about Nanette that made her dread him. She knew that, however austere +and commanding he might be when acting under his own convictions, he was +abnormally susceptible to uxorial views, and the way to win the +captain's sympathies or avert his censure, was to secure the kindly +interest of his wife. Mrs. Hay knew that he had sent couriers off by the +Rawlins road—a significant thing in itself—and that couriers had come +in from the north with further news from Webb. She knew he had gone to +the office, and would probably remain there until summoned for +breakfast, and now was her time, for there was something further to be +spoken of, and while gentle and civil, Mrs. Dade had not been receptive. +It was evident to the trader's wife that her lord and master had made a +mistake in leaving when he did. He knew the general was on the way. He +knew there was that money business to be cleared up, yet she knew there +were reasons why she <i>wanted</i> him away,—reasons hardest of all to +plausibly explain. There were reasons, indeed, why she was glad Nanette +was gone. All Fort Frayne was devoted to Esther Dade and, however +unjustly, most of Fort Frayne,—men, women and children,—attributed +Field's defection, as they chose to call it, to Nanette—Nanette who had +set at naught her aunt's most ardent wishes, in even noticing Field at +all. Money, education, everything she could give had been lavished on +that girl, and now, instead of casting her net for that well-to-do and +distinguished bachelor, the major, thereby assuring for herself the +proud position of first lady of Fort Frayne, the wife of the commanding +officer, Nanette had been deliberately throwing herself away at a +beardless, moneyless second lieutenant, because he danced and rode well. +Mrs. Hay did not blame Mrs. Dade at that moment for hating the girl, if +hate she did. She could have shaken her, hard and well, herself, yet was +utterly nonplussed to find that Nanette cared next to nothing how badly +Field was wounded. What she seemed to care to know was about the +casualties among the Sioux, and, now that Stabber's village, the last +living trace of it, old men, squaws, children, pappooses, ponies and +puppies and other living creatures had, between two days, been whisked +away to the hills, there were no more Indians close at hand to whisper +information.</p> + +<p>She was glad Nanette was gone, because Field, wounded and present, would +have advantages over possible suitors absent on campaign—because all +the women and a few of the men were now against her, and because from +some vague, intangible symptoms, Mrs. Hay had satisfied herself that +there was something in the wind Nanette was hiding even from her—her +benefactress, her best friend, and it seemed like cold-blooded +treachery. Hay had for two days been disturbed, nervous and unhappy, yet +would not tell her why. He had been cross-questioning Pete, "Crapaud" +and other employees, and searching about the premises in a way that +excited curiosity and even resentment, for the explanation he gave was +utterly inadequate. To satisfy her if possible, he had confided, as he +said, the fact that certain money for which Lieutenant Field was +accountable, had been stolen. The cash had been carefully placed in his +old-fashioned safe; the missing money, therefore, had been taken while +still virtually in his charge. "They might even suspect me," he said, +which she knew would not be the case. "They forbade my speaking of it to +anybody, but I simply had to tell you." She felt sure there was +something he was concealing; something he would not tell her; something +concerning Nanette, therefore, because she so loved Nanette, he shrank +from revealing what might wound her. Indeed, it was best that Nanette +should go for the time, at least, but Mrs. Hay little dreamed that +others would be saying—even this kindly, gentle woman before her—that +Nanette should have stayed until certain strange things were thoroughly +and satisfactorily explained.</p> + +<p>But the moment she began, faltering not a little, to speak of matters +at the post, as a means of leading up to Nanette—matters concerning +Lieutenant Field and his financial affairs,—to her surprise Mrs. Dade +gently uplifted her hand and voice. "I am going to ask you not to tell +me, Mrs. Hay," said she. "Captain Dade has given me to understand there +was something to be investigated, but preferred that I should not ask +about it. Now, the general will be down in fifteen or twenty minutes. I +suggest that we walk over the hospital and see how Mr. Field is getting +on. We can talk, you know, as we go. Then you will breakfast with us. +Indeed, may I not give you a cup of coffee now, Mrs. Hay?"</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Hay said no. She had had coffee before coming. She would go and +see if there was anything they could do for Field, and would try again +to induce Mrs. Dade to listen to certain of her explanations.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Dade was silent and preoccupied. She was thinking of that story +of Nanette's going, and wondering whether it could be true. She was +wondering if Mrs. Hay knew the couriers had gone to recall Hay, and that +if he and Nanette failed to return it might mean trouble for both. She +could accord to Mrs. Hay no confidences of her own, and had been +compelled to decline to listen to those with which Mrs. Hay would have +favored her. She was thinking of something still more perplexing. The +general, as her husband finally told her, had asked first thing to see +Hay, and later declared that he wished to talk with Mrs. Hay and see +Nanette. Was it possible he knew anything of what she knew—that +between Hay's household and Stabber's village there had been +communication of some kind—that the first thing found in the Indian +pouch brought home by Captain Blake, was a letter addressed in Nanette +Flower's hand, and with it three card photographs, two of them of +unmistakable Indians in civilized garb, and two letters, addressed, like +hers, to Mr. Ralph Moreau,—one care of the Rev. Jasper Strong, +Valentine, Nebraska, the other to the general delivery, Omaha?</p> + +<p>Yes, that pouch brought in by Captain Blake had contained matter too +weighty for one woman, wise as she was, to keep to herself. Mrs. Blake, +with her husband's full consent, had summoned Mrs. Ray, soon after his +departure on the trail of Webb, and told her of the strange discovery. +They promptly decided there was only one thing to do with the +letter;—hand or send it, unopened, to Miss Flower. Then, as Blake had +had no time to examine further, they decided to search the pouch. There +might be more letters in the same superscription.</p> + +<p>But there were not. They found tobacco, beeswax, an empty flask that had +contained whiskey, vaseline, Pond's Extract, salve, pigments, a few +sheets of note paper, envelopes and pencil—odd things to find in the +possession of a Sioux—a burning glass, matches, some quinine pills, +cigars, odds and ends of little consequence, and those letters addressed +to R. Moreau. The first one they had already decided should go to Miss +Flower. The others, they thought, should be handed unopened to the +commanding officer. They might contain important information, now that +the Sioux were at war and that Ralph Moreau had turned out probably to +be a real personage. But first they would consult Mrs. Dade. They had +done so the very evening of Blake's departure, even as he, long miles +away, was telling Kennedy his Irish heart was safe from the designs of +one blood-thirsty Sioux; and Mrs. Dade had agreed with them that +Nanette's letter should be sent to her forthwith, and that, as Captain +Blake had brought it in, the duty of returning the letter devolved upon +his wife.</p> + +<p>And so, after much thought and consultation, a little note was written, +saying nothing about the other contents or about the pouch itself. "Dear +Miss Flower:" it read. "The enclosed was found by Captain Blake some +time this morning. He had no time to deliver it in person. Yours +sincerely. N. B. Blake."</p> + +<p>She would enter into no explanation and would say nothing of the +consultation. She could not bring herself to sign her name as usually +she signed it, Nannie Bryan Blake. She had, as any man or woman would +have had, a consuming desire to know what Miss Flower could be writing +to a Mr. Moreau, whose correspondence turned up in this remarkable way, +in the pouch of a painted Sioux. But she and they deemed it entirely +needless to assure Miss Flower no alien eye had peered into the +mysterious pages. (It might have resulted in marvellous developments if +Miss Flower thought they had.) Note and enclosure were sent first thing +next morning by the trusty hand of Master Sanford Ray, himself, and by +him delivered in person to Miss Flower, who met him at the trader's +gate. She took it, he said; and smiled, and thanked him charmingly +before she opened it. She was coming out for her customary walk at the +hour of guard mounting, but the next thing he knew she had "scooted" +indoors again.</p> + +<p>And from that moment Miss Flower had not been seen.</p> + +<p>All this was Mrs. Dade revolving in mind as she walked pityingly by the +side of the troubled woman, only vaguely listening to her flow of words. +They had thought to be admitted to the little room in which the wounded +officer lay, but as they tiptoed into the wide, airy hall and looked +over the long vista of pink-striped coverlets in the big ward beyond, +the doctor himself appeared at the entrance and barred the way.</p> + +<p>"Is there nothing we can do?" asked Mrs. Dade, with tears in her voice. +"Is he—so much worse?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing can be done just now," answered Waller, gravely. "He has had +high fever during the night—has been wakeful and flighty again. +I—should rather no one entered just now."</p> + +<p>And then they noted that even the steward who had been with poor Field +was now hovering about the door of the dispensary and that only Dr. +Waller remained within the room. "I am hoping to get him to sleep again +presently," said he. "And when he is mending there will be a host of +things for you both to do."</p> + +<p>But that mending seemed many a day off, and Mrs. Hay, poor woman, had +graver cares of her own before the setting sun. Avoiding the possibility +of meeting the general just now, and finding Mrs. Dade both silent and +constrained at mention of her niece's name, the trader's wife went +straightway homeward from the hospital, and did not even see the post +commander hurrying from his office, with an open despatch in his hand. +But by this time the chief and his faithful aide were out on the +veranda, surrounded by anxious wives and daughters, many of whom had +been earnestly bothering the doctor at the hospital before going to +breakfast. Dade much wished them away, though the news brought in by +night riders was both stirring and cheery. The Indians had flitted away +from Webb's front, and he counted on reaching and rescuing the Dry Fork +party within six hours from the time the courier started. They might +expect the good news during the afternoon of Thursday. Scouts and +flankers reported finding <i>travois</i> and pony tracks leading westward +from the scene of Ray's fierce battle, indicating that the Indians had +carried their dead and wounded into the fastnesses of the southern +slopes of the Big Horn, and that their punishment had been heavy. Among +the chiefs killed or seriously wounded was this new, vehement leader +whom Captains Blake and Ray thought might be Red Fox, who was so +truculent at the Black Hills conference the previous year. Certain of +the men, however, who had seen Red Fox at that time expressed doubts. +Lieutenant Field, said Webb, had seen him, and could probably say.</p> + +<p>Over this despatch the general pondered gravely. "From what I know of +Red Fox," said he, "I should think him a leader of the Sitting Bull +type,—a shrew, intriguing, mischief-making fellow, a sort of Sioux +walking delegate, not a battle leader; but according to Blake and Ray +this new man is a fighter."</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Dade came out and bore the general off to breakfast, and +during breakfast the chief was much preoccupied. Mrs. Dade and the +aide-de-camp chatted on social matters. The general exchanged an +occasional word with his host and hostess, and finally surprised neither +of them, when breakfast was over and he had consumed the last of his +glass of hot water, by saying to his staff officer, "I should like to +see Mrs. Hay a few minutes, if possible. We'll walk round there first. +Then—let the team be ready at ten o'clock."</p> + +<p>But the team, although ready, did not start northward at ten, and the +general, though he saw Mrs. Hay, had no speech with her upon the +important matters uppermost in his mind during the earlier hours of the +day. He found that good lady in a state of wild excitement and alarm. +One of the two outriders who had started with her husband and niece at +dawn, was mounted on a dun-colored cow pony, with white face and feet. +One of the two troopers sent by Dade to overtake and bring them back, +was turning a blown and exhausted horse over to the care of Hay's +stablemen, as he briefly told his story to the wild-eyed, well nigh +distracted woman. Six miles up stream, he said, they had come suddenly +upon a dun-colored cow pony, dead in his tracks, with white feet in air +and white muzzle bathed in blood; bridle, saddle and rider gone; signs +of struggle in places—but no signs of the party, the team and wagon, +anywhere.</p> + +<p>"And no cavalry to send out after them!" said Dade, when he reached the +spot. Old Crabb was called at once, and mustered four semi-invalided +troopers. The infantry supplied half a dozen stout riders and, with a +mixed escort, the general, accompanied by Dade and the aide-de-camp, +drove swiftly to the scene. Six miles away they found the dead pony. +Seven miles away they encountered the second trooper, coming back. He +had followed the trail of the four mule team as far as yonder point, +said he, and there was met by half a dozen shots from unseen foe, and so +rode back out of range. But Dade threw his men forward as skirmishers; +found no living soul either at the point or on the banks of the rocky +ford beyond; but, in the shallows, close to the shore, lay the body of +the second outrider, shot and scalped. In a clump of willows lay another +body, that of a pinto pony, hardly cold, while the soft, sandy shores +were cut by dozens of hoof tracks—shoeless. The tracks of the mules and +wagon lay straight away across the stream bed—up the opposite bank and +out on the northward-sweeping bench beyond. Hay's famous four, and +well-known wagon, contents and all, therefore, had been spirited away, +not toward the haunts of the road agents in the mountains of the +Medicine Bow, but to those of the sovereign Sioux in the fastnesses of +the storied Big Horn.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XVI</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">NIGHT PROWLING AT FRAYNE</a></h3> + + +<p>In the full of the September moon the war-bands of the Sioux had defied +agents and peace chiefs, commissioners and soldiers, and started their +wild campaign in northern Wyoming. In the full of the October moon the +big chief of the whites had swept the last vestige of their warriors +from the plains, and followed their bloody trails into the heart of the +mountains, all his cavalry and much of his foot force being needed for +the work in hand. Not until November, therefore, when the ice bridge +spanned the still reaches of the Platte, and the snow lay deep in the +brakes and <i>coulées</i>, did the foremost of the homeward-bound commands +come in view of old Fort Frayne, and meantime very remarkable things had +occurred, and it was to a very different, if only temporary, post +commander that Sandy Ray reported them as "sighted." Even brave old Dade +had been summoned to the front, with all his men, and in their place had +come from distant posts in Kansas other troops to occupy the vacant +quarters and strive to feel at home in strange surroundings.</p> + +<p>A man of austere mold was the new major,—one of the old Covenanter +type, who would march to battle shouting hymn tunes, and to Christmas +and Thanksgiving chanting doleful lays. He hailed, indeed, from old +Puritan stock; had been a pillar in the village church in days before +the great war, and emulated Stonewall Jackson in his piety, if he did +not in martial prowess. Backed by local, and by no means secular, +influences he had risen in the course of the four years' war from a +junior lieutenancy to the grade of second in command of his far eastern +regiment; had rendered faithful services in command of convalescent +camps and the like, but developed none of that vain ambition which +prompts the seeking of "the bubble reputation" at the cannon's mouth. +All he ever knew of Southern men in ante-bellum days was what he heard +from the lips of inspired orators or read from the pens of very earnest +anti-slavery editors. Through lack of opportunity he had met no +Southerner before the war, and carried his stanch, Calvinistic +prejudices to such extent that he seemed to shrink from closer contact +even then. The war was holy. The hand of the Lord would surely smite the +slave-holding arch rebel, which was perhaps why the Covenanter thought +it work of supererogation to raise his own. He finished as he began the +war, in the unalterable conviction that the Southern President, his +cabinet and all his leading officers should be hung, and their lands +confiscated to the state—or its representatives. He had been given a +commission in the army when such things were not hard to get—at the +reorganization in '66, had been stationed in a Ku Klux district all one +winter and in a sanitarium most of the year that followed. He thought +the nation on the highroad to hell when it failed to impeach the +President of high crimes and misdemeanors, and sent Hancock to harmonize +matters in Louisiana. He was sure of it when the son of a Southerner, +who had openly flouted him, was sent to West Point. He retained these +radical views even unto the twentieth anniversary of the great +surrender; and, while devoutly praying for forgiveness of his own sins, +could never seem to forgive those whose lot had been cast with the +South. He was utterly nonplussed when told that the young officer, +languishing in hospital on his arrival, was the son of a distinguished +major-general of the Confederate Army, and he planned for the father a +most frigid greeting, until reminded that the former major-general was +now a member of Congress and of the committee on military affairs. Then +it became his duty to overlook the past.</p> + +<p>He had not entered Field's little room, even when inspecting hospital +(Flint was forever inspecting something or other)—the doctor's +assurance that, though feeble, his patient was doing quite well, was all +sufficient. He had thought to greet the former Confederate, a sorely +anxious father, with grave and distant civility, as an avowed and +doubtless unregenerate enemy of that sacred flag; but, as has been said, +that was before it was pointed out to him that this was the Honorable M. +C. from the Pelican State, now prominent as a member of the House +Committee on Military Affairs. Motherless and sister-less was the +wounded boy, yet gentle and almost caressing hands had blessed his +pillow and helped to drive fever and delirium to the winds. It was +twelve days after they brought him back to Frayne before the father +could hope to reach him, coming post haste, too; but by that time the +lad was propped on his pillows, weak, sorrowing and sorely troubled, +none the less so because there was no one now to whom he could say +<i>why</i>.</p> + +<p>The men whom he knew and trusted were all away on campaign, all save the +veteran post surgeon, whom hitherto he had felt he hardly knew at all. +The women whom he had best known and trusted were still present at the +post. Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Blake had been his friends, frank, cordial and +sincere up to the week of his return from Laramie and his sudden and +overwhelming infatuation for Nanette Flower. Then they had seemed to +hold aloof, to greet him only with courtesy, and to eye him with +unspoken reproach. The woman at Fort Frayne to whom he most looked up +was Mrs. Dade, and now Mrs. Dade seemed alienated utterly. She had been +to inquire for him frequently, said his attendant, when he was so racked +with fever. So had others, and they sent him now jellies and similar +delicacies, but came no more in person—just yet at least—but he did +not know the doctor so desired. Field knew that his father, after the +long, long journey from the distant South, was now close at hand,—would +be with him within a few hours, and even with Ray's warm words of praise +still ringing in his ears, the young soldier was looking to that +father's coming almost with distress. It was through God's mercy and +the wisdom of the old surgeon that no word, as yet, had been whispered +to him of the discovery made when the money packages were opened—of the +tragic fate that had, possibly, befallen Bill Hay and Miss Flower.</p> + +<p>That a large sum of money was missing, and that Field was the +accountable officer, was already whispered about the garrison. The fact +that four officers and Mr. Hay were aware of it in the first place, and +the latter had told it to his wife, was fatal to entire secrecy. But, in +the horror and excitement that prevailed when the details of the later +tragedy were noised about the post, this minor incident had been almost +forgotten.</p> + +<p>The disappearance of Hay and his brilliant, beautiful niece, however, +was not to be forgotten for a moment, day or night, despite the fact +that Mrs. Hay, who had been almost crazed with dread and terror when +first informed there had been a "hold-up," rallied almost immediately, +and took heart and hope when it became apparent that Indians, not white +men, were the captors.</p> + +<p>"The Sioux would never harm a hair of his head," she proudly declared. +"He has been their friend for half a century." Nor had she fears for +Nanette. The Sioux would harm nobody her husband sought to protect. When +it was pointed out to her that they had harmed the guards,—that one of +them was found shot dead and scalped at the shores of the Platte, and +the other, poor fellow, had crawled off among the rocks and bled to +death within gunshot of the scene,—Mrs. Hay said they must have first +shown fight and shot some of the Sioux, for all the Indians knew Mr. +Hay's wagon. Then why, asked Fort Frayne, had they molested him—and +his?</p> + +<p>The general had had to leave for the front without seeing Mrs. Hay. More +than ever was it necessary that he should be afield, for this exploit +showed that some of the Sioux, at least, had cut loose from the main +body and had circled back toward the Platte—Stabber's people in all +probability. So, sending Crabb and his little squad across the river to +follow a few miles, at least, the trail of the wagon and its captors, +and ascertain, if possible, whither it had gone, he hurried back to +Frayne; sent messengers by the Laramie road to speed the cavalry, and +orders to the colonel to send two troops at once to rescue Hay and his +niece; sent wires calling for a few reinforcements, and was off on the +way to Beecher, guarded by a handful of sturdy "doughboys" in +ambulances, before ever the body of the second victim was found.</p> + +<p>And then, little by little, it transpired that this mysterious war +party, venturing to the south bank of the Platte, did not exceed half a +dozen braves. Crabb got back in thirty-six hours, with five exhausted +men. They had followed the wheel tracks over the open prairie and into +the foothills far to the Northwest, emboldened by the evidence of there +being but few ponies in the original bandit escort. But, by four in the +afternoon, they got among the breaks and ravines and, first thing they +knew, among the Indians, for zip came the bullets and down went two +horses, and they had to dismount and fight to stand off possible swarms, +and, though owning they had seen no Indians, they had proof of having +felt them, and were warranted in pushing no further. After dark they +began their slow retreat and here they were.</p> + +<p>And for seven days that was the last heard, by the garrison, at least, +of these most recent captives of the Sioux. Gentle and sympathetic +women, however, who called on Mrs. Hay, were prompt to note that though +unnerved, unstrung, distressed, she declared again and again her faith +that the Indians would never really harm her husband. They might hold +him and Nanette as hostages for ransom. They might take for their own +purposes his wagon, his mules and that store of money, but his life was +safe, yes, and Nanette's too. Of this she was so confident that people +began to wonder whether she had not received some assurance to that +effect, and when Pete, the stable boy driver, turned up at the end of +the first week with a cock-and-bull story about having stolen an Indian +pony and shot his way from the midst of the Sioux away up on No Wood +Creek, on the west side of the hills, and having ridden by night and +hidden by day until he got back to the Platte and Frayne, people felt +sure of it. Pete could talk Sioux better than he could jabber English. +He declared the Indians were in the hills by thousands, and were going +to take Hay and the young lady away off somewhere to be held for safe +keeping. He said the two troops that, never even halting at Frayne, had +pushed out on the trail, would only get into trouble if they tried to +enter the hills from the South, and that they would never get the +captives, wherein Pete was right, for away out among the spurs and +gorges of the range, fifty miles from Frayne, the pursuers came upon the +wreck of the wagon at the foot of an acclivity, up which a force of +Sioux had gone in single file. Many warriors it would seem, however, +must have joined the party on the way, and from here,—where with the +wagon was found Hay's stout box, bereft of its contents,—in four +different directions the pony tracks of little parties crossed or +climbed the spurs, and which way the captives had been taken, Captain +Billings, the commander, could not determine. What the Sioux hoped he +might do was divide his force into four detachments and send one on each +trail. Then they could fall upon them, one by one, and slay them at +their leisure. Billings saw the game, however, and was not to be caught. +He knew Bill Hay, his past and his popularity among the red men. He knew +that if they meant to kill him at all they would not have taken the +trouble to cart him fifty miles beforehand. He dropped the stern chase +then and there, and on the following day skirted the foothills away to +the east and, circling round to the breaks of the Powder as he reached +the open country, struck and hard hit a scouting band of Sioux, and +joined the general three days later, when most he was needed, near the +log palisades of old Fort Beecher.</p> + +<p>Then there had been more or less of mysterious coming and going among +the halfbreed hangers-on about the trader's store, and these were things +the new post commander knew not how to interpret, even when informed of +them. He saw Mrs. Hay but once or twice. He moved into the quarters of +Major Webb, possessing himself, until his own should arrive, of such of +the major's belongings as the vigilance of Mistress McGann would suffer. +He stationed big guards from his two small companies about the post, and +started more hard swearing among his own men, for "getting only two +nights in bed," than had been heard at Frayne in long months of less +pious post commandership. He strove to make himself agreeable to the +ladies, left lamenting for their lords, but as luck would have it, fell +foremost into the clutches of the quartermaster's wife, the dominant and +unterrified Wilkins.</p> + +<p>Just what prompted that energetic and, in many ways, estimable woman, to +take the new major into close communion, and tell him not only what she +knew, but what she thought, about all manner of matters at the post, can +never be justly determined. But within the first few days of his coming, +and on the eve of the arrival of General Field, Major Flint was in +possession of the story of how devoted young Field had been to Esther +Dade, and how cruelly he had jilted her for the brilliant Miss Flower, +"her that was gone with the Sioux." The differences between her stout, +veteran liege and the smooth-faced stripling had given her text to start +with. The story of the money lost had filtered from her lips, and +finally that of other peccadilloes, attributable to the young post +adjutant, whom, as she said, "The meejor had to rejuice and sind to the +front all along of his doin's in gar'son." Dade was gone. There was no +man save Wilkins to whom Major Flint felt that he could appeal for +confirmation or denial of these stories. Dr. Waller was his senior in +the service by ten years at least, and a type of the old-time officer +and gentleman of whom such as Flint stood ever in awe. He preferred, +therefore, as he thought, to keep the doctor at a distance, to make him +feel the immensity of his, the post commander's, station, and so, as +Wilkins dare not disavow the sayings of his wife, even had he been so +minded, the stories stood.</p> + +<p>Flint was thinking of them this very evening when Dr. Waller, happening +to meet him on his way from hospital briefly said that General Field +should be with them on the morrow. "He leaves Rock Creek to-night, +having hired transportation there. I had hoped our lad might be in +better spirits by this time."</p> + +<p>The major answered vaguely. How could a lad with all these sins upon his +soul be in anything but low spirits? Here was a brand to be snatched +from the burning, a youth whom prompt, stern measures might redeem and +restore, one who should be taught the error of his ways forthwith; only, +the coming of the member of the Military Committee of the House of +Representatives might make the process embarrassing. There were other +ways, therefore and however, in which this valuable information in the +major's possession might be put to use, and of these was the major +thinking, more than of the condition of the wounded lad, physical or +spiritual, as homeward through the gloaming he wended his way.</p> + +<p>Might it not be well to wait until this important and influential +personage had reached the post before proceeding further? Might it not +be well, confidentially and gradually, as it were, to permit the +Honorable M. C. to know that grave irregularities had occurred?—that up +to this moment the complete knowledge thereof was locked in the breast +of the present post commander?—that the suppression or presentation of +the facts depended solely upon that post commander? and then if the +member of the House Committee on Military Affairs proved receptive, +appreciative, in fact responsive, might not the ends of justice better +be subserved by leaving to the parent the duty of personally and +privately correcting the son? and, in consideration of the post +commander's wisdom and continence, pledging the influence of the +Military Committee to certain delectable ends in the major's behalf? +Long had Flint had his eye on a certain desirable berth in the distant +East—at the national capitol in fact—but never yet had he found +statesman or soldier inclined to further his desire. That night the +major bade Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins hold their peace as to Field's +peccadilloes until further leave was given them to speak. That night the +major, calling at Captain Dade's, was concerned to hear that Mrs. Dade +was not at home. "Gone over to the hospital with Mrs. Blake and the +doctor," was the explanation, and these gentle-hearted women, it seems, +were striving to do something to rouse the lad from the slough of +despond which had engulfed him. That night "Pink" Marble, Hay's faithful +book-keeper and clerk for many a year, a one-armed veteran of the civil +war, calling, as was his invariable custom when the trader was absent, +to leave the keys of the safe and desks with Mrs. Hay, was surprised to +find her in a flood of tears, for which she declined all explanation; +yet the sight of Pete, the half breed, slouching away toward the stables +as Marble closed the gate, more than suggested cause, for "Pink" had +long disapproved of that young man. That night Crapaud, the other +stableman, had scandalized Jerry Sullivan, the bar-keeper, and old +McGann, Webb's Hibernian major domo, by interrupting their game of Old +Sledge with a demand for a quart of whiskey on top of all that he had +obviously and surreptitiously been drinking, and by further indulging in +furious threats, in a sputtering mixture of Dakota French and French +Dakota, when summarily kicked out. That night, late as twelve o'clock, +Mrs. Ray, aroused by the infantile demands of the fourth of the olive +branches, and further disturbed by the suspicious growlings and +challenge of old Tonto, Blake's veteran mastiff, peeped from the second +story window and plainly saw two forms in soldier overcoats at the back +fence, and wondered what the sentries found about Blake's quarters to +require so much attention. Then she became aware of a third form, +rifle-bearing, and slowly pacing the curving line of the bluff—the +sentry beyond doubt. Who, then, were these others who had now totally +disappeared? She thought to speak of it to Nannie in the morning, and +then thought not. There were reasons why nervous alarm of any kind were +best averted then from Mrs. Blake. But there came reason speedily why +Mrs. Ray could not forget it.</p> + +<p>And that night, later still, along toward four o'clock, the persistent +clicking of the telegraph instrument at the adjutant's office caught the +ear of the sentry, who in time stirred up the operator, and a "rush" +message was later thrust into the hand of Major Flint, demolishing a +day-old castle in the air.</p> + +<p class="smcap center"> +From Rock Creek, Wyoming,</p> +<p class="centert"> <i>October 23, 188—.</i> 9:15 P. M. +<br /></p><p> +<span class="smcap">Commanding Officer, Fort Frayne,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>via Fort Laramie</i>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Stage capsized Crook Cañon. General Field seriously injured.<br /> Have wired +Omaha.</p> + +<p> +(Signed)</p> +<p class="r" style="margin-top: -2.0em;"> Warner,</p> + +<p class="r" style="margin-top: -.9em;"> +<i>Commanding Camp.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XVII</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">A RIFLED DESK</a></h3> + + +<p>Events moved swiftly in the week that followed. Particulars of the +accident to General Field, however, were slow in reaching Fort Frayne; +and, to the feverish unrest and mental trouble of the son, was now added +a feverish anxiety on the father's account that so complicated the +situation as to give Dr. Waller grave cause for alarm. Then it was that, +ignoring every possible thought of misbehavior on the part of the young +officer toward the gentle girl so dear to them, not only Mrs. Blake and +Mrs. Ray, but Mrs. Dade herself, insisted on being made of +use,—insisted on being permitted to go to his bedside and there to +minister, as only women can, to the suffering and distressed. Waller +thought it over and succumbed. The lad was no longer delirious, at +least, and if he revealed anything of what was uppermost in his mind it +would be a conscious and voluntary revelation. There were some things he +had said and that Waller alone had heard, the good old doctor wished +were known to certain others of the garrison, and to no one more than +Mrs. Dade; and so the prohibition against their visiting the wounded lad +was withdrawn, and not only these, but other women, sympathetically +attracted, were given the necessary authority.</p> + +<p>There was other reason for this. From the commanding officer of the +supply camp at Rock Springs had come, finally, a letter that was full of +foreboding. General Field, it said, was sorely injured and might not +survive. If the department commander had only been at Omaha or Cheyenne, +as the anxious father hastened to reach his son, the mishap would never +have occurred. The general would gladly have seen to it that suitable +transportation from the railway to Frayne was afforded his old-time +comrade. But, in his absence, Field shrank from appealing to anyone +else, and, through the train conductor, wired ahead to Rock Creek for a +stout four-mule team and wagon, with a capable driver. The conductor +assured him that such things were to be had for money, and that +everything would be in readiness on his arrival. Team, wagon and driver +certainly were on hand, but the team looked rickety, so did the wagon, +so did the driver, who had obviously been priming for the occasion. It +was this rig or nothing, however; and, in spite of a courteous +remonstrance from the two officers at the supply camp, who saw and +condemned the "outfit," General Field started on time and returned on an +improvised trestle three hours later. The "outfit" had been tumbled over +a ledge into a rocky creek bottom, and with disastrous results to all +concerned except the one who deserved it most—the driver. The ways of +Providence are indeed inscrutable.</p> + +<p>A surgeon had been sent from Fort Russell, and his report was such that +Waller would not let it go in full to his patient. They had carried the +old soldier back to camp, and such aid as could be given by the rude +hands of untaught men was all he had for nearly twenty-four hours, and +his suffering had been great. Internal injuries, it was feared, had been +sustained, and at his advanced age that was something almost fatal. No +wonder Waller was worried. Then Flint took alarm at other troubles +closer at hand. Up to this year he had been mercifully spared all +personal contact with our Indian wards, and when he was told by his +sentries that twice in succession night riders had been heard on the +westward "bench," and pony tracks in abundance had been found at the +upper ford—the site of Stabber's village—and that others still were to +be seen in the soft ground not far from Hay's corral, the major was more +than startled. At this stage of the proceedings, Sergeant Crabb of the +Cavalry was the most experienced Indian fighter left at the post. Crabb +was sent for, and unflinchingly gave his views. The Sioux had probably +scattered before the squadrons sent after them from the north; had fled +into the hills and, in small bands probably, were now raiding down +toward the Platte, well knowing there were few soldiers left to defend +Fort Frayne, and no cavalry were there to chase them.</p> + +<p>"What brings them here? What do they hope to get or gain?" asked Flint.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir," answered Crabb. "But this I do know, they are +after something and expect to get it. If I might make so bold, sir, I +think the major ought to keep an eye on them blasted halfbreeds at +Hay's."</p> + +<p>It set Flint to serious thinking. Pete and Crapaud, paid henchmen of the +trader, had been taking advantage of their employer's absence and +celebrating after the manner of their kind. One of his officers, new +like himself to the neighborhood and to the Indians, had had encounter +with the two that rubbed his commissioned fur the wrong way. A sentry, +in discharge of his duty, had warned them one evening away from the rear +gate of a bachelor den, along officers' row, and had been told to go to +sheol, or words to that effect. They had more business there than he +had, said they, and, under the potent sway of "inspiring bold John +Barleycorn" had not even abated their position when the +officer-of-the-day happened along. They virtually damned and defied him, +too.</p> + +<p>The officer-of-the-day reported to the commanding officer, and that +officer called on Mrs. Hay to tell her he should order the culprits off +the reservation if they were not better behaved. Mrs. Hay, so said the +servant, was feeling far from well and had to ask to be excused, when +who should appear but that ministering angel Mrs. Dade herself, and Mrs. +Dade undertook to tell Mrs. Hay of the misconduct of the men, even when +assuring Major Flint she feared it was a matter in which Mrs. Hay was +powerless. They were afraid of Hay, but not of her. Hearing of Mrs. +Hay's illness, Mrs. Dade and other women had come to visit and console +her, but there were very few whom she would now consent to see. Even +though confident no bodily harm would befall her husband or her niece, +Mrs. Hay was evidently sore disturbed about something. Failing to see +her, Major Flint sent for the bartender and clerk, and bade them say +where these truculent, semi-savage bacchanals got their whiskey, and +both men promptly and confidently declared it wasn't at the store. +Neither of them would give or sell to either halfbreed a drop, and old +Wilkins stood sponsor for the integrity of the affiants, both of whom he +had known for years and both of whom intimated that the two specimens +had no need to be begging, buying or stealing whiskey, when Bill Hay's +private cellar held more than enough to fill the whole Sioux nation. +"Moreover," said Pink Marble, "they've got the run of the stables now +the old man's away, and there isn't a night some of those horses ain't +out." When Flint said that was something Mrs. Hay ought to know, Pink +Marble replied that was something Mrs. Hay did know, unless she refused +to believe the evidence of her own senses as well as his, and Pink +thought it high time our fellows in the field had recaptured Hay and +fetched him home. If it wasn't done mighty soon he, Pink, wouldn't be +answerable for what might happen at the post.</p> + +<p>All the more anxious did this make Flint. He decided that the exigencies +of the case warranted his putting a sentry over Hay's stable, with +orders to permit no horse to be taken out except by an order from him, +and Crabb took him and showed him, two days later, the tracks of two +horses going and coming in the soft earth in front of a narrow side door +that led to the corral. Flint had this door padlocked at once and +Wilkins took the key, and that night was surprised by a note from Mrs. +Hay.</p> + +<p>"The stablemen complain that the sentries will not let them take the +horses out even for water and exercise, which has never been the case +before," and Mrs. Hay begged that the restriction might be removed. +Indeed, if Major Flint would remove the sentry, she would assume all +responsibility for loss or damage. The men had been with Mr. Hay, she +said, for six years and never had been interfered with before, and they +were sensitive and hurt and would quit work, they said, if further +molested. Then there would be nobody to take their place and the stock +would suffer.</p> + +<p>In point of fact, Mrs. Hay was pleading for the very men against whom +the other employés claimed to have warned her—these two halfbreeds who +had defied his sentries,—and Flint's anxieties materially increased. It +taxed all his stock of personal piety, and strengthened the belief he +was beginning to harbor, that Mrs. Hay had some use for the horses at +night—some sojourners in the neighborhood with whom she must +communicate, and who could they be but Sioux?</p> + +<p>Then Mistress McGann, sound sleeper that she used to be, declared to the +temporary post commander, as he was, and temporary lodger as she +considered him, that things "was goin' on about the post she'd never +heard the likes of before, and that the meejor would never put up with +a minute." When Mrs. McGann said "the meejor" she meant not Flint, but +his predecessor. There was but one major in her world,—the one she +treated like a minor. Being a soldier's wife, however, she knew the +deference due to the commanding officer, even though she did not choose +to show it, and when bidden to say her say and tell what things "was +goin' on" Mistress McGann asseverated, with the asperity of a woman who +has had to put her husband to bed two nights running, that the time had +never been before that he was so drunk he didn't know his way home, and +so got into the back of the bachelor quarters instead of his own. "And +to think av his bein' propped up at his own gate by a lousy, frog-eatin' +half Frinchman, half salvage!" Yet, when investigated, this proved to be +the case, and the further question arose, where did McGann get his +whiskey? A faithful, loyal devoted old servitor was McGann, yet Webb, as +we have seen, had ever to watch his whiskey carefully lest the Irishman +should see it, and seeing taste, and tasting fall. The store had orders +from Mrs. McGann, countersigned by Webb, to the effect that her husband +was never to have a drop. Flint was a teetotaller himself, and noted +without a shadow of disapprobation that the decanters on the sideboard +were both empty the very day he took possession, also that the cupboard +was securely locked. Mrs. McGann was sure her liege got no liquor there +nor at the store, and his confused statement that it was given him by +"fellers at the stables," was treated with scorn. McGann then was still +under marital surveillance and official displeasure the day after Mrs. +McGann's revelations, with unexplained iniquities to answer for when his +head cleared and his legs resumed their functions. But by that time +other matters were brought to light that laid still further accusation +at his door. With the consent of Dr. Waller, Lieutenant Field had been +allowed to send an attendant for his desk. There were letters, he said, +he greatly wished to see and answer, and Mrs. Ray had been so kind as to +offer to act as his amanuensis. The attendant went with the key and came +back with a scared face. Somebody, he said, had been there before him.</p> + +<p>They did not tell Field this at the time. The doctor went at once with +the messenger, and in five minutes had taken in the situation. Field's +rooms had been entered and probably robbed. There was only one other +occupant of the desolate set that so recently had rung to the music of +so many glad young voices. Of the garrison proper at Frayne all the +cavalry officers except Wilkins were away at the front; all the infantry +officers, five in number, were also up along the Big Horn. The four who +had come with Flint were strangers to the post, but Herron, who had been +a classmate of Ross at the Point, moved into his room and took the +responsibility of introducing the contract doctor, who came with them, +into the quarters at the front of the house on the second floor. These +rooms had been left open and unlocked. There was nothing, said the +lawful occupant, worth stealing, which was probably true; but Field had +bolted, inside, the door of his sleeping room; locked the hall door of +his living room and taken the key with him when he rode with Ray. The +doctor looked over the rooms a moment; then sent for Wilkins, the post +quartermaster, who came in a huff at being disturbed at lunch. Field had +been rather particular about his belongings. His uniforms always hung on +certain pegs in the plain wooden wardrobe. The drawers of his bureau +were generally arranged like the clothes press of cadet days, as though +for inspection, but now coats, blouses, dressingsack and smoking jacket +hung with pockets turned inside out or flung about the bed and floor. +Trousers had been treated with like contempt. The bureau looked like +what sailors used to call a "hurrah's nest," and a writing desk, +brass-bound and of solid make, that stood on a table by a front window, +had been forcibly wrenched open, and its contents were tossed about the +floor. A larger desk,—a wooden field desk—stood upon a trestle across +the room, and this, too, had been ransacked. Just what was missing only +one man could tell. Just how they entered was patent to all—through a +glazed window between the bed-room and the now unused dining room +beyond. Just who were the housebreakers no man present could say; but +Mistress McGann that afternoon communicated her suspicion to her +sore-headed spouse, and did it boldly and with the aid of a broomstick. +"It's all along," she said, "av your shtoopin' to dhrink wid them low +lived salvages at Hay's. Now, what d'ye know about this?"</p> + +<p>But McGann swore piously he knew nothing "barrin' that Pete and Crapaud +had some good liquor one night—dear knows when it was—an' I helped 'em +dhrink your health,—an' when 'twas gone, and more was wanted, sure Pete +said he'd taken a demijohn to the lieutenant's, with Mr. Hay's +compliments, the day before he left for the front, and sure he couldn't +have drunk all av it, and if the back dure was open Pete would inquire +anyhow."</p> + +<p>That was all Michael remembered or felt warranted in revealing, for +stoutly he declared his and their innocence of having burglariously +entered any premises, let alone the lieutenant's. "Sure they'd bite +their own noses off fur him," said Mike, which impossible feat attested +the full measure of halfbreed devotion. Mistress McGann decided to make +further investigation before saying anything to anybody; but, before the +dawn of another day, matters took such shape that fear of sorrowful +consequences, involving even Michael, set a ban on her impulse to speak. +Field, it seems, had been at last induced to sleep some hours that +evening, and it was nearly twelve when he awoke and saw his desk on a +table near the window. The attendant was nodding in an easy chair; and, +just as the young officer determined to rouse him, Mrs. Dade, with the +doctor, appeared on tiptoe at the doorway. For a few minutes they kept +him interested in letters and reports concerning his father's condition, +the gravity of which, however, was still withheld from him. Then there +were reports from Tongue River, brought in by courier, that had to be +told him. But after a while he would be no longer denied. He demanded to +see his desk and his letters.</p> + +<p>At a sign from the doctor, the attendant raised it from the table and +bore it to the bed. "I found things in some confusion in your quarters, +Field," said Waller, by way of preparation, "and I probably haven't +arranged the letters as you would if you had had time. They were lying +about loosely—"</p> + +<p>But he got no further. Field had started up and was leaning on one +elbow. The other arm was outstretched. "What do you mean?" he cried. +"The desk hasn't been <i>opened</i>?"</p> + +<p>Too evidently, however, it had been, and in an instant Field had pulled +a brass pin that held in place a little drawer. It popped part way out, +and with trembling hands he drew it forth—empty.</p> + +<p>Before he could speak Mrs. Dade suddenly held up her hand in signal for +silence, her face paling at the instant. There was a rush of slippered +feet through the corridor, a hum of excited voices, and both Dr. Waller +and the attendant darted for the door.</p> + +<p>Outside, in the faint starlight, sound of commotion came from the +direction of the guard-house,—of swift footfalls from far across the +parade, of the vitreous jar of windows hastily raised. Two or three +lights popped suddenly into view along the dark line of officers' +quarters, and Waller's voice, with a ring of authority unusual to him, +halted a running corporal of the guard.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" demanded he.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir," was the soldier's answer. "There was an awful +scream from the end quarters—Captain Ray's, sir." Then on he went +again.</p> + +<p>And then came the crack, crack of a pistol.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XVIII</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">BURGLARY AT BLAKE'S</a></h3> + + +<p>The doctor started at the heels of the corporal, but was distanced long +before he reached the scene. The sergeant of the guard was hammering on +the front door of Blake's quarters; but, before the summons was answered +from within, Mrs. Ray, in long, loose wrapper, came hurrying forth from +her own—the adjoining—hallway. Her face was white with dread. "It is +I, Nannie. Let us in," she cried, and the door was opened by a terrified +servant, as the doctor came panting up the steps. Together he and Mrs. +Ray hurried in. "Robbers!" gasped the servant girl—"Gone—the back +way!" and collapsed on the stairs. Sergeant and corporal both tore +around to the west side and out of the rear gate. Not a sign of +fugitives could they see, and, what was worse, not a sign of sentry. +Number 5, of the third relief, should at that moment have been pacing +the edge of the bluff in rear of the northernmost quarters, and yet +might be around toward the flagstaff. "Find Number 5," were the +sergeant's orders, and back he hurried to the house, not knowing what to +expect. By that time others of the guard had got there and the +officer-of-the-day was coming,—the clink of his sword could be heard +down the road,—and more windows were uplifted and more voices were +begging for information, and then came Mrs. Dade, breathless but calm.</p> + +<p>Within doors she found the doctor ministering to a stout female who +seemed to have gone off in an improvised swoon—Mrs. Blake's imported +cook. Up the stairs, to her own room again, Mrs. Blake was being led by +Marion Ray's encircling arm. Three women were speedily closeted there, +for Mrs. Dade was like an elder sister to these two sworn friends, and, +not until Mrs. Dade and they were ready, did that lady descend the +stairs and communicate the facts to the excited gathering in the parlor, +and they in turn to those on the porch in front. By this time Flint +himself, with the poet quartermaster, was on hand, and all Fort Frayne +seemed to rouse, and Mrs. Gregg had come with Mrs. Wilkins, and these +two had relieved the doctor of the care of the cook, now talking +volubly; and, partly through her revelations, but mainly through the +more coherent statements of Mrs. Dade, were the facts made public. +Margaret, the cook, had a room to herself on the ground floor adjoining +her kitchen. Belle, the maid, had been given the second floor back, in +order to be near to her young mistress. Bitzer, the Blakes' +man-of-all-work,—like McGann, a discharged soldier,—slept in the +basement at the back of the house, and there was he found, blinking, +bewildered and only with difficulty aroused from stupor by a wrathful +sergeant. The cook's story, in brief, was that she was awakened by Mrs. +Blake's voice at her door and, thinking Belle was sick, she jumped up +and found Mrs. Blake in her wrapper, asking was she, Margaret, up stairs +a moment before. Then Mrs. Blake, with her candle, went into the dining +room, and out jumped a man in his stocking feet from the captain's den +across the hall, and knocked over Mrs. Blake and the light, and made for +her, the cook; whereat she screamed and slammed her door in his face, +and that was really all she knew about it.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Blake knew more. Awakened by some strange consciousness of +stealthy movement about the house, she called Belle by name, thinking +possibly the girl might be ill and seeking medicine. There was sound of +more movement, but no reply. Mrs. Blake's girlhood had been spent on the +frontier. She was a stranger to fear. She arose; struck a light and, +seeing no one in her room or the guest chamber and hallway, hastened to +the third room, and was surprised to find Belle apparently quietly +sleeping. Then she decided to look about the house and, first, went down +and roused the cook. As she was coming out of the dining room, a man +leaped past her in the hall, hurling her to one side and dashing out the +light. Her back was toward him, for he came from Gerald's own premises +known as the den. In that den, directly opposite, was one of her +revolvers, loaded. She found it, even in the darkness and, hurrying +forth again, intending to chase the intruder and alarm the sentry at the +rear, encountered either the same or a second man close to the back +door, a man who sprang past her like a panther and darted down the +steps at the back of the house, followed by two shots from her Smith & +Wesson. One of these men wore a soldier's overcoat, for the cape, ripped +from the collar seam, was left in her hands. Another soldier's overcoat +was later found at the rear fence, but no boots, shoes or tracks +thereof, yet both these men, judging from the sound, had been in +stocking feet, or possibly rubbers, or perhaps—but that last suspicion +she kept to herself, for Mrs. Hay, too, was now among the arrivals in +the house, full of sympathy and genuine distress. The alarm, then, had +gone beyond the guard-house, and the creators thereof beyond the ken of +the guard, for not a sentry had seen or heard anything suspicious until +after the shots; then Number 8, Flint's latest addition, declared that +from his post at Hay's corral he had distinctly heard the swift +hoofbeats of a brace of ponies darting up the level bench to the +westward. Number 5 had turned up safely, and declared that at the moment +the scream was heard he was round by the flagstaff, listening to the +night chorus of a pack of yelping coyotes, afar out to the northwest, +and then he thought he heard scrambling and running down at the foot of +the bluff just as the shots were fired. Investigation on his part was +what took him out of sight for the moment, and later investigation +showed that one marauder, at least, had gone that way, for a capeless +greatcoat was found close down by the shore, where some fugitive had +tossed it in his flight. This overcoat bore, half erased from the soiled +lining, the name of Culligan, Troop "K;" but Culligan had served out +his time and taken his discharge a year before. The other overcoat was +even older, an infantry coat, with shorter cape, bearing a company +number "47," but no name. Both garments savored strongly of the stable.</p> + +<p>Then, before quiet was restored, certain search was made about the +quarters. It was found the intruders had obtained admission through the +basement door at the back, which was never locked, for the sentry on +Number 5 had orders to call Bitzer at 5:30 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span>, to start the fires, +milk the cow, etc.,—Hogan, Ray's factotum, being roused about the same +time. The marauders had gone up the narrow stairway into the kitchen, +first lashing one end of a leather halter-strap about the knob of +Bitzer's door and the other to the base of the big refrigerator,—a +needless precaution, as it took sustained and determined effort, as many +a sentry on Number 5 could testify, to rouse Bitzer from even a nap.</p> + +<p>It was no trick for the prowlers to softly raise the trap door leading +to the kitchen, and, once there, the rest of the house was practically +open. Such a thing as burglary or sneak thieving about the officers' +quarters had been unheard of at Frayne for many a year. One precaution +the visitors had taken, that of unbolting the back door, so that retreat +might not be barred in case they were discovered. Then they had gone +swiftly and noiselessly about their work.</p> + +<p>But what had they taken? The silver was upstairs, intact, under Mrs. +Blake's bed; so was the little safe in which was kept her jewelry and +their valuable papers. Books, bric-à-brac,—everything down +stairs—seemed unmolested. No item was missing from its accustomed +place. Mrs. Blake thought perhaps the intruders had not entered her room +at all. In Gerald's den were "stacks," as he said, of relics, souvenirs, +trophies of chase and war, but no one thing of the intrinsic value of +fifty dollars. What could have been the object of their midnight search? +was the question all Fort Frayne was asking as people dispersed and went +home,—the doctor intimating it was high time that Mrs. Blake was +permitted to seek repose. Not until he had practically cleared the house +of all but her most intimate friends, Mrs. Dade and Mrs. Ray, would +Waller permit himself to ask a question that had been uppermost in his +mind ever since he heard her story.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Blake, someone has been ransacking Mr. Field's quarters for +letters or papers. Now,—was there anything of that kind left by the +captain that—someone may have needed?"</p> + +<p>Nannie Blake's head was uplifted instantly from Marion's shoulder. She +had been beginning to feel the reaction. For one moment the three women +looked intently into each other's faces. Then up they started and +trooped away into Gerald's den. The doctor followed. The upper drawer of +a big, flat-topped desk stood wide open, and pretty Mrs. Blake opened +her eyes and mouth in emulation as she briefly exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"It's gone!"</p> + +<p>Then Waller went forthwith to the quarters of the commander and caught +him still in conference with his quartermaster and the guard, four or +five of the latter being grouped without. The major retired to his front +room, where, with Wilkins, he received the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Major Flint," said Waller, "those overcoats belong to Mr. Hay's +stablemen,—Pete and Crapaud. Will you order their immediate arrest?"</p> + +<p>"I would, doctor," was the answer, "but they are not at the corral. We +know how to account for the hoofbeats in the valley. Those scoundrels +have got nearly an hour's start, and we've nobody to send in chase."</p> + +<p>Then it presently appeared that the post commander desired to continue +conference with his staff officer, for he failed to invite the post +surgeon to be seated. Indeed, he looked up into the doctor's kindling +eyes with odd mixture of impatience and embarrassment in his own, and +the veteran practitioner felt the slight, flushed instantly, and, with +much <i>hauteur</i> of manner, took prompt but ceremonious leave.</p> + +<p>And when morning came and Fort Frayne awoke to another busy day, as if +the excitements of the night gone by had not been enough for it, a new +story went buzzing, with the first call for guard mount, about the +garrison; and, bigger even than yesterday, the two details, in soldier +silence, began to gather in front of the infantry quarters. Major Flint +had ordered sentries posted at the trader's home, with directions that +Mrs. Hay was not to be allowed outside her gate, and no one, man or +woman, permitted to approach her from without except by express +permission of the post commander. "General Harney" and "Dan," the two +best horses of the trader's stable, despite the presence of the sentry +at the front, had been abstracted sometime during the earlier hours of +the night, and later traced to the ford at Stabber's old camp, and with +Pete and Crapaud, doubtless, were gone.</p> + +<p>That day the major wired to Omaha that he should be reinforced at once. +One half his little force, he said, was now mounted each day for guard, +and the men couldn't stand it. The general, of course, was in the field, +but his chief of staff remained at headquarters and was empowered to +order troops from post to post within the limits of the department. +Flint hoped two more companies could come at once, and he did not care +what post was denuded in his favor. His, he said, was close to the +Indian lands,—separated from them, in fact, only by a narrow and +fordable river. The Indians were all on the warpath and, aware of his +puny numbers, might be tempted at any moment to quit the mountains and +concentrate on him. Moreover, he was satisfied there had been frequent +communication between their leaders and the household of the post trader +at Fort Frayne. He was sure Mrs. Hay had been giving them valuable +information, and he expected soon to be able to prove very serious +charges against her. Meantime, he had placed her under surveillance. +(<i>That</i> she had been ever since his coming, although she never realized +it.) Fancy the sensation created at Omaha, where the Hays were well +known, when this news was received! Flint did not say "under arrest," +guarded day and night by a brace of sentries who were sorely disgusted +with their duty. He had no doubt his appeals for more troops would be +honored, in view of his strenuous representations, but the day passed +without assurance to that effect and without a wired word to say his +action regarding Mrs. Hay had been approved. It began to worry him. At 3 +<span class="smcap">P. M.</span> Mrs. Hay sent and begged him to call upon her that she might +assure and convince him of her innocence. But this the major found means +to refuse, promising, however a meeting in the near future, after he had +received tidings from the front, which he was awaiting and expecting +every moment. He had reluctantly given permission to visit her to Mrs. +Dade, Mrs. Ray and two or three other women whose hearts were filled +with sympathy and sorrow, and their heads with bewilderment, over the +amazing order. Indeed, it was due to Mrs. Dade's advice that she so far +triumphed over pride and wrath as to ask to see the major and explain. +She had received tidings from her husband and Nanette. She was perfectly +willing to admit it,—to tell all about it,—and, now that Pete and +Crapaud had turned out to be such unmitigated rascals, to have them +caught and castigated, if caught they could be. But all this involved no +disloyalty. They had always been friendly with the Sioux and the Sioux +with them. Everybody knew it;—no one better than General Crook himself, +and if he approved why should a junior disapprove? Indeed, as she asked +her friends, what junior who had ever known Mr. Hay and her, or the +Indians either, would be apt to disapprove so long as the Indians, when +on the warpath, received no aid or comfort from either her husband or +herself? "And if they had," said she, further, waxing eloquent over her +theme, "could we have <i>begun</i> to give them half the aid or comfort—or a +thousandth part of the supplies and ammunition—they got day after day +through the paid agents of the Interior Department?"</p> + +<p>But these were questions army people could not properly discuss,—their +mission in life being rather to submit to, than suggest, criticism.</p> + +<p>And so another restless day went by and no more news came from either +front or rear—from the range to the north or Rock Springs at the south, +and Flint was just formulating another fervid appeal to that impassive +functionary, the adjutant general at Omaha, when toward evening word +came whistling down the line in the person of Master Sanford Ray, that +two couriers were in sight "scooting" in from Moccasin Ridge, and Flint +and fully half the soldier strength of Fort Frayne gathered on the +northward bluff like the "wan burghers" of ancient Rome, to watch and +speed their coming. Who could tell what the day might yet bring forth?</p> + +<p>It was well nigh dark before the foremost reached the ford—a scout in +worn and tawdry buckskin, wearied and impassive. He gave his despatch to +the care of the first officer to accost him and took the way to the +store, briefly saying in reply to questions, that he was "too dry to +speak the truth." So they flocked, at respectful distance, about the +major as he read the hurried lines. The general bade the post commander +wire the entire message to Washington, and to take all precautions for +the protection of the few settlers about him. The columns under Colonel +Henry and Major Webb had united near the head waters of the Clear Fork +of the Powder; had had a rattling running fight with Lame Wolf's people; +had driven them into the mountains and were following hot on the trail, +but that Stabber's band and certain disaffected Sioux had cut loose from +the main body and gone south. Whistling Elk, a young chief of much +ambition had quarrelled with certain of the Red Cloud element, and +joined Stabber, with his entire band. "Look out for them and watch for +signals any day or night from Eagle Butte."</p> + +<p>Flint read with sinking heart. Indian fighting was something far too +scientific for his martial education and too much for his skeleton +command. In the gathering dusk his face looked white and drawn, and old +Wilkins, breasting his way up the slope, puffed hard, as he begged for +news. There was still another despatch, however, which was evidently +adding to the major's perturbation, for it concerned him personally and +for the moment Wilkins went unheard.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The general desires that you send the couriers back within +twenty-four hours of their arrival, after you have had time to +scout the line of the Platte say twenty miles each way, giving full +report of every Indian seen or heard of. He enjoins vigilance and +hopes to keep the Sioux so busy that they can send no more in your +direction. Should they do so, however, he will pursue at once. He +trusts that you are doing everything possible to comfort and +reassure Mrs. Hay, and that you can send good news of Lieutenant +Field.</p></div> + +<p>And this when he had just refused to remove the sentries or to visit +Mrs. Hay:—this when he had just been told by Dr. Waller that Lieutenant +Field was distinctly worse.</p> + +<p>"He is simply fretting his heart out here," were the doctor's words to +him but a short time before, "and, while unable to mount a horse, he is +quite strong enough now to take the trip by ambulance, slowly, that is, +to Rock Springs. I fear his father is failing. I fear Field will fail if +not allowed to go. I recommend a seven days' leave, with permission to +apply to Omaha for thirty—he'll probably need it."</p> + +<p>"I can't permit government teams and ambulances to be used for any such +purpose," said the major, stoutly. "It is distinctly against orders."</p> + +<p>"Then, sir, he can go in my spring wagon and we'll hire mules from Mrs. +Hay," was the doctor's prompt reply. "He can do no good here, major. He +may do much good there."</p> + +<p>But Flint was full of information and official zeal. The matter of +Field's going had been broached before, and, when told of it, the +Wilkins pair had been prompt with their protests. "Of course he'd be +wantin' to get away," said Wilkins, "wid all that money to account for, +let alone these other things." The Irishman was hot against the young +West Pointer who had derided him. He doubtless believed his own words. +He never dreamed how sorely the lad now longed to see his father,—how +deep was his anxiety on that father's account,—how filled with +apprehension on his own, for that rifled desk had brought him reason for +most painful thought. Wilkins and Field had been antagonistic from the +start. Neither could see good in the other and, egged on by his worthy +spouse's exhortations, the quartermaster had seized the opportunity to +fill the post commander's too receptive mind with all his own +suspicions—and this at a crucial time.</p> + +<p>"I can't listen to it, Dr. Waller," said the major, sternly. "Here's a +matter of near a thousand dollars that young man has got to answer for +the moment he is well enough to stir. And if he can't account for +it—you well know what my duty will demand."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XIX</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">A SLAP FOR THE MAJOR</a></h3> + + +<p>The columns of Colonel Henry and Major Webb, as said "the Chief," had +united, and here were two men who could be counted on to push the +pursuit "for all they were worth." Hitherto, acting in the open country +and free from encumbrance, the Indians had been hard to reach. Now they +were being driven into their fastnesses among the mountains toward the +distant shelter whither their few wounded had been conveyed, and where +the old men, the women and children were in hiding. Now it meant that, +unless the troops could be confronted and thrown back, another transfer +of tepees and <i>travois</i>, ponies and dogs, wounded and aged would have to +be made. Lame Wolf had thought his people safe behind the walls of the +Big Horn and the shifting screen of warriors along the foothills, but +the blue skirmish lines pushed steadily on into the fringing pines, +driving the feathered braves from ridge to ridge, and Lame Wolf had +sense enough to see that here were leaders that "meant business" and +would not be held. Henry had ten veteran troops at his back when he +united with Webb, who led his own and the Beecher squadron, making +eighteen companies, or troops, of Horse, with their pack mules, all out +at the front, while the wagon train and ambulances were thoroughly +guarded by a big battalion of sturdy infantry, nearly all of them good +marksmen, against whose spiteful Springfields the warriors made only one +essay in force, and that was more than enough. The blue coats emptied +many an Indian saddle and strewed the prairie with ponies, and sent +Whistling Elk and his people to the right about in sore dismay, and then +it dawned on Lame Wolf that he must now either mislead the cavalry +leader,—throw him off the track, as it were,—or move the villages, +wounded, prisoners and all across the Big Horn river, where hereditary +foemen, Shoshone and Absaraka, would surely welcome them red-handed.</p> + +<p>It was at this stage of the game he had his final split with Stabber. +Stabber was shrewd, and saw unerringly that with other columns out—from +Custer on the Little Horn and Washakie on the Wind River,—with +reinforcements coming from north and south, the surrounding of the Sioux +in arms would be but a matter of time. He had done much to get Lame Wolf +into the scrape and now was urging hateful measures as, unless they were +prepared for further and heavier losses, the one way out, and that way +was—surrender.</p> + +<p>Now, this is almost the last thing the Indian will do. Not from fear of +consequences at the hands of his captors, for he well knows that, +physically, he is infinitely better off when being coddled by Uncle Sam +than when fighting in the field. It is simply the loss of <i>prestige</i> +among his fellow red men that he hates and dreads. Therefore, nothing +short of starvation or probable annihilation prompts him, as a rule, to +yield himself a prisoner. Stabber urged it rather than risk further +battle and further loss, but Stabber had long been jealous of the +younger chief, envied him his much larger following and his record as a +fighter, and Stabber, presumably, would be only too glad to see him +fallen from his high estate. They could then enjoy the hospitality of a +generous nation (a people of born fools, said the unreasoning and +unregenerate red man) all winter, and, when next they felt sufficiently +slighted to warrant another issue on the warpath, they could take the +field on equal terms. Lame Wolf, therefore, swore he'd fight to the +bitter end. Stabber swore he'd gather all his villagers, now herding +with those of Wolf; and, having segregated his sheep from the more +numerous goats, would personally lead them whither the white man could +not follow. At all events he made this quarrel the pretext for his +withdrawal with full five score fighting men, and Lame Wolf cursed him +roundly as the wretch deserved and, all short-handed now, with hardly +five hundred braves to back him, bent his energies to checking Henry's +column in the heart of the wild hill country.</p> + +<p>And this was the situation when the general's first despatches were sent +in to Frayne,—this the last news to reach the garrison from the distant +front for five long days, and then one morning, when the snow was +sifting softly down, there came tidings that thrilled the little +community, heart and soul—tidings that were heard with mingled tears +and prayers and rejoicings, and that led to many a visit of +congratulation to Mrs. Hay, who, poor woman, dare not say at the moment +that she had known it all as much as twenty-four hours earlier, despite +the fact that Pete and Crapaud were banished from the roll of her +auxiliaries.</p> + +<p>Even as the new couriers came speeding through the veil of falling +flakes, riding jubilantly over the wide-rolling prairie with their news +of victory and battle, the post commander at Fort Frayne was puzzling +over a missive that had come to him, he knew not how, mysterious as the +anarchists' warnings said to find their way to the very bedside of the +guarded Romanoffs. Sentry Number 4 had picked it up on his post an hour +before the dawn—a letter addressed in bold hand to Major Stanley Flint, +commanding Fort Frayne, and, presuming the major himself had dropped it, +he turned it over to the corporal of his relief, and so it found its way +toward reveillé into the hands of old McGann, wheezing about his work of +building fires, and Michael laid it on the major's table and thought no +more about it until two hours later, when the major roused and read, and +then a row began that ended only with the other worries of his +incumbency at Frayne.</p> + +<p>Secretly Flint was still doing his best to discover the bearer when came +the bold riders from the north with their thrilling news. Secretly, he +had been over at the guard-house interviewing as best he could, by the +aid of an unwilling clerk who spoke a little Sioux, a young Indian girl +whom Crabb's convalescent squad, four in number, had most unexpectedly +run down when sent scouting five miles up the Platte, and brought, +screaming, scratching and protesting back to Frayne. Her pony had been +killed in the dash to escape, and the two Indians with her seemed to be +young lads not yet well schooled as warriors, for they rode away +pellmell over the prairie, leaving the girl to the mercy of the +soldiers. Flint believed her to be connected in some way with the coming +of the disturbing note, which was why he compelled her detention at the +guard-house. Under Webb's <i>régime</i> she would have been questioned by +Hay, or some one of his household. Under Flint, no one of Hay's family +or retainers could be allowed to see her. He regarded it as most +significant that her shrillest screams and fiercest resistance should +have been reserved until just as her guardians were bearing her past the +trader's house. She had the little light prison room to herself all that +wintry morning, and there, disdainful of bunk or chair, enveloped in her +blanket, she squatted disconsolate, greeting all questioners with +defiant and fearless shruggings and inarticulate protest. Not a syllable +of explanation, not a shred of news could their best endeavors wring +from her. Yet her glittering eyes were surely in search of some one, for +she looked up eagerly every time the door was opened, and Flint was just +beginning to think he would have to send for Mrs. Hay when the couriers +came with their stirring news and he had to drop other affairs in order +to forward this important matter to headquarters.</p> + +<p>Once again, it seems, Trooper Kennedy had been entrusted with +distinguished duty, for it was he who came trotting foremost up the +road, waving his despatch on high. A comrade from Blake's troop, +following through the ford, had turned to the left and led his horse up +the steep to the quarters nearest the flagstaff. This time there was no +big-hearted post commander to bid the Irishman refresh himself <i>ad +libitum</i>. Flint was alone at his office at the moment, and knew not this +strange trooper, and looked askance at his heterodox garb and war-worn +guise. Such laxity, said he to himself, was not permitted where <i>he</i> had +hitherto served, which was never on Indian campaign. Kennedy, having +delivered his despatches, stood mutely expectant of question and +struggling with an Irishman's enthusiastic eagerness to tell the details +of heady fight. But Flint had but one method of getting at facts—the +official reports—and Kennedy stood unnoticed until, impatient at last, +he queried:—</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, sir, but may we put up our horses?"</p> + +<p>"Who's we?" asked the major, bluntly. "And where are the others?"</p> + +<p>"Trigg, sir—Captain Blake's troop. He went to the captain's quarters +with a package."</p> + +<p>"He should have reported himself first to the post commander," said the +major, who deemed it advisable to make prompt impression on these savage +hunters of savage game.</p> + +<p>"Thim wasn't his ordhers, surr," said Kennedy, with zealous, but +misguided loyalty to his comrades and his regiment.</p> + +<p>"No one has a right, sir, to give orders that are contrary in spirit to +the regulations and customs of the service," answered the commander, +with proper austerity. "Mr. Wilkins," he continued, as the burly +quartermaster came bustling in, "have the other trooper sent to report +at once to me and let this man wait outside till I am ready to see him."</p> + +<p>And so it happened that a dozen members of the garrison gathered, from +the lips of a participant, stirring particulars of a spirited chase and +fight that set soldiers to cheering and women and children to +extravagant scenes of rejoicing before the official head of the garrison +was fairly ready to give out the news. Kennedy had taken satisfaction +for the commander's slights by telling the tidings broadcast to the +crowd that quickly gathered, and, in three minutes, the word was flying +from lip to lip that the troops had run down Lame Wolf's main village +after an all day, all night rush to head them off, and that with very +small loss they had been able to capture many of the families and to +scatter the warriors among the hills. In brief, while Henry, with the +main body, had followed the trail of the fighting band, Webb had been +detached and, with two squadrons, had ridden hard after a Shoshone guide +who led them by a short cut through the range and enabled them to pounce +on the village where were most of Lame Wolf's noncombatants, guarded +only by a small party of warriors, and, while Captains Billings and Ray +with their troops remained in charge of these captives, Webb, with Blake +and the others had pushed on in pursuit of certain braves who had +scampered into the thick of the hills, carrying a few of the wounded and +prisoners with them. Among those captured, or recaptured, were Mr. Hay +and Crapaud. Among those who had been spirited away was Nanette Flower. +This seemed strange and unaccountable.</p> + +<p>And yet Blake had found time to write to his winsome wife,—to send her +an important missive and most important bit of news. It was with these +she came running in to Mrs. Ray before the latter had time to half read +the long letter received from her soldier husband, and we take the facts +in the order of their revelation.</p> + +<p>"Think of it, Maidie!" she cried. "Think of it! Gerald's first words, +almost, are 'Take good care of that pouch and contents,' and now pouch +and contents are gone! Whoever dreamed that they would be of such +consequence? He says the newspaper will explain."</p> + +<p>And presently the two bonny heads were bent over the big sheets of a +dingy, grimy copy of a Philadelphia daily, and there, on an inner page, +heavily marked, appeared a strange item, and this Quaker City journal +had been picked up in an Ogalalla camp. The item read as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">AN UNTAMED SIOUX</p> + +<p>The authorities of the Carlisle School and the police of Harrisburg +are hunting high and low for a young Indian known to the records of +the Academy as Ralph Moreau, but borne on the payrolls of Buffalo +Bill's Wild West aggregation as Eagle Wing—a youth who is credited +with having given the renowned scout-showman more trouble than all +his braves, bronchos and "busters" thereof combined. Being of +superb physique and a daring horseman, Moreau had been forgiven +many a peccadillo, and had followed the fortunes of the show two +consecutive summers until Cody finally had to get rid of him as an +intolerable nuisance.</p> + +<p>It seems that when a lad of eighteen, "Eagle Wing" had been sent to +Carlisle, where he ran the gamut of scrapes of every conceivable +kind. He spoke English picked up about the agencies; had +influential friends and, in some clandestine way, received +occasional supplies of money that enabled him to take French leave +when he felt like it. He was sent back from Carlisle to Dakota as +irreclaimable, and after a year or two on his native heath, +reappeared among the haunts of civilization as one of Buffalo +Bill's warriors. Bill discharged him at Cincinnati and, at the +instance of the Indian Bureau, he was again placed at Carlisle, +only to repeat on a larger scale his earlier exploits and secure a +second transfer to the Plains, where his opportunities for +devilment were limited. Then Cody was induced to take him on again +by profuse promises of good behavior, which were kept until +Pennsylvania soil was reached two weeks ago, when he broke loose +again; was seen in store clothes around West Philadelphia for a few +days, plentifully supplied with money, and next he turned up in the +streets of Carlisle, where he assaulted an attaché of the school, +whose life was barely saved by the prompt efforts of other Indian +students. Moreau escaped to Harrisburg, which he proceeded to paint +his favorite color that very night, and wound up the entertainment +by galloping away on the horse of a prominent official, who had +essayed to escort him back to Carlisle. It is believed that he is +now in hiding somewhere about the suburbs, and that an innate +propensity for devilment will speedily betray him to the clutches +of the law.</p></div> + +<p>A few moments after reading this oddly interesting story the two friends +were in consultation with Mrs. Dade, who, in turn, called in Dr. Waller, +just returning from the hospital and a not too satisfactory visit to Mr. +Field. There had been a slight change for the better in the condition of +General Field that had enabled Dr. Lorain of Fort Russell and a local +physician to arrange for his speedy transfer to Cheyenne. This had in a +measure relieved the anxiety of Waller's patient, but never yet had the +veteran practitioner permitted him to know that he was practically a +prisoner as well as a patient. Waller feared the result on so +high-strung a temperament, and had made young Field believe that, when +strong and well enough to attempt the journey, he should be sent to Rock +Springs. Indeed, Dr. Waller had no intention of submitting to Major +Flint's decision as final. He had written personally to the medical +director of the department, acquainting him with the facts, and, +meanwhile, had withdrawn himself as far as possible, officially and +socially, from the limited circle in which moved his perturbed +commanding officer.</p> + +<p>He was at a distant point of the garrison, therefore, and listening to +the excited and vehement comments of the younger of the three women upon +this strange newspaper story, and its possible connection with matters +at Frayne, at the moment when a dramatic scene was being enacted over +beyond the guard-house.</p> + +<p>Kennedy was still the center of a little group of eager listeners when +Pink Marble, factotum of the trader's store, came hurrying forth from +the adjutant's office, speedily followed by Major Flint. "You may tell +Mrs. Hay that while I cannot permit her to visit the prisoner," he +called after the clerk, "I will send the girl over—under suitable +guard."</p> + +<p>To this Mr. Marble merely shrugged his shoulders and went on. He fancied +Flint no more than did the relics of the original garrison. A little +later Flint personally gave an order to the sergeant of the guard and +then came commotion.</p> + +<p>First there were stifled sounds of scuffle from the interior of the +guard-house; then shrill, wrathful screams; then a woman's voice +unlifted in wild upbraidings in an unknown tongue, at sound of which +Trooper Kennedy dropped his rein and his jaw, stood staring one minute; +then, with the exclamation: "Mother of God, but I know that woman!" +burst his way through the crowd and ran toward the old log blockhouse at +the gate,—the temporary post of the guard. Just as he turned the corner +of the building, almost stumbling against the post commander, there came +bursting forth from the dark interior a young woman of the Sioux, +daring, furious, raging, and, breaking loose from the grasp of the two +luckless soldiers who had her by the arms, away she darted down the +road, still screaming like some infuriated child, and rushed straight +for the open gateway of the Hays. Of course the guard hastened in +pursuit, the major shouting "Stop her! Catch her!" and the men striving +to appear to obey, yet shirking the feat of seizing the fleeing woman. +Fancy, then, the amaze of the swiftly following spectators when the +trader's front door was thrown wide open and Mrs. Hay herself sprang +forth. Another instant and the two women had met at the gate. Another +instant still, and, with one motherly arm twining about the quivering, +panting, pleading girl and straining her to the motherly heart, Mrs. +Hay's right hand and arm flew up in the superb gesture known the wide +frontier over as the Indian signal "Halt!" And halt they did, every +mother's son save Kennedy, who sprang to the side of the girl and faced +the men in blue. And then another woman's voice, rich, deep, ringing, +powerful, fell on the ears of the amazed, swift-gathering throng, with +the marvellous order: "Stand where you are! You shan't touch a hair of +her head! She's a chief's daughter. She's my own kin and I'll answer for +her to the general himself. As for you," she added, turning now and +glaring straight at the astounded Flint, all the pent-up sense of wrath, +indignity, shame and wrong overmastering any thought of prudence or of +"the divinity that doth hedge" the commanding officer, "As for you," she +cried, "I pity you when our own get back again! God help you, Stanley +Flint, the moment my husband sets eyes on you. D'you know the message +that came to him this day?" And now the words rang louder and clearer, +as she addressed the throng. "<i>I</i> do, and so do officers and gentlemen +who'd be shamed to have to shake hands with such as he. He's got my +husband's note about him now, and what my husband wrote was this—'I +charge myself with every dollar you charge to Field, and with the +further obligation of thrashing you on sight'—and, mark you, he'll do +it!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XX</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">THE SIOUX SURROUNDED</a></h3> + + +<p>In the hush of the wintry night, under a leaden sky, with snowflakes +falling thick and fast and mantling the hills in fleecy white, Webb's +column had halted among the sturdy pines, the men exchanging muttered, +low-toned query and comment, the horses standing with bowed heads, +occasionally pawing the soft coverlet and sniffing curiously at this +filmy barrier to the bunch grass they sought in vain. They had feasted +together, these comrade troopers and chargers, ere the sun went +down,—the men on abundant rations of agency bacon, flour and brown +sugar, found with black tailed deer and mountain sheep in abundance in +the captured village, and eked out by supplies from the pack train,—the +horses on big "blankets" of oats set before them by sympathetic friends +and masters. Then, when the skies were fairly dark, Webb had ordered +little fires lighted all along the bank of the stream, leaving the men +of Ray's and Billings' troops to keep them blazing through the long +night watches to create the impression among the lurking Sioux that the +whole force was still there, guarding the big village it had captured in +the early afternoon, and then, in silence, the troopers had saddled and +jogged away into the heart of the hills, close on the heels of their +guides.</p> + +<p>There had been little time to look over the captures. The main interest +of both officers and men, of course, centred in Mr. Hay, who was found +in one of the tepees, prostrate from illness and half frantic from fever +and strong mental excitement. He had later tidings from Frayne, it +seems, than had his rescuers. He could assure them of the health and +safety of their wives and little ones, but would not tell them what was +amiss in his own household. One significant question he asked: Did any +of them know this new Major Flint? No? Well, God help Flint, if ever he, +Hay, got hold of him.</p> + +<p>"He's delirious," whispered Webb, and rode away in that conviction, +leaving him to Ray and Billings.</p> + +<p>Three miles out, on the tortuous trail of the pursued, the column halted +and dismounted among the pines. Then there was brief conference, and the +word "Mount" was whispered along the Beecher squadron, while Blake's men +stood fast. With a parting clasp of the hand Webb and "Legs" had +returned to the head of their respective commands, "Legs" and his +fellows to follow steadily the Indian trail through the twisting ravines +of the foothills; Webb to make an all-night forced march, in wide +<i>détour</i> and determined effort, to head off the escaping warriors before +they could reach the rocky fastnesses back of Bear Cliff. Webb's chief +scout "Bat," chosen by General Crook himself, had been a captive among +the Sioux through long years of his boyhood, and knew the Big Horn +range as Webb did the banks of the Wabash. "They can stand off a +thousand soldiers," said the guide, "if once they get into the rocks. +They'd have gone there first off only there was no water. Now there's +plenty snow."</p> + +<p>So Blake's instructions were to follow them without pushing, to let them +feel they were being pursued, yet by no means to hasten them, and, if +the general's favorite scout proved to be all he promised as guide and +pathfinder, Webb might reasonably hope by dint of hard night riding, to +be first at the tryst at break of day. Then they would have the +retreating Sioux, hampered by their few wounded and certain prisoners +whom they prized, hemmed between rocky heights on every side, and sturdy +horsemen front and rear.</p> + +<p>It was eight by the watch at the parting of the ways. It was 8:30 when +Blake retook the trail, with Sergeants Schreiber and Winsor, the latter +borrowed from Ray, far in the van. Even had the ground been hard and +stony these keen-eyed soldier scouts could have followed the signs +almost as unerringly as the Indians, for each had had long years of +experience all over the West; but, despite the steadily falling snow, +the traces of hoofs and, for a time, of <i>travois</i> poles could be readily +seen and followed in the dim gray light of the blanketed skies. +Somewhere aloft, above the film of cloud, the silvery moon was shining, +and that was illumination more than enough for men of their years on the +trail.</p> + +<p>For over an hour Blake followed the windings of a ravine that grew +closer and steeper as it burrowed into the hills. Old game trails are as +good as turnpikes in the eyes of the plainsman. It was when the ravine +began to split into branches that the problem might have puzzled them, +had not the white fleece lain two inches deep on the level when "Lo" +made his dash to escape. Now the rough edges of the original impression +were merely rounded over by the new fallen snow. The hollows and ruts +and depressions led on from one deep cleft into another, and by midnight +Blake felt sure the quarry could be but a few miles ahead and Bear Cliff +barely five hours' march away. So, noiselessly, the signal "Halt!" went +rearward down the long, dark, sinuous column of twos, and every man +slipped out of saddle—some of them stamping, so numb were their feet. +With every mile the air had grown keener and colder. They were glad when +the next word whispered was, "Lead on" instead of "Mount."</p> + +<p>By this time they were far up among the pine-fringed heights, with the +broad valley of the Big Horn lying outspread to the west, invisible as +the stars above, and neither by ringing shot nor winged arrow had the +leaders known the faintest check. It seemed as though the Indians, in +their desperate effort to carry off the most important or valued of +their charges, were bending all their energies to expediting the +retreat. Time enough to turn on the pursuers when once the rocks had +closed about them,—when the wounded were safe in the fastnesses, and +the pursuers far from supports. But, at the foot of a steep ascent, the +two leading scouts,—rival sergeants of rival troops but devoted friends +for nearly twenty years,—were seen by the next in column, a single +corporal following them at thirty yards' distance, to halt and begin +poking at some dark object by the wayside. Then they pushed on again. A +dead pony, under a quarter inch coverlet of snow, was what met the eyes +of the silently trudging command as it followed. The high-peaked wooden +saddle tree was still "cinched" to the stiffening carcass. Either the +Indians were pushed for time or overstocked with saddlery. Presently +there came a low whistle from the military "middleman" between the +scouts and a little advance guard. "Run ahead," growled the sergeant +commanding to his boy trumpeter. "Give me your reins." And, leaving his +horse, the youngster stumbled along up the winding trail; got his +message and waited. "Give this to the captain," was the word sent back +by Schreiber, and "this" was a mitten of Indian tanned buckskin, soft +and warm if unsightly, a mitten too small for a warrior's hand, if ever +warrior deigned to wear one,—a mitten the captain examined curiously, +as he ploughed ahead of his main body, and then returned to his +subaltern with a grin on his face:</p> + +<p>"Beauty draws us with a single hair," said he, "and can't shake us even +when she gives us the mitten. Ross," he added, after a moment's thought, +"remember this. With this gang there are two or three sub-chiefs that we +should get, alive or dead, but the chief end of man, so far as 'K' +Troop's concerned, is to capture that girl, unharmed."</p> + +<p>And just at dawn, so gray and wan and pallid it could hardly be told +from the pale moonlight of the earlier hours, the dark, snake-like +column was halted again, nine miles further in among the wooded heights. +With Bear Cliff still out of range and sight, something had stopped the +scouts, and Blake was needed at the front. He found Schreiber crouching +at the foot of a tree, gazing warily forward along a southward-sloping +face of the mountain that was sparsely covered with tall, straight +pines, and that faded into mist a few hundred yards away. The +trail,—the main trail, that is,—seemed to go straight away eastward, +and, for a short distance, downward through a hollow or depression; +while, up the mountain side to the left, the north, following the spur +or shoulder, there were signs as of hoof tracks, half sheeted by the +new-fallen snow, and through this fresh, fleecy mantlet ploughed the +trooper boots in rude, insistent pursuit. The sergeants' horses were +held by a third soldier a few yards back behind the spur, for Winsor was +"side scouting" up the heights.</p> + +<p>The snowfall had ceased for a time. The light was growing broader every +moment, and presently a soft whistle sounded somewhere up the steep, and +Schreiber answered. "He wants us, sir," was all he said, and in five +minutes they had found him, sprawled on his stomach on a projecting +ledge, and pointing southeastward, where, boldly outlined against the +gray of the morning sky, a black and beetling precipice towered from +the mist-wreathed pines at its base. Bear Cliff beyond a doubt!</p> + +<p>"How far, sergeant?" asked the captain, never too reliant on his powers +of judging distance.</p> + +<p>"Five miles, sir, at least; yet some three or four Indians have turned +off here and gone—somewhere up there." And, rolling half over, Winsor +pointed again toward a wooded bluff, perhaps three hundred feet higher +and half a mile away. "That's probably the best lookout this side of the +cliff itself!" he continued, in explanation, as he saw the puzzled look +on the captain's face. "From there, likely, they can see the trail over +the divide—the one Little Bat is leading the major and, if they've made +any time at all, the squadron should be at Bear Cliff now."</p> + +<p>They were crawling to him by this time, Blake and Schreiber, among the +stunted cedars that grew thickly along the rocky ledge. Winsor, flat +again on his stomach, sprawled like a squirrel close to the brink. Every +moment as the skies grew brighter the panorama before them became more +extensive, a glorious sweep of highland scenery, of boldly tossing +ridges east and south and west—the slopes all mantled, the trees all +tipped, with nature's ermine, and studded now with myriad gems, taking +fire at the first touch of the day god's messenger, as the mighty king +himself burst his halo of circling cloud and came peering over the low +curtain far at the eastward horizon. Chill and darkness and shrouding +vapor vanished all in a breath as he rose, dominant over countless +leagues of wild, unbroken, yet magnificent mountain landscape.</p> + +<p>"Worth every hour of watch and mile of climb!" muttered Blake. "But it's +Indians, not scenery, we're after. What are we here for, Winsor?" and +narrowly he eyed Ray's famous right bower.</p> + +<p>"If the major got there first, sir,—and I believe he did,—they have to +send the prisoners and wounded back this way."</p> + +<p>"Then we've got 'em!" broke in Schreiber, low-toned, but exultant. "Look +sir," he added, as he pointed along the range. "They are signalling +now."</p> + +<p>From the wooded height ten hundred yards away, curious little puffs of +smoke, one following another, were sailing straight for the zenith, and +Blake, screwing his field glasses to the focus, swept with them the +mountain side toward the five-mile distant cliff, and presently the +muscles about his mouth began to twitch—sure sign with Blake of +gathering excitement.</p> + +<p>"You're right, sergeant," he presently spoke, repressing the desire to +shout, and striving, lest Winsor should be moved to invidious +comparisons, to seem as <i>nonchalant</i> as Billy Ray himself. "They're +coming back already." Then down the mountain side he dove to plan and +prepare appropriate welcome, leaving Winsor and the glasses to keep +double powered watch on the situation.</p> + +<p>Six-fifty of a glorious, keen November morning, and sixty troopers of +the old regiment were distributed along a spur that crossed, almost at +right angles, the line of the Indian trail. Sixty fur-capped, +rough-coated fellows, with their short brown carbines in hand, crouching +behind rocks and fallen trees, keeping close to cover and warned to +utter silence. Behind them, two hundred yards away, their horses were +huddled under charge of their disgusted guards, envious of their fellows +at the front, and cursing hard their luck in counting off as number +four. Schreiber had just come sliding, stumbling, down from Winsor's +perch to say they could hear faint sound of sharp volleying far out to +the eastward, where the warriors, evidently, were trying to "stand off" +Webb's skirmish line until the <i>travois</i> with the wounded and the escort +of the possible prisoners should succeed in getting back out of harm's +way and taking surer and higher trail into the thick of the wilderness +back of Bear Cliff. "Some of 'em must come in sight here in a minute, +sir," panted the veteran sergeant. "We could see them plainly up +there—a mule litter and four <i>travois</i>, and there must be a dozen in +saddle."</p> + +<p>A dozen there were, for along the line of crouching men went sudden +thrill of excitement. Shoulders began to heave; nervous thumbs bore down +on heavy carbine hammers, and there was sound of irrepressible stir and +murmur. Out among the pines, five hundred yards away, two mounted +Indians popped suddenly into view, two others speedily following, their +well-nigh exhausted ponies feebly shaking their shaggy, protesting +heads, as their riders plied the stinging quirt or jabbed with cruel +lance; only in painful jog trot could they zig zag through the trees. +Then came two warriors, leading the pony of a crippled comrade. "Don't +fire—Don't harm them! Fall back from the trail there and let them in. +They'll halt the moment they see our tracks! Get 'em alive, if +possible!" were Blake's rapid orders, for his eyes were eagerly fixed on +other objects beyond these dejected leaders—upon stumbling mules, +lashed fore and aft between long, spliced saplings and bearing thus a +rude litter—Hay's pet wheelers turned to hospital use. An Indian boy, +mounted, led the foremost mule; another watched the second; while, on +each side of the occupant of this Sioux palanquin, jogged a blanketed +rider on jaded pony. Here was a personage of consequence—luckier much +than these others following, dragged along on <i>travois</i> whose trailing +poles came jolting over stone or hummock along the rugged path. It was +on these that Blake's glittering eyes were fastened. "Pounce on the +leaders, you that are nearest!" he ordered, in low, telling tones, the +men at his left; then turned to Schreiber, crouching close beside him, +the fringe of his buckskin hunting shirt quivering over his bounding +heart. "There's the prize I want," he muttered low. "Whatever you do, +let no shot reach that litter. Charge with me the moment the leaders +yell. You men to the right," he added, slightly raising his voice, "be +ready to jump with me. Don't shoot anybody that doesn't show fight. Nab +everything in sight."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/006.jpg" alt="Charge with me the moment the leaders yell" /> +<a name="CHARGE" id="CHARGE"></a><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Charge with me the moment the leaders yell.</span>" +</div> + +<p>"Whoo-oop!" All in a second the mountain woke, the welkin rang, to a +yell of warning from the lips of the leading Sioux. All in a second +they whirled their ponies about and darted back. All in that second +Blake and his nearmost sprang to their feet and flung themselves forward +straight for the startled convoy. In vain the few warriors bravely +rallied about their foremost wounded; the unwieldy litter could not turn +about; the frantic mules, crazed by the instant pandemonium of shouts +and shots,—the onward rush of charging men,—the awful screams of a +brace of squaws, broke from their leading reins; crashed with their +litter against the trees, hurling the luckless occupant to earth. Back +drove the unhit warriors before the dash of the cheering line. Down went +first one pony, then a second, in his bloody tracks. One after another, +litter, <i>travois</i>, wounded and prisoner, was clutched and seized by +stalwart hands, and Blake, panting not a little, found himself bending +staring over the prostrate form flung from the splintered wreck of the +litter, a form writhing in pain that forced no sound whatever from +between grimly clinching teeth, yet that baffled effort, almost superb, +to rise and battle still—a form magnificent in its proportions, yet +helpless through wounds and weakness. Not the form Blake thought to see, +of shrinking, delicate, dainty woman, but that of the furious warrior +who thrice had dared him on the open field—the red brave well known to +him by sight and deed within the moon now waning, but, only within the +day gone by, revealed to him as the renegade Ralph Moreau,—Eagle Wing +of the Ogalalla Sioux.</p> + +<p>Where then was Nanette?</p> + +<p>"Look out for this man, corporal!" he called, to a shouting young +trooper. "See that no harm comes to him." Then quickly he ran on to the +huddle of <i>travois</i>. Something assured him she could not be far away. +The first drag litter held another young warrior, sullen and speechless +like the foremost. The next bore a desperately wounded brave whose +bloodless lips were compressed in agony and dumb as those of the dead. +About these cowered, shivering and whimpering, two or three +terror-stricken squaws, one of them with a round-eyed pappoose staring +at her back. A pony lay struggling in the snow close by. Half a dozen +rough soldier hands were dragging a stricken rider from underneath. Half +a dozen more were striving to control the wild plungings of another +mettlesome little beast, whose rider, sitting firmly astride, lashed +first at his quivering flank and then at the fur gauntleted hands,—even +at the laughing, bearded faces—sure sign of another squaw, and a game +one. Far out to the front the crackle of carbine and rifle told that +Webb was driving the scattered braves before him,—that the comrade +squadron was coming their way,—that Bear Cliff had been sought by the +Sioux in vain,—that Indian wiles and strategy, Indian pluck and staying +power, all had more than met their match. Whatever the fate of Lame +Wolf's fighting force, now pressed by Henry's column, far in the +southward hills, here in sight of the broad Big Horn valley, the white +chief had struck a vital blow. Village, villagers, wounded and prisoners +were all the spoil of the hated soldiery. Here at the scene of Blake's +minor affair there appeared still in saddle just one undaunted, +unconquered amazon whose black eyes flashed through the woolen hood that +hid the rest of her face, whose lips had uttered as yet no sound, but +from whom two soldiers recoiled at the cry of a third. "Look at the hand +of her, fellers! It's whiter than mine!"</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Lanigan," answered the jovial voice of the leader +they loved and laughed with. "Hold that pony steady. Now, by +your-ladyship's leave," and two long, sinewy arms went circling about +the shrinking rider's waist, and a struggling form was lifted +straightway out of saddle and deposited, not too gracefully, on its +moccasined feet. "We will remove this one impediment to your speech," +continued Blake, whereat the muffling worsted was swiftly unwound, "and +then we will listen to our meed of thanks. Ah, no wonder you did not +need a side-saddle that night at Frayne. You ride admirably <i>à +califourchon</i>. My compliments, Mademoiselle La Fleur; or should I +say—Madame Moreau."</p> + +<p>For all answer Blake received one quick, stinging slap in the face from +that mittenless little right hand.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XXI</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">THANKSGIVING AT FRAYNE</a></h3> + + +<p>Thanksgiving Day at Frayne! Much of the garrison was still afield, +bringing back to their lines and, let us hope, to their senses, the +remnant of Stabber's band, chased far into the Sweetwater Hills before +they would stop, while Henry's column kept Lame Wolf in such active +movement the misnamed chieftain richly won his later sobriquet "The +Skipper." The general had come whirling back from Beecher in his Concord +wagon, to meet Mr. Hay as they bore that invalid homeward from the Big +Horn. Between the fever-weakened trader and the famous frontier soldier +there had been brief conference—all that the doctors felt they could +allow—and then the former had been put to bed under the care of his +devoted wife, while the latter, without so much as sight of a pillow, +had set forth again out Sweetwater way to wind up the campaign. This +time he went in saddle, sending his own team over the range of the +Medicine Bow to carry a convalescent subaltern to the side of a stricken +father; the sender ignorant, possibly, of the post commander's +prohibition; ignoring it, if, as probable, it was known to him. The good +old doctor himself had bundled the grateful lad and sent a special +hospital attendant with him. Mrs. Dade and her devoted allies up the row +had filled with goodies a wonderful luncheon basket, while Mrs. Hay had +sent stores of wine for the use of both invalids, and had come down +herself to see the start, for, without a word indicative of reproof, the +general had bidden Flint remove the blockade, simply saying he would +assume all responsibility, both for Mrs. Hay and the young Indian girl, +given refuge under the trader's roof until the coming of her own people +still out with Stabber's band. Flint could not fathom it. He could only +obey.</p> + +<p>And now, with the general gone and Beverly Field away, with Hay home and +secluded, by order, from all questioning or other extraneous worry; with +the wounded soldiers safely trundled into hospital, garrison interest +seemed to centre for the time mainly in that little Ogalalla +maid—Flint's sole Sioux captive—who was housed, said the much +interrogated domestic, in Mrs. Hay's own room instead of Miss Flower's, +while the lady of the house, when she slept at all, occupied a sofa near +her husband's bedside.</p> + +<p>Then came the tidings that Blake, with the prisoners from No Wood Creek +and Bear Cliff was close at hand, and everybody looked with eager eyes +for the coming across the snowy prairie of that homeward bound +convoy—that big village of the Sioux, with its distinguished captives, +wounded and unwounded; one of the former, the young sub-chief Eagle +Wing, alias Moreau;—one of the latter a self-constituted martyr, since +she was under no official restraint,—Nanette Flower, hovering ever +about the litter bearing that sullen and still defiant brave, whose side +she refused to leave.</p> + +<p>Not until they reached Fort Frayne; not until the surgeon, after careful +examination, declared there was no need of taking Moreau into +hospital,—no reason why he should not be confined in the prison room of +the guard-house,—were they able to induce the silent, almost desperate +girl to return to her aunt. Not until Nanette realized that her warrior +was to be housed within wooden walls whence she would be excluded, could +Mrs. Hay, devoted to the last, persuade the girl to reoccupy her old +room and to resume the dress of civilization. Barring that worsted hood, +she was habited like a chieftain's daughter, in gaily beaded and +embroidered garments, when recaptured by Blake's command. Once within +the trader's door, she had shut herself in her old room, the second +floor front, refusing to see anybody from outside the house, unless she +could be permitted to receive visits from the captive Sioux, and this +the major, flintily, forebade. It was nightfall when the litter-bearers +reached the post, Hay's rejoicing mules braying unmelodious ecstasy at +sight of their old stable. It was dark when the wounded chief was borne +into the guard-house, uttering not a sound, and Nanette was led within +the trader's door, yet someone had managed to see her face, for the +story went all over the wondering post that very night,—women flitting +with it from door to door,—that every vestige of her beauty was +gone;—she looked at least a dozen years older. Blake, when questioned, +after the first rapture of the home-coming had subsided, would neither +affirm nor deny. "She would neither speak to me nor harken," said he, +whimsically. "The only thing she showed was teeth and—temper."</p> + +<p>Then presently they sent a lot of the Sioux—Stabber's villagers and +Lame Wolf's combined,—by easy stages down the Platte to Laramie, and +then around by Rawhide and the Niobrara to the old Red Cloud agency, +there to be fed and coddled and cared for, wounded warriors and all, +except a certain few, including this accomplished orator and chieftain, +convalescing under guard at Frayne. About his case there hung details +and complications far too many and intricate to be settled short of a +commission. Already had the tidings of this most important capture +reached the distant East. Already both Indian Bureau and Peace Societies +had begun to wire the general in the field and "work" the President and +the Press at home. Forgotten was the fact that he had been an +intolerable nuisance to Buffalo Bill and others who had undertaken to +educate and civilize him. The Wild West Show was now amazing European +capitals and, therefore, beyond consulting distance. Forgotten were +escapades at Harrisburg, Carlisle and Philadelphia. Suppressed were +circumstances connecting him with graver charges than those of repeated +roistering and aggravated assault. Ignored, or as yet unheard, were the +details of his reappearance on the frontier in time to stir up most of +the war spirit developed that September, and to take a leading part in +the fierce campaign that followed. He was a pupil of the nation, said +the good people of the Indian Friends Societies—a youth of exceptional +intelligence and promise, a son of the Sioux whose influence would be of +priceless value could he be induced to complete his education and accept +the views and projects of his eastern admirers. It would never do to let +his case be settled by soldiers, settlers and cowboys, said +philanthropy. They would hang him, starve him, break his spirit at the +very least. (They were treating him particularly well just now, as he +had sense enough to see.) There must be a deputation,—a committee to go +out at once to the West, with proper credentials, per diem, mileage and +clerks, to see to it that these unfortunate children of the mountain and +prairie were accorded fair treatment and restored to their rights, +especially this brilliant young man Moreau. The general was beyond reach +and reasoning with, but there was Flint, eminent for his piety, and +untrammelled in command; Flint, with aspirations of his own, the very +man to welcome such influence as theirs, and, correspondingly, to give +ear to their propositions. Two days after the safe lodgment of Eagle +Wing behind the bars, the telegrams were coming by dozens, and one week +after that deserved incarceration Fort Frayne heard with mild +bewilderment the major's order for Moreau's transfer to the hospital. By +that time letters, too, were beginning to come, and, two nights after +this removal to the little room but lately occupied by Lieutenant +Field—this very Thanksgiving night, in fact,—the single sentry at the +door stood attention to the commanding officer, who in person ushered +in a womanly form enveloped in hooded cloak, and with bowed head Nanette +Flower passed within the guarded portal, which then closed behind her +and left her alone with her wounded brave.</p> + +<p>Blake and Billings had been sent on to Red Cloud, guarding the +presumably repentant Ogalallas. Webb, Ray, Gregg and Ross were still +afield, in chase of Stabber. Dade, with four companies of infantry, was +in the Big Horn guarding Henry's wagon train. There was no one now at +Frayne in position to ask the new commander questions, for Dr. Waller +had avoided him in every possible way, but Waller had nobly done the +work of his noble profession. Moreau, or Eagle Wing, was mending so very +fast there was no reason whatever why the doctor should object to his +receiving visitors. It was Flint alone who would be held responsible if +anything went wrong. Yet Fort Frayne, to a woman, took fire at the +major's action. Two days previous he might have commanded the support of +Mrs. Wilkins, but Nanette herself had spoiled all chance of that. It +seems the lady had been to call at Mrs. Hay's the previous day—that +Mrs. Hay had begged to be excused,—that Mrs. Wilkins had then +persisted, possibly as a result of recent conference with Flint, and had +bidden the servant say she'd wait until Miss Flower could come down, and +so sailed on into the parlor, intent on seeing all she could of both the +house and its inmates. But not a soul appeared. Mrs. Hay was watching +over her sleeping husband, whose slow recovery Flint was noting with +unimpatient eye. Voices low, yet eager, could be heard aloft in +Nanette's room. The servant, when she came down, had returned without a +word to the inner regions about the kitchen, and Mrs. Wilkins's wait +became a long one. At last the domestic came rustling through the lower +floor again, and Mrs. Wilkins hailed. Both were Irish, but one was the +wife of an officer and long a power, if not indeed a terror, in the +regiment. The other feared the quartermaster's wife as little as Mrs. +Wilkins feared the colonel's, and, when ordered to stand and say why she +brought no answer from Miss Flower, declined to stand, but decidedly +said she brought none because there was none.</p> + +<p>"Did ye tell her I'd wait?" said Mrs. Wilkins.</p> + +<p>"I did," said Miss McGrath, "an' she said 'Let her,' an' so I did." Then +in came Mrs. Hay imploring hush, and, with rage in her Hibernian heart, +the consort of the quartermaster came away.</p> + +<p>There was not one woman in all Fort Frayne, therefore, to approve the +major's action in permitting this wild girl to visit the wilder Indian +patient. Mrs. Hay knew nothing of it because Nanette well understood +that there would be lodged objection that she dare not disregard—her +uncle's will. One other girl there was, that night at Frayne, who marked +her going and sought to follow and was recalled, restrained at the very +threshold by the sound of a beloved voice softly, in the Sioux tongue, +calling her name. One other girl there was who knew not of her going, +who shrank from thought of meeting her at any time,—in any place,—and +yet was destined to an encounter fateful in its results in every way.</p> + +<p>Just as tattoo was sounding on the infantry bugle, Esther Dade sat +reading fairy stories at the children's bedside in the quarters of +Sergeant Foster, of her father's company. There had been Thanksgiving +dinner with Mrs. Ray, an Amazonian feast since all their lords were +still away on service, and Sandy Ray and Billy, Jr., were perhaps too +young to count. Dinner was all over by eight o'clock, and, despite some +merry games, the youngsters' eyes were showing symptoms of the sandman's +coming, when that privileged character, Hogan, Ray's long-tried trooper +now turned <i>major domo</i>, appeared at the doorway of the little army +parlor. He had been bearer of a lot of goodies to the children among the +quarters of the married soldiers, and now, would Mrs. Dade please speak +with Mrs. Foster, who had come over with him, and Mrs. Dade departed for +the kitchen forthwith. Presently she returned. "I'm going back awhile +with Mrs. Foster," said she. "She's sitting up to-night with poor Mrs. +Wing, who—" But there was no need of explanation. They all knew. They +had laid so recently their wreaths of evergreen on the grave of the +gallant soldier who fell, fighting at the Elk, and now another helpless +little soul had come to bear the buried name, and all that were left for +mother and babe was woman's boundless charity. It was Thanksgiving +night, and while the wail of the bereaved and stricken went up from more +than one of these humble tenements below the eastward bluff, there were +scores of glad and grateful hearts that lifted praise and thanksgiving +to the throne on high, even though they knew not at the moment but that +they, too, might, even then, be robbed of all that stood between them +and desolation. Once it happened in the story of our hard-fighting, +hard-used little army that a bevy of fair young wives, nearly half a +score in number, in all the bravery of their summer toilets, sat in the +shadow of the flag, all smiles and gladness and applause, joining in the +garrison festivities on the Nation's natal day, never dreaming of the +awful news that should fell them ere the coming of another sun; that one +and all they had been widowed more than a week; that the men they loved, +whose names they bore, lay hacked and mutilated beyond recognition +within sight of those very hills where now the men from Frayne were +facing the same old foe. In the midst of army life we are, indeed, in +death, and the thanksgiving of loving ones about the fireside for +mercies thus far shown, is mingled ever with the dread of what the +morrow may unfold.</p> + +<p>"Let me go, too, mamma," was Esther's prompt appeal, as she heard her +mother's words. "I can put the children to bed while you and Mrs. Foster +are over there."</p> + +<p>And so with Hogan, lantern bearing, mother and daughter had followed the +sergeant's wife across the broad, snow-covered parade; had passed +without comment, though each was thinking of the new inmate, the +brightly-lighted hospital building on the edge of the plateau, and +descended the winding pathway to the humble quarters of the married +soldiers, nestling in the sheltered flats between the garrison proper +and the bold bluffs that again close bordered the rushing stream. And +here at Sergeant Foster's doorway Esther parted from the elders, and was +welcomed by shrieks of joy from three sturdy little cherubs—the +sergeant's olive branches, and here, as the last notes of tattoo went +echoing away under the vast and spangled sky, one by one her charges +closed their drooping lids and dropped to sleep and left their gentle +friend and reader to her own reflections.</p> + +<p>There was a soldier dance that night in one of the vacant messrooms. +Flint's two companies were making the best of their isolation, and +found, as is not utterly uncommon, quite a few maids and matrons among +the households of the absent soldiery quite willing to be consoled and +comforted. There were bright lights, therefore, further along the edge +of the steep, beyond those of the hospital, and the squeak of fiddle and +drone of 'cello, mingled with the plaintive piping of the flute, were +heard at intervals through the silence of the wintry night. No tramp of +sentry broke the hush about the little rift between the heights—the +major holding that none was necessary where there were so many dogs. +Most of the soldiers' families had gone to the dance; all of the younger +children were asleep; even the dogs were still, and so, when at ten +o'clock Esther tiptoed from the children's bedside and stood under the +starlight, the murmur of the Platte was the only sound that reached her +ears until, away over at the southwest gate the night guards began the +long-drawn heralding of the hour. "Ten o'clock and all's well" it went +from post to post along the west and northward front, but when Number +Six, at the quartermaster's storehouse near the southeast corner, should +have taken up the cry where it was dropped by Number Five, afar over +near the flagstaff, there was unaccountable silence. Six did not utter a +sound.</p> + +<p>Looking up from the level of "Sudstown," as it had earlier been named, +Esther could see the black bulk of the storehouse close to the edge of +the plateau. Between its westward gable end and the porch of the +hospital lay some fifty yards of open space, and through this gap now +gleamed a spangled section of the western heavens. Along the bluff, just +under the crest, ran a pathway that circled the southeastward corner and +led away to the trader's store, south of the post. Tradition had it that +the track was worn by night raiders, bearing contraband fluids from +store to barracks in the days before such traffic was killed by that +common sense promoter of temperance, soberness and chastity—the post +exchange. Along that bluff line, from the storehouse toward the +hospital, invisible, doubtless, from either building or from the bluff +itself, but thrown in sharp relief against that rectangular inlet of +starry sky, two black figures, crouching and bearing some long, flat +object between them, swift and noiseless were speeding toward the +hospital. The next instant they were lost in the black background of +that building. Then, as suddenly and a moment later, one of them +reappeared, just for a moment, against the brightly lighted +window,—the southernmost window on the easterward side—the window of +the room that had been Beverly Field's—the window of the room now given +over to Eagle Wing, the Sioux,—the captive for whose safe keeping a +special sentry within the building, and this strangely silent Number Six +without, were jointly responsible. Then that silhouetted figure was +blotted from her sight in general darkness, for the lights within as +suddenly went out.</p> + +<p>And at that very moment a sound smote upon her ear, unaccountable at +that hour and that side of the garrison—hoofbeats swiftly coming down +into the hollow from the eastward bluff,—hoofbeats and low, excited +voices. Foster's little house was southernmost of the settlement. The +ground was open between it and the heights, and despite the low, +cautious tones, Esther heard the foremost rider's muttered, angering +words. "Dam fool! Crazy! Heap crazy! Too much hurry. Ought t' let him +call off first!" Then an answer in guttural Sioux.</p> + +<p>And then in an instant it dawned upon the girl that here was new crime, +new bloodshed, perhaps, and a plot to free a villianous captive. Her +first thought was to scream for aid, but what aid could she summon? Not +a man was within hail except these, the merciless haters of her race and +name. To scream would be to invite their ready knives to her heart—to +the heart of any woman who might rush to her succor. The cry died in her +throat, and, trembling with dread and excitement, she clung to the door +post and crouched and listened, for stifled mutterings could be heard, +a curse or two in vigorous English, a stamping of impatient ponies, a +warning in a woman's tone. Then, thank God! Up at the storehouse corner +a light came dancing into view. In honest soldier tones boomed out the +query "What's the matter, Six?" and then, followed by a scurry of hoofs, +a mad lashing of quirts, a scramble and rush of frightened steeds, and a +cursing of furious tongues, her own brave young voice rang out on the +night. "This way, sergeant! Help—Quick!"</p> + +<p>Black forms of mounts and riders sped desperately away, and then with +all the wiry, sinewy strength of her lithe and slender form, Esther +hurled herself upon another slender figure, speeding after these, afoot. +Desperately she clung to it in spite of savage blows and strainings. And +so they found her, as forth they came,—a rush of shrieking, startled, +candle-bearing women,—of bewildered and unconsciously blasphemous men +of the guard—her arms locked firmly about a girl in semi-savage garb. +The villain of the drama had been whisked away, leaving the woman who +sought to save him to the mercy of the foe.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XXII</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">BEHIND THE BARS</a></h3> + + +<p>In the whirl and excitement following the startling outcry from the +flats, all Fort Frayne was speedily involved. The guard came rushing +through the night, Corporal Shannon stumbling over a prostrate +form,—the sentry on Number Six, gagged and bound. The steward shouted +from the hospital porch that Eagle Wing, the prisoner patient, had +escaped through the rear window, despite its height above the sloping +ground. A little ladder, borrowed from the quartermaster's corral, was +found a moment later. An Indian pony, saddled Sioux fashion, was caught +running, riderless, toward the trader's back gate, his horsehair bridle +torn half way from his shaggy head. Sergeant Crabb, waiting for no +orders from the major, no sooner heard that Moreau was gone, than he +rushed his stable guard to the saddleroom, and in fifteen minutes had, +not only his own squad, but half a dozen "casual" troopers circling the +post in search of the trail, and in less than half an hour was hot in +chase of two fleeing horsemen, dimly seen ahead through the starlight, +across the snowy wastes. That snowfall was the Sioux's undoing. Without +it the trail would have been invisible at night. With it, the pursued +were well-nigh hopeless from the start. Precious time had been lost in +circling far out south of the post before making for the ford, whither +Crabb's instinct sent him at once, to the end that he and two of his +fellows ploughed through the foaming waters, barely five hundred yards +behind the chase, and, as they rode vehemently onward through the +starlight, straining every nerve, they heard nothing of the happenings +about the Fosters' doorway, where by this time post commander, post +surgeon, post quartermaster and acting post adjutant, post ordnance, +quartermaster and commissary sergeants, many of the post guard and most +of the post laundresses had gathered—some silent, anxious and +bewildered, some excitedly babbling; while, within the sergeant's +domicile, Esther Dade, very pale and somewhat out of breath, was trying +with quiet self possession to answer the myriad questions poured at her, +while Dr. Waller was ministering to the dazed and moaning sentry, and, +in an adjoining tenement, a little group had gathered about an +unconscious form. Someone had sent for Mrs. Hay, who was silently, +tearfully chafing the limp and almost lifeless hands of a girl in Indian +garb. The cloak and skirts of civilization had been found beneath the +window of the deserted room, and were exhibited as a means of bringing +to his senses a much bewildered major, whose first words on entering the +hut gave rise to wonderment in the eyes of most of his hearers, and to +an impulsive reply from the lips of Mrs. Hay.</p> + +<p>"I warned the general that girl would play us some Indian trick, but he +ordered her release," said Flint, and with wrathful emphasis came the +answer.</p> + +<p>"The general warned you <i>this</i> girl would play you a trick, and, thanks +to no one but you, she's done it!"</p> + +<p>Then rising and stepping aside, the long-suffering woman revealed the +pallid, senseless face,—not of the little Indian maid, her shrinking +charge and guest,—but of the niece she loved and had lived and lied for +many and trying years—Nanette La Fleur, a long-lost sister's only +child.</p> + +<p>So Blake knew what he was talking about that keen November morning among +the pines at Bear Cliff. He had unearthed an almost forgotten legend of +old Fort Laramie.</p> + +<p>But the amaze and discomfiture of the temporary post commander turned +this night of thanksgiving, so far as he was concerned, into something +purgatorial. The sight of his sentry, bound, gagged and bleeding,—the +discovery of the ladder and of the escape of the prisoner, for whom he +was accountable, had filled him with dismay, yet for the moment failed +to stagger his indomitable self esteem. There had been a plot, of +course, and the instant impulse of his soul was to fix the blame on +others and to free himself. An Indian trick, of course, and who but the +little Indian maid within the trader's gates could be the instrument! +Through her, of course, the conspirators about the post had been enabled +to act. She was the general's <i>protegée</i>, not his, and the general must +shoulder the blame. Even when Flint saw Nanette, self convicted through +her very garb and her presence at the scene of the final struggle,—even +when assured it was she and not the little Ogalalla girl who had been +caught in the act,—that the latter, in fact, had never left the +trader's house, his disproportioned mind refused to grasp the situation. +Nanette, he declared, with pallid face, "must have been made a victim." +"Nothing could have been farther from her thoughts than complicity in +the escape of Eagle Wing." "She had every reason to desire his +restoration to health, strength and to the fostering care of the good +and charitable body of Christian people interested in his behalf." "All +this would be endangered by his attempt to rejoin the warriors on the +warpath." The major ordered the instant arrest of the sentry stationed +at the door of the hospital room—shut out by the major's own act from +all possibility of seeing what was going on within. He ordered under +arrest the corporal of the relief on post for presumable complicity, +and, mindful of a famous case of Ethiopian skill then new in the public +mind, demanded of Dr. Waller that he say in so many words that the gag +and wrist thongs on the prostrate sentry had not been self applied. +Waller impassively pointed to the huge lump at the base of the +sufferer's skull, "Gag and bonds he might have so placed, after much +assiduous practice," said he, "but no man living could hit himself such +a blow at the back of the head."</p> + +<p>"Who could have done it, then?" asked Flint. It was inconceivable to +Waller's mind that any one of the soldiery could have been tempted to +such perfidy for an Indian's sake. There was not at the moment an +Indian scout or soldier at the post, or an Indian warrior, not a +prisoner, unaccounted for. There had been halfbreeds hanging about the +store prior to the final escapade of Pete and Crapaud, but these had +realized their unpopularity after the battle on the Elk, and had +departed for other climes. Crapaud was still under guard. Pete was still +at large, perchance, with Stabber's braves. There was not another man +about the trader's place whom Flint or others could suspect. Yet the +sergeant of the guard, searching cautiously with his lantern about the +post of Number Six, had come upon some suggestive signs. The snow was +trampled and bloody about the place where the soldier fell, and there +were here and there the tracks of moccasined feet,—those of a young +woman or child going at speed toward the hospital, running, probably, +and followed close by a moccasined man. Then those of the man, alone, +went sprinting down the bluff southeastward over the flats some distance +south of the Foster's doorway and up the opposite bluff, to a point +where four ponies, shoeless, had been huddled for as much, perhaps, as +half an hour. Then all four had come scampering down close together into +the space below the hospital, not fifty yards from where the sentry +fell, and the moccasined feet of a man and woman had scurried down the +bluff from the hospital window, to meet them west of Foster's shanty. +Then there had been confusion,—trouble of some kind: One pony, pursued +a short distance, had broken away; the others had gone pounding out +southeastward up the slope and out over the uplands, then down again, in +wide sweep, through the valley of the little rivulet and along the low +bench southwest of the fort, crossing the Rock Springs road and +striking, further on, diagonally, the Rawlins trail, where Crabb and his +fellows had found it and followed.</p> + +<p>But all this took hours of time, and meanwhile, only half revived, +Nanette had been gently, pityingly borne away to a sorrowing woman's +home, for at last it was found, through the thick and lustrous hair, +that she, too, had been struck a harsh and cruel blow; that one reason, +probably, why she had been able to oppose no stouter resistance to so +slender a girl as Esther Dade was that she was already half dazed +through the stroke of some blunt, heavy weapon, wielded probably by him +she was risking all to save.</p> + +<p>Meantime the major had been pursuing his investigations. Schmidt, the +soldier sentry in front of Moreau's door, a simple-hearted Teuton of +irreproachable character, tearfully protested against his incarceration. +He had obeyed his orders to the letter. The major himself had brought +the lady to the hospital and showed her in. The door that had been open, +permitting the sentry constant sight of his prisoner, had been closed by +the commanding officer himself. Therefore, it was not for him, a private +soldier, to presume to reopen it. The major said to the lady he would +return for her soon after ten, and the lady smilingly (Schmidt did not +say how smilingly,—how bewitchingly smilingly, but the major needed no +reminder) thanked him, and said, by that time she would be ready. In a +few minutes she came out, saying, (doubtless with the same bewitching +smile) she would have to run over home for something, and she was gone +nearly half an hour, and all that time the door was open, the prisoner +on the bed in his blankets, the lamp brightly burning. It was near +tattoo when she returned, with some things under her cloak, and she was +breathing quick and seemed hurried and shut the door after thanking him, +and he saw no more of her for fifteen minutes, when the door opened and +out she came, the same cloak around her, yet she looked different, +somehow, and must have tiptoed, for he didn't hear her heels as he had +before. She didn't seem quite so tall, either, and that was all, for he +never knew anything more about it till the steward came running to tell +of the escape.</p> + +<p>So Schmidt could throw but little light upon the situation, save to +Flint himself, who did not then see fit to say to anyone that at no time +was it covenanted that Miss Flower should be allowed to go and come +unattended. In doing so she had deluded someone beside the sentry.</p> + +<p>It was late in the night when Number Six regained his senses and could +tell <i>his</i> tale, which was even more damaging. Quite early in the +evening, so he said,—as early as nine o'clock,—he was under the +hospital corner, listening to the music further up along the bluff. A +lady came from the south of the building as though she were going down +to Sudstown. Mrs. Foster had gone down not long before, and Hogan, with +a lantern, and two officers' ladies. But this one came all alone and +spoke to him pleasant-like and said she was so sorry he couldn't be at +the dance. She'd been seeing the sick and wounded in hospital, she said, +and was going to bring some wine and jellies. If he didn't mind, she'd +take the path around the quartermaster's storehouse outside, as she was +going to Mr. Hay's, and didn't care to go through by the guard-house. So +Six let her go, as he "had no orders agin it" (even though it dawned +upon him that this must be the young lady that had been carried off by +the Sioux). That made him think a bit, he said, and when she came back +with a basket nicely covered with a white napkin, she made him take a +big chicken sandwich. "Sure I didn't know how to refuse the lady, until +she poured me out a big tumbler of wine—wine, she said, she was taking +in to Sergeant Briggs and Corporal Turner that was shot at the Elk, and +she couldn't bear to see me all alone out there in the cold." But Six +said he dasn't take the wine. He got six months "blind" once for a +similar solecism, and, mindful of the major's warning (this was +diplomatic) Six swore he had sworn off, and had to refuse the repeated +requests of the lady. He suspicioned her, he said, because she was so +persistent. Then she laughed and said good-night and went on to the +hospital. What became of the wine she had poured out? (This from the +grim and hitherto silent doctor, seated by the bedside.) She must have +tossed it out or drunk it herself, perhaps, Six didn't know. Certainly +no trace of it could be found in the snow. Then nothing happened for as +much as twenty minutes or so, and he was over toward the south end of +his post, but facing toward the hospital when she came again down the +steps, and this time handed him some cake and told him he was a good +soldier not to drink even wine, and asked him what were the lights away +across the Platte, and he couldn't see any, and was following her +pointing finger and staring, and then all of a sudden he saw a million +lights, dancing, and stars and bombs and that was all he knew till they +began talking to him here in hospital. Something had hit him from +behind, but he couldn't tell what.</p> + +<p>Flint's nerve was failing him, for here was confirmation of the +general's theory, but there was worse to come and more of it.</p> + +<p>Miss McGrath, domestic at the trader's, had told a tale that had reached +the ears of Mistress McGann, and 'twas the latter that bade the major +summon the girl and demand of her what it was she had seen and heard +concerning "Crappo" and the lady occupant of the second floor front at +the trader's home. Then it was that the major heard what others had +earlier conjectured—that there had been clandestine meetings, whispered +conferences and the like, within the first week of the lovely niece's +coming to Fort Frayne. That notes had been fetched and carried by +"Crappo" as well as Pete; that Miss Flower was either a somnambulist or +a good imitation of one, as on two occasions the maid had "peeked" and +seen her down-stairs at the back door in the dead hours of the night, or +the very early morning. That was when she first came. Then, since the +recapture, Miss McGrath felt confident that though never again detected +down stairs, Miss Flower had been out at night, as Miss McGrath believed +her to have been the night, when was it? "when little Kennedy had his +scrap wid the Sioux the boys do be all talkin' about"—the night, in +fact, that Stabber's band slipped away from the Platte, Ray's troop +following at dawn. Questioned as to how it was possible for Miss Flower +to get out without coming down stairs, Miss McGrath said she wasn't good +at monkeyshines herself, but "wimmen that could ride sthraddle-wise" +were capable of climbs more difficult than that which the vine trellis +afforded from the porch floor to the porch roof. Miss McGrath hadn't +been spying, of course, because her room was at the back of the house, +beyond the kitchen, but how did the little heel tracks get on the +veranda roof?—the road dust on the matting under the window? the vine +twigs in that "quare" made skirt never worn by day? That Miss Flower +could and did ride "asthraddle" and ride admirably when found with the +Sioux at Bear Cliff, everybody at Frayne well knew by this time. That +she had so ridden at Fort Frayne was known to no officer or lady of the +garrison then present, but believed by Miss McGrath because of certain +inexpressibles of the same material with the "quare" made skirt; both +found, dusty and somewhat bedraggled, the morning Captain Blake was +having his chase after the Indians, and Miss Flower was so "wild excited +like." All this and more did Miss McGrath reveal before being permitted +to return to the sanctity of her chamber, and Flint felt the ground +sinking beneath his feet. It might even be alleged of him now that he +had connived at the escape of this most dangerous and desperate +character, this Indian leader, of whom example, prompt and sharp, would +certainly have been made, unless the general and the ends of justice +were defeated. But what stung the major most of all was that he had been +fairly victimized, hoodwinked, cajoled, wheedled, flattered into this +wretched predicament, all through the wiles and graces of a woman. No +one knew it, whatever might be suspected, but Nanette had bewitched him +quite as much as missives from the East had persuaded and misled.</p> + +<p>And so it was with hardened and resentful heart that the major sought +her on the morrow. The general and the commands afield would soon be +coming home. Such Indians as they had not "rounded up" and captured were +scattered far and wide. The campaign was over. Now for the disposition +of the prisoners. It was to tell Mrs. Hayand Nanette, especially +Nanette, why the sentries were re-established about their home and that, +though he would not place the trader's niece within a garrison cell, he +should hold her prisoner beneath the trader's roof to await the action +of superior authority on the grievous charges lodged at her door. She +was able to be up, said Miss McGrath,—not only up but down—down in the +breakfast room, looking blither and more like herself than she had been +since she was brought home.</p> + +<p>"Say that Major Flint desires to see her and Mrs. Hay," said Flint, with +majesty of mien, as, followed by two of his officers, he was shown into +the trader's parlor.</p> + +<p>And presently they came—Mrs. Hay pale and sorrowing; Miss Flower, pale, +perhaps, but triumphantly defiant. The one sat and covered her face with +her hands as she listened to the major's few words, cold, stern and +accusing. The other looked squarely at him, with fearless, glittering +eyes:—</p> + +<p>"You may order what you like so far as I'm concerned," was the utterly +reckless answer of the girl. "I don't care what you do now that I know +he is safe—free—and that you will never lay hands on him again."</p> + +<p>"That's where you are in error, Miss Flower," was the major's calm, +cold-blooded, yet rejoiceful reply. It was for this, indeed, that he had +come. "Ralph Moreau was run down by my men soon after midnight, and he's +now behind the bars."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XXIII</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">A SOLDIER ENTANGLED</a></h3> + + +<p>December and bitter cold. The river frozen stiff. The prairie sheeted in +unbroken snow. Great log fires roaring in every open fireplace. Great +throngs of soldiery about the red hot barrack stoves, for all the +columns were again in winter columns, and Flint's two companies had "got +the route" for home. They were to march on the morrow, escorting as far +as Laramie the intractables of Stabber's band, some few of the Indians +to go in irons, among them Ralph Moreau, or Eagle Wing, now a notorious +character.</p> + +<p>The general was there at Frayne, with old "Black Bill," erstwhile chief +inspector of the department, once a subaltern in days long gone by when +Laramie was "Ultima Thule" of the plains forts. The general had heard +Flint's halting explanation of his laxity in Moreau's case, saying +almost as little in reply as his old friend Grant when "interviewed" by +those of whom he disapproved. "Black Bill" it was who waxed explosive +when once he opened on the major, and showed that amazed New Englander +something of the contents of Moreau's Indian kit, including the now +famous hunting pouch, all found with Stabber's village. A precious +scoundrel, as it turned out, was this same Moreau, with more sins to +answer for than many a convicted jail bird, and with not one follower +left to do him reverence except, perhaps, that lonely girl, self +secluded at the Hays. Hay himself, though weak, was beginning to sit up. +Dade, Blake and Ray were all once more housed in garrison. Truscott and +Billings, with their hardy troopers, had taken temporary station at the +post, until the general had decided upon the disposition of the array of +surrendered Indians, nearly three hundred in number, now confined under +strong guard in the quartermaster's corral at the flats, with six "head +devils," including Eagle Wing, in the garrison prison.</p> + +<p>All the officers, with two exceptions, were again for duty at Frayne. +Webb, laid by the heels at Beecher, his feet severely frozen, and +Beverly Field, who, recalled from a brief and solemn visit to a far +southern home, had reached the post at nightfall of the 10th. There had +hardly been allowed him time to uplift a single prayer, to receive a +word of consolation from the lips of friends and kindred who loved the +honored father, borne to his last resting place. "Come as soon as +possible," read the message wired him by Ray, and, though the campaign +was over, it was evident that something was amiss, and, with all his +sorrow fresh upon him, the lad, sore in body and soul, had hastened to +obey.</p> + +<p>And it was Ray who received and welcomed him and took him straightway to +his own cosy quarters, that Mrs. Ray, and then the Blakes, might add +their sympathetic and cordial greeting,—ere it came to telling why it +was that these, his friends despite that trouble that could not be +talked of, were now so earnest in their sympathy,—before telling him +that his good name had become involved, that there were allegations +concerning him which the chief had ordered "pigeon-holed" until he +should come to face them. A pity it is that Bill Hay could not have been +there, too, but his fever had left him far too weak to leave his room. +Only Ray and Blake were present and it was an interview not soon, if +ever, to be forgotten.</p> + +<p>"I'm no hand at breaking things gently, Field," said Ray, when finally +the three were closeted together in the captain's den. "It used to worry +Webb that you were seen so often riding with Miss—Miss Flower up to +Stabber's village, and, in the light of what has since happened, you +will admit that he had reasons. Hear me through," he continued, as +Field, sitting bolt upright in the easy chair, essayed to speak. +"Neither Captain Blake nor I believe one word to your dishonor in the +matter, but it looks as though you had been made a tool of, and you are +by no means the first man. It was to see this fellow, Moreau—Eagle +Wing—whom you recognized at the Elk,—she was there so frequently—was +it not?"</p> + +<p>Into Field's pale face there had come a look of infinite distress. For a +moment he hesitated, and little beads began to start out on his +forehead.</p> + +<p>"Captain Ray," he finally said, "they tell me—I heard it from the +driver on the way up from Rock Springs—that Miss Flower is virtually a +prisoner, that she had been in league with the Sioux, and yet, until I +can see her—can secure my release from a promise, I have to answer you +as I answered you before—I cannot say."</p> + +<p>Blake started impatiently and heaved up from his lounging chair, his +long legs taking him in three strides to the frost-covered window at the +front. Ray sadly shook his dark, curly head.</p> + +<p>"You <i>are</i> to see her, Field. The general—bless him for a +trump!—wouldn't listen to a word against you in your absence; but that +girl has involved everybody—you, her aunt, who has been devotion itself +to her, her uncle, who was almost her slave. She deliberately betrayed +him into the hands of the Sioux. In fact this red robber and villain, +Moreau, is the only creature she hasn't tried to 'work,' and he +abandoned her after she had lied, sneaked and stolen for him."</p> + +<p>"Captain Ray!" The cry came from pallid lips, and the young soldier +started to his feet, appalled at such accusation.</p> + +<p>"Every word of it is true," said Ray. "She joined him after his wounds. +She shared his escape from the village at our approach. She was with him +when Blake nabbed them at Bear Cliff. She was going with him from here. +What manner of girl was that, Field, for you to be mixed up with?"</p> + +<p>"He is her half brother!" protested Field, with kindling eyes. "She told +me—everything—told me of their childhood together, and—"</p> + +<p>"Told you a pack of infernal lies!" burst in Blake, no longer able to +contain himself. "Made you a cat's paw; led you even to taking her by +night to see him when she learned the band were to jump for the +mountains—used you, by God, as he used <i>her</i>, and, like the Indian she +is, she'd turn and stab you now, if you stood in her way or his. Why, +Field, that brute's her lover, and she's his—"</p> + +<p>"It's a lie! You shall not say it, sir!" cried Field, beside himself +with wrath and amaze, as he stood quivering from head to foot, still +weak from wounds, fever and distress of mind. But Ray sprang to his +side. "Hush, Blake! Hush, Field! Don't speak. What is it, Hogan?" And +sharply he turned him to the door, never dreaming what had caused the +interruption.</p> + +<p>"The general, sir, to see the captain!"</p> + +<p>And there, in the hallway, throwing off his heavy overcoat and +"arctics," there, with that ever faithful aide in close attendance, was +the chief they loved; dropped in, all unsuspecting, just to say +good-bye. "I knocked twice," began Hogan, but Ray brushed him aside, +for, catching sight of the captain's face, the general was already at +the door. Another moment and he had discovered Field, and with both +hands extended, all kindliness and sympathy, he stepped at once across +the room to greet him.</p> + +<p>"I was so very sorry to hear the news," said he. "I knew your father +well in the old days. How's your wound? What brought you back so soon?"</p> + +<p>And then there was one instant of awkward silence and then—Ray spoke.</p> + +<p>"That was my doing, general. I believed it best that he should be here +to meet you and—every allegation at his expense. Mr. Field, I feel +sure, does not begin to know them yet, especially as to the money."</p> + +<p>"It was all recovered," said the general. "It was found almost +intact—so was much of that that they took from Hay. Even if it hadn't +been, Hay assumed all responsibility for the loss."</p> + +<p>With new bewilderment in his face, the young officer, still white and +trembling, was gazing, half stupefied, from one to the other.</p> + +<p>"What money?" he demanded. "I never heard—"</p> + +<p>"Wait," said the general, with significant glance at Ray, who was about +to speak. "I am to see them—Mrs. Hay and her niece—at nine o'clock. It +is near that now. Webb cannot be with us, but I shall want you, Blake. +Say nothing until then. Sit down, Mr. Field, and tell me about that leg. +Can you walk from here to Hay's, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>Then the ladies, Mrs. Ray and her charming next door neighbor, appeared, +and the general adjourned the conference forthwith, and went with them +to the parlor.</p> + +<p>"Say nothing more," Ray found time to whisper. "You'll understand it all +in twenty minutes."</p> + +<p>And at nine o'clock the little party was on its way through the sharp +and wintry night, the general and Captain Blake, side by side, ahead, +the aide-de-camp and Mr. Field close following. Dr. Waller, who had been +sent for, met them near the office. The sentries at the guard-house +were being changed as the five tramped by along the snapping and +protesting board walk, and a sturdy little chap, in fur cap and +gauntlets, and huge buffalo overcoat, caught sight of them and, facing +outward, slapped his carbine down to the carry—the night signal of +soldier recognition of superior rank as practised at the time.</p> + +<p>"Tables are turned with a vengeance," said the general, with his quiet +smile. "That's little Kennedy, isn't it? I seem to see him everywhere +when we're campaigning. Moreau was going to eat his heart out next time +they met, I believe."</p> + +<p>"So he said," grinned Blake, "before Winsor's bullet fetched him. Pity +it hadn't killed instead of crippling him."</p> + +<p>"He's a bad lot," sighed the general. "Wing won't fly away from Kennedy, +I fancy."</p> + +<p>"Not if there's a shot left in his belt," said Blake. "And Ray is +officer-of-the-day. There'll be no napping on guard this night."</p> + +<p>At the barred aperture that served for window on the southward front, a +dark face peered forth in malignant hate as the speakers strode by. But +it shrank back, when the sentry once more tossed his carbine to the +shoulder, and briskly trudged beneath the bars. Six Indians shared that +prison room, four of their number destined to exile in the distant +East,—to years, perhaps, within the casemates of a seaboard fort—the +last place on earth for a son of the warlike Sioux.</p> + +<p>"They know their fate, I understand," said Blake, as the general moved +on again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Their agent and others have been here with Indian Bureau +orders, permitting them to see and talk with the prisoners. Their +shackles are to be riveted on to-night. Nearly time now, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"At tattoo, sir. The whole guard forms then, and the four are to be +moved into the main room for the purpose. I am glad this is the last of +it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we'll start them with Flint at dawn in the morning. He'll be more +than glad to get away, too. He hasn't been over lucky here, either."</p> + +<p>A strange domestic—(the McGrath having been given warning and removed +to Sudsville) showed them into the trader's roomy parlor, the largest +and most pretentious at the post. Hay had lavished money on his home and +loved it and the woman who had so adorned it. She came in almost +instantly to greet them, looking piteously into the kindly, bearded face +of the general, and civilly, yet absently, welcoming the others. She did +not seem to realize that Field, who stood in silence by the side of +Captain Blake, had been away. She had no thought, apparently, for anyone +but the chief himself,—he who held the destinies of her dear ones in +the hollow of his hand. His first question was for Fawn Eyes, the little +Ogalalla maiden whose history he seemed to know. "She is well and trying +to be content with me," was the reply. "She has been helping poor +Nanette. She does not seem to understand or realize what is coming to +him. Have they—ironed him—yet?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/007.jpg" alt=""Hush! She's coming"—She was there" /> +<a name="HUSH" id="HUSH"></a><br /> +<span class="smcap">"Hush! She's coming"—She was there.</span> +</div> + +<p>"I believe not," said the general. "But it has to be done to-night. They +start so early in the morning."</p> + +<p>"And you won't let her see him, general. No good can come from it. She +declares she will go to him in the morning, if you prohibit it +to-night," and the richly jewelled hands of the unhappy woman were +clasped almost in supplication.</p> + +<p>"By morning he will be beyond her reach. The escort starts at six."</p> + +<p>"And—these gentlemen here—" She looked nervously, appealingly about +her. "Must they—all know?"</p> + +<p>"These and the inspector general. He will be here in a moment. But, +indeed, Mrs. Hay, it <i>is</i> all known, practically," said the general, +with sympathy and sorrow in his tone.</p> + +<p>"Not all—not all, general! Even I don't know all—She herself has said +so. Hush! She's coming."</p> + +<p>She was there! They had listened for swish of skirts or fall of slender +feet upon the stairway, but there had not been a sound. They saw the +reason as she halted at the entrance, lifting with one little hand the +costly Navajo blanket that hung as a portière. In harmony with the +glossy folds of richly dyed wool, she was habited in Indian garb from +head to foot. In two black, lustrous braids, twisted with feather and +quill and ribbon, her wealth of hair hung over her shoulders down the +front of her slender form. A robe of dark blue stuff, rich with broidery +of colored bead and bright-hued plumage, hung, close clinging, and her +feet were shod in soft moccasins, also deftly worked with bead and +quill. But it was her face that chained the gaze of all, and that drew +from the pallid lips of Lieutenant Field a gasp of mingled consternation +and amaze. Without a vestige of color; with black circles under her +glittering eyes; with lines of suffering around the rigid mouth and with +that strange pinched look about the nostrils that tells of anguish, +bodily and mental, Nanette stood at the doorway, looking straight at the +chief. She had no eyes for lesser lights. All her thought, apparently, +was for him,—for him whose power it was, in spite of vehement +opposition, to deal as he saw fit with the prisoner in his hands. Appeal +on part of Friends Societies, Peace and Indian Associations had failed. +The President had referred the matter in its entirety to the general +commanding in the field, and the general had decided. One moment she +studied his face, then came slowly forward. No hand extended. No sign of +salutation,—greeting,—much less of homage. Ignoring all others +present, she addressed herself solely to him.</p> + +<p>"Is it true you have ordered him in irons and to Fort Rochambeau?" she +demanded.</p> + +<p>"It is."</p> + +<p>"Simply because he took part with his people when your soldiers made war +on them?" she asked, her pale lips quivering.</p> + +<p>"You well know how much else there was," answered the general, simply. +"And I have told you he deserves no pity—of yours."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you say he came back here a spy!" she broke forth, impetuously. +"It is not so! He never came near the post,—nearer than Stabber's +village, and there he had a right to be. You say 'twas he who led them +to the warpath,—that he planned the robbery here and took the money. He +never knew they were going, till they were gone. He never stole a penny. +That money was loaned him honestly—and for a purpose—and with the hope +and expectation of rich profit thereby."</p> + +<p>"By you, do you mean?" asked the general, calmly, as before.</p> + +<p>"By me? No! What money had I? He asked it and it was given him—by +Lieutenant Field."</p> + +<p>A gasp that was almost a cry following instantly on this insolent +assertion—a sound of stir and start among the officers at whom she had +not as yet so much as glanced, now caused the girl to turn one swift, +contemptuous look their way, and in that momentary flash her eyes +encountered those of the man she had thus accused. Field stood like one +turned suddenly to stone, gazing at her with wild, incredulous eyes. One +instant she seemed to sway, as though the sight had staggered her, but +the rally was as instantaneous. Before the general could interpose a +word, she plunged on again:—</p> + +<p>"He, at least, had a heart and conscience. He knew how wrongfully Moreau +had been accused,—that money was actually needed to establish his +claim. It would all have been repaid if your soldiers had not forced +this wicked war, and—" and now in her vehemence her eyes were flashing, +her hand uplifted, when, all on a sudden, the portière was raised the +second time, and there at the doorway stood the former inspector +general, "Black Bill." At sight of him the mad flow of words met sudden +stop. Down, slowly down, came the clinched, uplifted hand. Her eyes, +glaring as were Field's a moment agone, were fixed in awful fascination +on the grizzled face. Then actually she recoiled as the veteran officer +stepped quietly forward into the room.</p> + +<p>"And what?" said he, with placid interest. "I haven't heard you rave in +many a moon, Nanette. You are your mother over again—without your +mother's excuse for fury."</p> + +<p>But a wondrous silence had fallen on the group. The girl had turned +rigid. For an instant not a move was made, and, in the hush of all but +throbbing hearts, the sound of the trumpets pealing forth the last notes +of tattoo came softly through the outer night.</p> + +<p>Then sudden, close at hand, yet muffled by double door and windows, came +other sounds—sounds of rush and scurry,—excited voices,—cries of +halt! halt!—the ring of a carbine,—a yell of warning—another shot, +and Blake and the aide-de-camp sprang through the hallway to the storm +door without. Mrs. Hay, shuddering with dread, ran to the door of her +husband's chamber beyond the dining room. She was gone but a moment. +When she returned the little Ogalalla maid, trembling and wild-eyed, had +come running down from aloft. The general had followed into the lighted +hallway,—they were all crowding there by this time,—and the voice of +Captain Ray, with just a tremor of excitement about it, was heard at +the storm door on the porch, in explanation to the chief.</p> + +<p>"Moreau, sir! Broke guard and stabbed Kennedy. The second shot dropped +him. He wants Fawn Eyes, his sister."</p> + +<p>A scream of agony rang through the hall, shrill and piercing. Then the +wild cry followed:</p> + +<p>"You shall not hold me! Let me go to him, I say—I am his wife!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">CHAPTER XXIV</a></h2> + +<h3><a href="#CONTENTS">THE DEATH SONG OF THE SIOUX</a></h3> + + +<p>That was a gruesome night at Frayne. Just at tattoo the door leading to +the little cell room had been thrown open, and the sergeant of the guard +bade the prisoners come forth,—all warriors of the Ogalalla band and +foremost of their number was Eagle Wing, the battle leader. Recaptured +by Crabb and his men after a desperate flight and fight for liberty, he +had apparently been planning ever since a second essay even more +desperate. In sullen silence he had passed his days, showing no sign of +recognition of any face among his guards until the morning Kennedy +appeared—all malice forgotten now that his would-be slayer was a +helpless prisoner, and therefore did the Irishman greet him jovially. +"That man would knife you if he had half a chance," said the sergeant. +"Watch out for him!"</p> + +<p>"You bet I'll watch out," said Kennedy, never dreaming that, despite all +search and vigilance, Moreau had managed to obtain and hide a knife.</p> + +<p>In silence they had shuffled forth into the corridor. The heavy portal +swung behind them, confining the other two. Another door opened into the +guardroom proper, where stood the big, red hot stove and where waited +two blacksmiths with the irons. Once in the guard room every window was +barred, and members of the guard, three deep, blocked in eager curiosity +the doorway leading to the outer air. In the corridor on one side stood +three infantry soldiers, with fixed bayonets. On the other, facing them, +three others of the guard. Between them shuffled the Sioux, "Wing" +leading. One glance at the waiting blacksmiths was enough. With the +spring of a tiger, he hurled himself, head foremost and bending low, +straight at the open doorway, and split his way through the astonished +guards like center rush at foot ball, scattering them right and left; +then darted round the corner of the guard-house, agile as a cat.</p> + +<p>And there was Kennedy confronting him! One furious lunge he made with +gleaming knife, then shot like an arrow, straight for the southward +bluff. It was bad judgment. He trusted to speed, to dim starlight, to +bad aim, perhaps; but the little Irishman dropped on one knee and the +first bullet tore through the muscles of a stalwart arm; the second, +better aimed, pierced the vitals. Then they were on him, men by the +dozen, in another instant, as he staggered and fell there, impotent and +writhing.</p> + +<p>They bore him to the cell again,—the hospital was too far,—and Waller +and his aides came speedily to do all that surgery could accomplish, but +he cursed them back. He raved at Ray, who entered, leading poor, sobbing +little Fawn Eyes, and demanded to be left alone with her. Waller went +out to minister to Kennedy, bleeding fast, and the others looked to Ray +for orders when the door was once more opened and Blake entered with +Nanette.</p> + +<p>"By the general's order," said he, in brief explanation, and in an +instant she was on her knees beside the dying Sioux. There and thus they +left them. Waller said there was nothing to be done. The junior surgeon, +Tracy,—he whom she had so fascinated only those few weeks before,—bent +and whispered: "Call me if you need. I shall remain within hearing." But +there came no call. At taps the door was once more softly opened and +Tracy peered within. Fawn Eyes, rocking to and fro, was sobbing in an +abandonment of grief. Nanette, face downward, lay prone upon a stilled +and lifeless heart.</p> + +<p>Flint and his escort duly went their way, and spread their story as they +camped at Laramie and "the Chug." The general tarried another week at +Frayne. There was still very much to keep him there; so, not until he +and "Black Bill" came down did we at other stations learn the facts. The +general, as usual, had little to say. The colonel talked for both.</p> + +<p>A woful time, it seems, they had had with poor Nanette when at last it +became necessary to take her away from her dead brave. She raged and +raved at even her pleading aunt. Defiant of them all, from the general +down, and reckless of law or fact, she vowed it was all a conspiracy to +murder Moreau in cold blood. They gave him the knife, she declared, +although it later developed that she had tossed it through the open +window. They had given him the chance to escape—the sight of Kennedy, +"who had striven to kill him twice before," and then of the blacksmiths, +with their degrading shackles—all just to tempt him to make a dash for +freedom;—just as they had lured and murdered Crazy Horse—Crazy Horse, +his brave kinsman—not ten years before,—then had placed a dead shot on +the path to life and liberty—a man who killed him in cold blood, as +deliberately planned. These were her accusations, and that story took +strong hold in certain circles in the far East, where "love of truth" +inspired its widespread publication, but not its contradiction when the +facts became known. The same conditions obtain to-day in dealing with +affairs across the sea.</p> + +<p>Nanette said many other things before her final breakdown; and Hay and +his sorrowing wife found their load of care far heaviest, for the strain +of Indian blood, now known to all, had steeled the soul of the girl +against the people at Fort Frayne, men and women both—against none so +vehemently as those who would have shown her sympathy—none so +malignantly as those who had suffered for her sake.</p> + +<p>This was especially true of Field. In the mad hope of "getting justice," +as she termed it, for the dead, she had demanded speech of the general, +and, in presence of "Black Bill" and the surgeon, he had given her a +hearing. It proved fatal to her cause, for in her fury at what she +termed "the triumph of his foes," she lost all sense of right or reason, +and declared that it was Field who had warned Stabber's band and sent +them fleeing to unite with Lame Wolf,—Field who took the trader's +horses and rode by night with Kennedy to warn them it was Webb's +intention to surround the village at dawn and make prisoners of the men. +It was Field, she said, who furnished the money Moreau needed to +establish his claim to a gold mine in the Black Hills, the ownership of +which would make them rich and repay Field a dozen times over. It was +Field who sought to protect her kindred among the Sioux in hopes, she +said it boldly, of winning her. But the general had heard enough. The +door was opened and Ray and Blake were ushered in. The former briefly +told of the finding of her note in Field's room the night the adjutant +was so mysteriously missing. The note itself was held forth by the +inspector general and she was asked if she cared to have it opened and +read aloud. Her answer was that Field was a coward, a dastard to betray +a woman who had trusted him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he didn't," said Blake, drily. "'Twas just the other way. He +couldn't be induced to open his head, so his friends took a hand. You +got word of the outbreak through your Indian followers. You wrote to +Field and sent the note by Pete, bidding him join you at that godless +hour, telling him that you would provide the horses and that you must +ride to Stabber's camp to see Moreau for the last time, as he was going +at once to the Black Hills. You made Field believe he was your half +brother, instead of what he was. You brought Moreau back to the post and +took something, I can't say what, down to him from Mr. Hay's,—he +waiting for you on the flats below the trader's corral. You should have +worn your moccasins, as well as a divided skirt, that night instead of +French-heeled <i>bottines</i>. The rest—others can tell."</p> + +<p>The others were Kennedy and the recaptured, half recalcitrant Pete; the +latter turned state's evidence. Kennedy told how he had wandered down +into the flats after "the few dhrinks" that made him think scornful of +Sioux; of his encounter with Eagle Wing, his rescue by Field and a girl +who spoke Sioux like a native. He thought it was little Fawn Eyes when +he heard her speak, and until he heard this lady; then he understood. He +had been pledged to secrecy by the lieutenant, and never meant to tell a +soul, but when he heard the lie the lady told about the lieutenant, it +ended any promise.</p> + +<p>Then Pete, an abject, whining wretch, was ushered in, and his story, +when dragged out by the roots, was worst of all. Poor Mrs. Hay! She had +to hear it, for they sent for her; somebody had to restrain Nanette. +Pete said he had known Nanette long time, ever since baby. So had +Crapaud. Yes, and they had known Eagle Wing, Moreau, always—knew his +father and mother. Knew Nanette's father and mother. But Black Bill +interposed. No need to go into these particulars, as substantiating Mrs. +Hay and himself, said he. "The lady knows perfectly well that I know all +about her girlhood," so Pete returned to modern history. Eagle Wing, it +seems, came riding often in from Stabber's camp to see Nanette by night, +and "he was in heap trouble, always heap trouble, always want money," +and one night she told Pete he must come with her, must never tell of +it. She had money, she said, her own, in the trader's safe, but the door +was too heavy, she couldn't open it, even though she had the key. She +had opened the store by the back door, then came to him to help her with +the rest. He pulled the safe door open, he said, and then she hunted and +found two big letters, and took them to the house, and next night she +opened the store again, and he pulled open the safe, and she put back +the letters and sent him to Mr. Field's back door with note, and then +over to saddle Harney and Dan, and "bring 'em out back way from stable." +Then later she told him Captain Blake had Eagle Wing's buckskin pouch +and letters, and they must get them or somebody would hang Eagle Wing, +and she kept them going, "all time going," meeting messengers from the +Sioux camps, or carrying letters. She fixed everything for the Sioux to +come and capture Hay and the wagon;—fixed everything, even to nearly +murdering the sentry on Number Six. Pete and Spotted Horse, a young +brave of Stabber's band, had compassed that attempted rescue. She would +have had them kill the sentry, if need be, and the reason they didn't +get Wing away was that she couldn't wait until the sentries had called +off. They might even then have succeeded, only her pony broke away, and +she clung to Eagle Wing's until he—he had to hit her to make her let +go.</p> + +<p>The wild girl, in a fury declared it false from end to end. The poor +woman, weeping by her side, bowed her head and declared it doubtless +true.</p> + +<p>Her story,—Mrs. Hay's,—was saddest of all. Her own father died when +she was very, very young. He was a French Canadian trader and traveller +who had left them fairly well to do. Next to her Indian mother, Mrs. Hay +had loved no soul on earth as she had her pretty baby sister. The girls +grew up together. The younger, petted and spoiled, fell in love with a +handsome, reckless young French half breed, Jean La Fleur; against all +warnings, became his wife, and was soon bullied, beaten and deserted. +She lived but a little while, leaving to her more prosperous and +level-headed sister, now wedded to Mr. Hay, their baby daughter, also +named Nanette, and by her the worthy couple had done their very best. +Perhaps it would have been wiser had they sent the child away from all +association with the Sioux, but she had lived eight years on the Laramie +in daily contact with them, sharing the Indian sports and games, loving +their free life, and rebelling furiously when finally taken East. "She" +was the real reason why her aunt spent so many months of each succeeding +year away from her husband and the frontier. One of the girl's playmates +was a magnificent young savage, a son of Crow Killer, the famous chief. +The father was killed the day of Crazy Horse's fierce assault on the +starving force of General Crook at Slim Buttes in '76, and good, kind +missionary people speedily saw promise in the lad, put him at school and +strove to educate him. The rest they knew. Sometimes at eastern schools, +sometimes with Buffalo Bill, but generally out of money and into +mischief, Eagle Wing went from one year to another, and Nanette, +foolishly permitted to meet him again in the East, had become +infatuated. All that art and education, wealth, travel and luxury +combined could do, was done to wean her from her passionate adoration of +this superb young savage. There is no fiercer, more intense, devotion +than that the Sioux girl gives the warrior who wins her love. She +becomes his abject slave. She will labor, lie, steal, sin, suffer, die, +<i>gladly</i> die for him, if only she believes herself loved in turn, and +this did Nanette more than believe, and believing, slaved and studied +between his irregular appearances that she might wheedle more money from +her aunt to lavish on her brave. When discovered meeting him in secret +and by night, she was locked in her third story room and thought secure, +until the day revealed her gone by way of the lightning rod. They had to +resort to more stringent measures, but time and again she met him, +undetected until too late, and when at last her education was declared +complete, she had amazed her aunt by expressing willingness to go to +Frayne, when the good woman thought the objectionable kinsman abroad +with Buffalo Bill. Until too late, Mrs. Hay knew nothing of his having +been discharged and of his preceding them to the West. Then Nanette +begged her for more money, because he was in dreadful trouble;—had +stabbed a police officer at Omaha, whose people, so Moreau said, agreed +not to prosecute him if one thousand dollars could be paid at once. +Hay's patience had been exhausted. He had firmly refused to contribute +another cent to settle Moreau's scrapes, even though he was a distant +kinsman of his wife, and they both were fond of his little sister Fawn +Eyes. It had never occurred to Mrs. Hay that Nan could steal from or +plot against her benefactors, but that was before she dreamed that +Nanette had become the Indian's wife. After that, anything might happen. +"If she could do <i>that</i> for love of Moreau," said she, "there was +nothing she could not do."</p> + +<p>And it would seem there was little short of deliberate murder she had +not done for her Sioux lover, who had rewarded her utter self-sacrifice +by a savage blow with a revolver butt. "Poor Nanette!" sobbed Mrs. Hay, +and "Poor Nanette!" said all Fort Frayne, their distrust of her buried +and forgotten as she lay, refusing herself to everyone; starving herself +in dull, desperate misery in her lonely room. Even grim old "Black +Bill," whom she had recognized at once,—Bill, who had been the first to +confirm Blake's suspicions as to her identity,—had pity and compassion +for her. "It's the way of the blood," said Blake. "She is</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Bred out of that bloody strain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That haunted us in our familiar paths.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"She could do no different," said the general, "having fixed her love on +him. It's the strain of the Sioux. <i>We</i> call her conduct criminal:—they +call it sublime."</p> + +<p>And one night, while decision in Nanette's case was still pending, and, +still self-secluded, she hid within the trader's home, refusing speech +with anyone but little Fawn Eyes, a sleighing party set out from Frayne +for a spin by moonlight along the frozen Platte. Wagon bodies had been +set on runners, and piled with hay. The young people from officers' row, +with the proper allowance of matrons and elders, were stowed therein, +and tucked in robes and furs, Esther Dade among them, gentle and +responsive as ever, yet still very silent. Field, in his deep mourning, +went nowhere. He seemed humiliated beyond words by his connection with +this most painful affair. Even the general failed to cheer and reassure +him. He blamed himself for everything and shrank even from his friends. +They saw the dim glow of the student lamp in his quarters, as they +jingled cheerily away. They were coming homeward, toward ten o'clock. +The moon was shining brilliantly along the bold heights of the southern +bank, and, insensibly, chat and laughter gradually ceased as they came +again in sight of the twinkling lights of Frayne, and glanced aloft at a +new-made scaffolding, standing black against the sky at the crest of +Fetterman Bluff. "Eagle Wing roosts high," said a thoughtless youngster. +"The general let them have their way to the last. What's that?" he +added, with sudden stop.</p> + +<p>The sleigh had as suddenly been reined in. The driver, an Irish trooper, +crossed himself, for, on the hush of the breathless winter night, there +rose and fell—shrill, quavering, now high, now low, in mournful minor, +a weird, desolate, despairing chant, the voice of a heart-broken woman, +and one and all they knew at once it was Nanette, after the manner of +her mother's people, alone on the lofty height, alone in the wintry +wilderness, sobbing out her grief song to the sleeping winds, mourning +to the last her lost, her passionately loved brave.</p> + +<p>Then, all on a sudden, it ceased. A black form started from under the +scaffolding to the edge of the bluff. Then again, weird, wild, uncanny, +a barbaric, almost savage strain burst from the lips of the girl. +"Mother of Heavin!" cried the driver. "Can no one shtop that awful keen. +It's her death song she's singin'!"</p> + +<p>Two young officers sprang from the sleigh, but at the instant another +cry arose. Another form, this one of horse and rider, appeared at the +crest, silhouetted with the girl's against the stars. They saw the rider +leap from saddle, almost within arms' length of the singer; saw her +quickly turn, as though, for the first time, aware of an intruder. Then +the wailing song went out in sudden scream of mingled wrath, hatred and +despair, and, like the Sioux that she was at heart, the girl made one +mad rush to reach the point of bluff where was a sheer descent of over +eighty feet. A shriek of dread went up from the crowded sleigh; a cry of +rejoicing, as the intruder sprang and clasped her, preventing her +reaching the precipice. But almost instantly followed a moan of anguish, +for slipping at the crest, together, firmly linked, they came rolling, +sliding, shooting down the steep incline of the frozen bluff, and +brought up with stunning force among the ice blocks, logs and driftwood +at the base.</p> + +<p>They bore them swiftly homeward,—Field senseless and sorely +shaken,—Nanette's fierce spirit slowly drifting away from the bruised +and broken tenement held there, so pityingly, in the arms of Esther +Dade. Before the Christmas fires were lighted in the snowbound, frontier +fort, they had laid all that was mortal of the brave, deluded girl in +the little cemetery of Fort Frayne, her solemn story closed, on earth, +forever.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LENVOI" id="LENVOI"></a><a href="#CONTENTS">L'ENVOI</a></h2> + + +<p>Nearly two years later, with the old regiment still serving along the +storied Platte, they were talking of her one moonlit evening at the +flagstaff. The band, by this time a fixture at Frayne, had been playing +delightfully, and some of the girls and young gallants had been waltzing +on the Rays' veranda. A few new faces were there. Two faces, well known, +were missing,—those of Esther Dade and Beverly Field. The latter had +never been the same man since the tragic events that followed so closely +on the heels of the Lame Wolf campaign. Wounds had slowly healed. +Injuries, physical, were well nigh forgotten; but, mentally, he had been +long a sufferer. For months after the death of Nanette, even when +sufficiently restored to be on duty, he held shrinkingly aloof from post +society. Even Webb, Blake and Ray were powerless to pull him out of his +despond. He seemed to feel,—indeed he said so, that his brief +entanglement with that strange, fascinating girl had clouded his soldier +name for all time. To these stanch friends and advisers he frankly told +the whole story, and they, in turn, had told it to the general, to the +colonel commanding the regiment and to those whose opinions they most +valued; but Field could speak of it to none others. Frankly he admitted +that from the moment he met the girl he fell under the influence of a +powerful fascination. Within twenty-four hours of his return from the +Laramie trip they were riding together, and during that ride she asked +to be taken to Stabber's village, and there had talked long with that +magnificent young Sioux. Later, Field surprised her in tears, and then +she told him a pitiful tale. Eagle Wing had been educated, she said, by +her aunt and uncle,—was indeed their nephew and her own cousin. He had +been wild and had given them much trouble, and her aunt was in bitter +distress over his waywardness. It was to plead with him that she, +Nanette, had gone. "Moreau" had been taught mining and mineralogy, it +seems, and declared that he had "located" a most promising mine in the +Black Hills. He could buy off every claim if he had a thousand dollars, +and the mine might be worth millions. Hay pooh-poohed the story. Mrs. +Hay could not persuade him. Then "Moreau" became threatening. He would +join the hostiles, he swore, if his aunt would not help him. Indeed, and +here Field's young face burned with shame, Nanette told him that she +understood that he, Field, was an only son who might inherit wealth in +days to come, and could draw upon his father now for any reasonable sum; +and, within the week of his meeting her, he was on the point of offering +everything she needed, but that he disbelieved the Indian's story. Then, +one night, there came a note begging him to meet her at once. She had a +dreadful message, she said, from "Moreau." The fellow had frequently +been prowling about the trader's during the dark hours, and now she was +afraid of him, yet must see him, and see him at once, even if she had to +ride to Stabber's camp. Field's eyes were blinded and he went. Hay's +horses were ready beyond the corral, and she rode astride on one of +Hay's own saddles. They found "Moreau" awaiting them at the ford, and +there was a scene Field could not understand, for they spoke in the +Sioux language. That night it was that, all in tears at the Indian's +obduracy, she owned that he was her own brother, not merely a cousin, +and together they had all gone back toward Frayne. "Moreau" was to wait +on the flats until she could return to the house. She had been striving +to get him to make certain promises, she said, contingent on her giving +him something from her own means. Field said he remonstrated with her to +the utmost, but she told him no woman with Sioux blood in her veins ever +deserted a brother—or lover. And so she had returned with a packet, +presumably of money, and there they found the Indian clinched with +Kennedy. Kennedy was rescued in the nick of time, and pledged to +silence. The Indian rode away triumphant. Nanette climbed back to her +window, exhausted, apparently, by her exertions, and Field started for +his quarters, only to find the entire garrison astir. The rest they +knew.</p> + +<p>Asked how she came to know of the money in the trader's safe, he said no +secret had been made of it by either Hay or him. She had asked him +laughingly about his quarrel with Wilkins, and seemed deeply interested +in all the details of subaltern life. Either Hay or he, fortunately, +could have made good the missing sum, even had most of it not been found +amongst Stabber's plunder. Field had never seen her again until the +night the general took him to confront her at the Hays', and, all too +late, had realized how completely she had lured and used him. In pride, +honor, self-respect, he had been sorely wounded, and, even when assured +that the general attached no blame to him, and that his name was no +longer involved, he would have resigned his commission and quit the +service had it not been for these soldiers three, Webb, Blake and Ray. +They made him see that, all the more because his father's death had left +him independent—sole master of quite a valuable property—he must stick +to the sword and live down the possible stain.</p> + +<p>And stay he did, refusing even a chance to go abroad the following +spring, and devoting himself assiduously to his duties, although he +shrank from society. They made him sometimes spend a quiet evening at +Ray's or Blake's, where twice Miss Dade was found. But that young lady +was quick to see that her hostess had been scheming, as loving women +will. And then, when he went hoping to see her, yet half afraid, she +came no more. They could not coax her. The early spring had taken him +forth on long campaign. The ensuing fall had taken her to the far +distant East, for gallant old Dade was breaking down. The doctors sent +him on prolonged sick leave. Then was Fort Frayne indeed a desolate post +to Beverly Field, and when midwinter came, and with it the news that +Dade had but little while to live, he took counsel with Ray, and a +month's leave, not much of which was spent in the South. The old +regiment was represented at the sad and solemn little ceremony when the +devoted husband, father and fellow soldier was laid at rest.</p> + +<p>Nor was Field a happier man when he rejoined from leave, and they all +thought they knew why. Letters came, black-bordered, with Esther's +superscription, sometimes, but only for Mrs. Blake or Mrs. Ray. There +was never one for Field. And so a second summer came and went and a +second September was ushered in, and in the flood of the full moonlight +there was again music and dancing at Fort Frayne, but not for Field, not +for Esther Dade. They were all talking of Nanette, Daughter of the +Dakotas, and Esther, Daughter of the Regiment, as they called her in her +father's Corps, and the mail came late from Laramie, and letters were +handed round as tattoo sounded, and Mrs. Blake, eagerly scanning a +black-bordered page, was seen suddenly to run in doors, her eyes +brimming over with tears.</p> + +<p>Later that night Hogan tapped at Field's front door and asked would the +lieutenant step over to Mrs. Ray's a minute, and he went.</p> + +<p>"Read that," said Mrs. Ray, pointing to a paragraph on the third page of +the black-bordered missive that had been too much for Mrs. Blake. And he +read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Through it all Esther has been my sweetest comfort, but now I must +lose her, too. Our means are so straitened that she has <i>made</i> me +see the necessity. Hard as it is, I must yield to her for the help +that it may bring. She has been studying a year and is to join the +staff of trained nurses at St. Luke's the first of October."</p></div> + +<p>For a moment there was silence in the little army parlor. Field's hands +were trembling, his face was filled with trouble. She knew he would +speak his heart to her at last, and speak he did:—</p> + +<p>"All these months that she has been studying I've been begging and +pleading, Mrs. Ray. <i>You</i> know what I went for last winter,—all to no +purpose. I'm going again now, if I have to stay a patient at St. Luke's +to coax her out of it."</p> + +<p>But not until Christmas came the welcome "wire:"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Patient discharged. Nurse finally accepts new engagement.</p></div> + +<h3>FINIS</h3> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Daughter of the Sioux, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX *** + +***** This file should be named 19023-h.htm or 19023-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/2/19023/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Daughter of the Sioux + A Tale of the Indian frontier + +Author: Charles King + +Illustrator: Frederic Remington and Edwin Willard Deming + +Release Date: August 10, 2006 [EBook #19023] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX + + [Illustration: RAY'S TROOP.] + + _A Tale of the Indian Frontier_ + + BY + GENERAL CHARLES KING + + AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "FORT FRAYNE," + "AN ARMY WIFE," ETC., ETC. + + "He is bred out of that bloody strain + That haunted us in our familiar paths." + _King Henry V._ + + ILLUSTRATIONS BY + FREDERIC REMINGTON + _and_ + EDWIN WILLARD DEMING + + NEW YORK + THE HOBART COMPANY + 1903 + + COPYRIGHT, 1902, + BY + THE HOBART COMPANY. + +_A Daughter of the Sioux_ _Published March 15, 1903_ + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. + +FORESHADOWED EVENTS, + +CHAPTER II. + +ABSENT FROM DUTY, + +CHAPTER III. + +A NIGHT ENCOUNTER, + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE SIGN OF THE BAR SHOE, + +CHAPTER V. + +A GRAVE DISCOVERY, + +CHAPTER VI. + +FIRST SIGHT OF THE FOE, + +CHAPTER VII. + +BLOOD WILL TELL, + +CHAPTER VIII. + +MORE STRANGE DISCOVERIES, + +CHAPTER IX. + +BAD NEWS FROM THE FRONT, + +CHAPTER X. + +"I'LL NEVER GO BACK," + +CHAPTER XI. + +A FIGHT WITH A FURY, + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE ORDEAL BY FIRE, + +CHAPTER XIII. + +WOUNDED--BODY AND SOUL, + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A VANISHED HEROINE, + +CHAPTER XV. + +A WOMAN'S PLOT, + +CHAPTER XVI. + +NIGHT PROWLING AT FRAYNE, + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A RIFLED DESK, + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +BURGLARY AT BLAKE'S, + +CHAPTER XIX. + +A SLAP FOR THE MAJOR, + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE SIOUX SURROUNDED, + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THANKSGIVING AT FRAYNE, + +CHAPTER XXII. + +BEHIND THE BARS, + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +A SOLDIER ENTANGLED, + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE DEATH SONG OF THE SIOUX, + +_L'ENVOI._ + + * * * * * + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +FRONTISPIECE + +"THE MAJOR SOUGHT TO BLOCK THAT MORNING'S RIDE IN VAIN" + +RAY'S TROOP + +"THE SOLDIER LEAPED FROM HIS SADDLE" + +"WITH ONE MAGNIFICENT RED ARM UPLIFTED" + +"SOME FEW OF THEIR NUMBER BORNE AWAY BY THEIR COMRADES" + +"CHARGE WITH ME THE MOMENT THE LEADERS YELL" + +"HUSH! SHE'S COMING"--SHE WAS THERE + + * * * * * + + + + + A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FORESHADOWED EVENTS + + +The major commanding looked up from the morning report and surveyed the +post adjutant with something of perturbation, if not annoyance, in his +grim, gray eyes. For the fourth time that week had Lieutenant Field +requested permission to be absent for several hours. The major knew just +why the junior wished to go and where. The major knew just why he wished +him not to go, but saw fit to name almost any other than the real reason +when, with a certain awkward hesitancy he began: + +"W--ell, is the post return ready?" + +"It _will_ be, sir, in abundant time," was the prompt reply. + +"You know they sent it back for correction last month," hazarded the +commander. + +"And you know, sir, the error was not mine," was the instant rejoinder, +so quick, sharp and positive as to carry it at a bound to the verge of +disrespect, and the keen, blue eyes of the young soldier gazed, frank +and fearless, into the heavily ambushed grays of the veteran in the +chair. It made the latter wince and stir uneasily. + +"If there's one thing I hate, Field, it is to have my papers sent back +by some whipsnapper of a clerk, inviting attention to this or that +error, and I expect my adjutant to see to it that they don't." + +"Your adjutant does see to it, sir. I'm willing to bet a month's pay +fewer errors have been found in the papers of Fort Frayne than any post +in the Department of the Platte. General Williams told you as much when +you were in Omaha." + +The major fairly wriggled in his cane-bottomed whirligig. What young +Field said was true, and the major knew it. He knew, moreover, there +wasn't a more painstaking post adjutant from the Missouri to the +mountains. He knew their monthly reports--"returns" as the regulations +call them--were referred to by a model adjutant general as model papers. +He knew it was due to young Field's care and attention, and he knew he +thought all the world of that young gentleman. It was just because he +thought so much of him he was beginning to feel that it was high time to +put a stop to something that was going on. But, it was a delicate +matter; a woman was the matter; and he hadn't the moral courage to go at +it the straightforward way. He "whip sawed" again. Thrumming on the desk +with his lean, bony fingers he began:-- + +"If I let my adjutant out so much, what's to prevent other youngsters +asking similar indulgence?" + +The answer came like the crack of a whip:-- + +"Nothing, sir; and far better would it be for everybody concerned if +they spent more hours in the saddle and fewer at the store." + +This was too much for the one listener in the room. With something like +the sound of a suppressed sneeze, a tall, long-legged captain of cavalry +started up from his chair, an outspread newspaper still full-stretched +between him and the desk of the commander, and, thus hidden as to his +face, sidled sniggering off to the nearest window. Young Field had +fearlessly, if not almost impudently, hit the nail on the head, and +metaphorically rapped the thrumming fingers of his superior officer. +Some commanders would have raged and sent the daring youngster right +about in arrest. Major Webb knew just what Field referred to,--knew that +the fascinations of pool, "pitch" and poker held just about half his +commissioned force at all "off duty" hours of the day or night hanging +about the officers' club room at the post trader's; knew, moreover, that +while the adjutant never wasted a moment over cards or billiards, he, +the post commander, had many a time taken a hand or a cue and wagered +his dollars against those of his devoted associates. They all loved him. +There wasn't "a mean streak in his whole system," said every soldier at +Fort Frayne. He had a capital record as a volunteer--a colonel and, +later, brigade commander in the great war. He had the brevet of +brigadier general of volunteers, but repudiated any title beyond that +of his actual rank in the regulars. He was that _rara avis_--a bachelor +field officer, and a bird to be brought down if feminine witchery could +do it. He was truthful, generous, high-minded, brave--a man who +preferred to be of and with his subordinates rather than above them--to +rule through affection and regard rather than the stern standard of +command. He was gentle and courteous alike to officers and the rank and +file, though he feared no man on the face of the globe. He was awkward, +bungling and overwhelmingly, lavishly, kind and thoughtful in his +dealings with the womenfolk of the garrison, for he stood in awe of the +entire sisterhood. He could ride like a centaur; he couldn't dance worth +a cent. He could snuff a candle with his Colt at twenty paces and +couldn't hit a croquet ball to save his soul. His deep-set gray eyes, +under their tangled thatch of brown, gazed straight into the face of +every man on the Platte, soldier, cowboy, Indian or halfbreed, but fell +abashed if a laundress looked at him. Billy Ray, captain of the sorrel +troop and the best light rider in Wyoming, was the only man he ever +allowed to straddle a beautiful thoroughbred mare he had bought in +Kentucky, but, bad hands or good, there wasn't a riding woman at Frayne +who hadn't backed Lorna time and again, because to a woman the major +simply couldn't say no. + +And though his favorite comrades at the post were captains like Blake +and Billy Ray, married men both whose wives he worshipped, the major's +rugged heart went out especially to Beverly Field, his boy adjutant, a +lad who came to them from West Point only three years before the autumn +this story opens, a young fellow full of high health, pluck and +principle--a tip top soldier, said everybody from the start, until, as +Gregg and other growlers began to declaim, the major completely spoiled +him. Here, three years only out of military leadingstrings, he was a +young cock of the walk, "too dam' independent for a second lieutenant," +said the officers' club element of the command, men like Gregg, Wilkins, +Crane and a few of their following. "The keenest young trooper in the +regiment," said Blake and Ray, who were among its keenest captains, and +never a cloud had sailed across the serene sky of their friendship and +esteem until this glorious September of 188-, when Nanette Flower, a +brilliant, beautiful brunette came a visitor to old Fort Frayne. + +And it was on her account the major would, could he have seen the way, +said no to the adjutant's request to be absent again. On her account and +that of one other, for that request meant another long morning in saddle +with Miss Flower, another long morning in which "the sweetest girl in +the garrison," so said they all, would go about her daily duties with an +aching heart. There was no woman at Fort Frayne who did not know that +Esther Dade thought all the world of Beverly Field. There was only one +man who apparently had no inkling of it--Beverly Field himself. + +She was the only daughter of a veteran officer, a captain of infantry, +who at the age of fifty, after having held a high command in the +volunteers during the civil war, was still meekly doing duty as a +company officer of regulars nearly two decades after. She had been +carefully reared by a most loving and thoughtful mother, even in the +crude old days of the army, when its fighting force was scattered in +small detachments all over the wide frontier, and men, and women, too, +lived on soldier rations, eked out with game, and dwelt in tents or +ramshackle, one-storied huts, "built by the labor of troops." At twelve +she had been placed at school in the far East, while her father enjoyed +a two years' tour on recruiting service, and there, under the care of a +noble woman who taught her girls to be women indeed--not vapid votaries +of pleasure and fashion, Esther spent five useful years, coming back to +her fond father's soldier roof a winsome picture of girlish health and +grace and comeliness--a girl who could ride, walk and run if need be, +who could bake and cook, mend and sew, cut, fashion and make her own +simple wardrobe; who knew algebra, geometry and "trig" quite as well as, +and history, geography and grammar far better than, most of the young +West Pointers; a girl who spoke her own tongue with accuracy and was not +badly versed in French; a girl who performed fairly well on the piano +and guitar, but who sang full-throated, rejoiceful, exulting like the +lark--the soulful music that brought delight to her ageing father, half +crippled by the wounds of the war days, and to the mother who so +devotedly loved and carefully planned for her. Within a month from her +graduation at Madame Piatt's she had become the darling of Fort Frayne, +the pet of many a household, the treasure of her own. With other young +gallants of the garrison, Beverly Field had been prompt to call, prompt +to be her escort when dance or drive, ride or picnic was planned in her +honor, especially the ride, for Mr. Adjutant Field loved the saddle, the +open prairie or the bold, undulating bluffs. But Field was the busiest +man at the post. Other youngsters, troop or company subalterns, had far +more time at their disposal, and begged for rides and dances, strolls +and sports which the post adjutant was generally far too busy to claim. +It was Esther who brought lawn tennis to Frayne and found eager pupils +of both sexes, but Field had been the first to meet and welcome her; had +been for a brief time at the start her most constant cavalier. Then, as +others began to feel the charm of her frank, cordial, joyous manner, and +learned to read the beauty that beamed in her clear, truthful eyes and +winsome, yet not beautiful face, they became assiduous in turn,--two of +them almost distressingly so,--and she could not wound them by refusals. +Then came a fortnight in which her father sat as a member of a +court-martial down at old Fort Laramie, where were the band, +headquarters and four troops of the ----th, and Captain and Mrs. +Freeman, who were there stationed, begged that Mrs. Dade and Esther +should come and visit them during the session of the court. There would +be all manner of army gaieties and a crowd of outside officers, and, as +luck would have it, Mr. Field was ordered thither as a witness in two +important cases. The captain and his good wife went by stage; Esther and +Beverly rode every inch of the way in saddle, camping over night with +their joyous little party at La Bonte. Then came a lovely week at +Laramie, during which Mr. Field had little to do but devote himself to, +and dance with, Esther, and when his final testimony was given and he +returned to his station, and not until then, Esther Dade discovered that +life had little interest or joy without him; but Field rode back +unknowing, and met at Frayne, before Esther Dade's return, a girl who +had come almost unheralded, making the journey over the Medicine Bow +from Rock Springs on the Union Pacific in the comfortable carriage of +old Bill Hay, the post trader, escorted by that redoubtable woman, Mrs. +Bill Hay, and within the week of her arrival Nanette Flower was the +toast of the bachelors' mess, the talk of every household at Fort +Frayne. + +And well she might be. Dark and lustrous were her eyes; black, luxuriant +and lustrous was her hair; dark, rich and lustrous her radiant beauty. +In contour her face was well nigh faultless. It might have been called +beautiful indeed but for the lips, or something about the mouth, that in +repose had not a soft or winsome line, but then it was never apparently +in repose. Smiles, sunshine, animation, rippling laughter, flashing, +even, white teeth--these were what one noted when in talk with Miss +Flower. There was something actually radiant, almost dazzling, about her +face. Her figure, though _petite_, was exquisite, and women marked with +keen appreciation, if not envy, the style and finish of her varied and +various gowns. Six trunks, said Bill Hay's boss teamster, had been +trundled over the range from Rawlins, not to mention a box containing +her little ladyship's beautiful English side-saddle, Melton bridle and +other equine impedimenta. Did Miss Flower like to ride? She adored it, +and Bill Hay had a bay half thoroughbred that could discount the major's +mare 'cross country. All Frayne was out to see her start for her first +ride with Beverly Field, and all Frayne reluctantly agreed that sweet +Essie Dade could never sit a horse over ditch or hurdle with the superb +grace and unconcern displayed by the daring, dashing girl who had so +suddenly become the centre of garrison interest. For the first time in +her life Mrs. Bill Hay knew what it was to hold the undivided attention +of army society, for every woman at Fort Frayne was wild to know all +about the beautiful newcomer, and only one could tell. + +Hay, the trader, had prospered in his long years on the frontier, first +as trader among the Sioux, later as sutler, and finally, when Congress +abolished that title, substituting therefore the euphemism, without +material clog upon the perquisites, as post trader at Fort Frayne. No +one knew how much he was worth, for while apparently a most +open-hearted, whole-souled fellow, Hay was reticence itself when his +fortunes or his family were matters of question or comment. He had long +been married, and Mrs. Hay, when at the post, was a social +sphinx,--kind-hearted, charitable, lavish to the soldiers' wives and +children, and devotion itself to the families of the officers when +sickness and trouble came, as come in the old days they too often did. +It was she who took poor Ned Robinson's young widow and infant all the +way to Cheyenne when the Sioux butchered the luckless little hunting +party down by Laramie Peak. It was she who nursed Captain Forrest's wife +and daughter through ten weeks of typhoid, and, with her own means, sent +them to the seashore, while the husband and father was far up on the +Yellowstone, cut off from all communication in the big campaign of '76. +It was she who built the little chapel and decked and dressed it for +Easter and Christmas, despite the fact that she herself had been +baptized in the Roman Catholic faith. It was she who went at once to +every woman in the garrison whose husband was ordered out on scout or +campaign, proffering aid and comfort, despite the fact long whispered in +the garrisons of the Platte country, that in the old, old days she had +far more friends among the red men than the white. That could well be, +because in those days white men were few and far between. Every one had +heard the story that it was through her the news of the massacre at Fort +Phil Kearny was made known to the post commander, for she could speak +the dialects of both the Arapahoe and the Sioux, and had the sign +language of the Plains veritably at her fingers' ends. There were not +lacking those who declared that Indian blood ran in her veins--that her +mother was an Ogalalla squaw and her father a French Canadian fur +trapper, a story to which her raven black hair and brows, her deep, dark +eyes and somewhat swarthy complexion gave no little color. But, long +years before, Bill Hay had taken her East, where he had relatives, and +where she studied under excellent masters, returning to him summer after +summer with more and more of refinement in manner, and so much of style +and fashion in dress that her annual advent had come to be looked upon +as quite the event of the season, even by women of the social position +of Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Blake, the recognized leaders among the young +matrons of the ----th Cavalry, and by gentle Mrs. Dade, to whom every +one looked up in respect,--almost in reverence. Despite the mystery +about her antecedents there was every reason why Mrs. Hay should be held +in esteem and affection. Bill Hay himself was a diamond in the +rough,--square, sturdy, uncompromising, generous and hospitable; his +great pride and glory was his wife; his one great sorrow that their only +child had died almost in infancy. His solecisms in syntax and society +were many. He was given at times to profanity, and at others, when +madame was away, to draw poker; but officers and men alike proclaimed +him a man of mettle and never hesitated to go to him when in financial +straits, sure of unusurious aid. But, even had this not been the case, +the popularity of his betterhalf would have carried him through, for +there was hardly a woman at Frayne to speak of her except in terms of +genuine respect. Mrs. Hay was truth telling, sympathetic, a peacemaker, +a resolute opponent of gossip and scandal of every kind, a woman who +minded her own business and was only mildly insistent that others should +do likewise. She declined all overtures leading to confidences as to her +past, and demanded recognition only upon the standard of the present, +which was unimpeachable. + +All the same it came something like a shock to society at Frayne that, +when she appeared at the post this beautiful autumn of 188-, nearly +three months later than the usual time, she should be accompanied by +this brilliant and beautiful girl of whom no one of their number had +previously heard, and whom she smilingly, confidently presented as, "My +niece, Miss Flower." + +[Illustration: "THE MAJOR SOUGHT TO BLOCK THAT MORNING'S RIDE IN VAIN."] + +There was a dance the night the Dades got home from Laramie. Nearly all +day long had they driven in the open buckboard over the rough, winding +road along the Platte, and Mrs. Dade was far too tired to think of +going, but Esther was so eager that her father put aside his precious +paper, tucked her under his arm and trudged cheerily away across the +parade toward the bright lights of the hop room. They had a fairly good +string orchestra at Frayne that year, and one of Strauss's most witching +waltzes--"Sounds from the Vienna Woods"--had just been begun as father +and daughter entered. A dozen people, men and women both, saw them and +noted what followed. With bright, almost dilated, eyes, and a sweet, +warm color mantling her smiling face, Esther stood gazing about the +room, nodding blithely as she caught the glance of many a friend, yet +obviously searching for still another. Then of a sudden they saw the +bonny face light up with joy uncontrollable, for Mr. Field came bounding +in at the side door, opening from the veranda of the adjutant's office. +He saw her; smiled joyous greeting as he came swiftly toward her; +then stopped short as a girl in black grenadine dropped the arm of her +cavalier, the officer with whom she was promenading, and without a +moment's hesitation, placed her left hand, fan-bearing, close to the +shoulder knot on his stalwart right arm, her black-gloved right in his +white-kidded left, and instantly they went gliding away together, he +nodding half in whimsical apology, half in merriment, over the black +spangled shoulder, and the roseate light died slowly from the sweet, +smiling face--the smile itself seemed slowly freezing--as the still +dilated eyes followed the graceful movements of the couple, slowly, +harmoniously winding and reversing about the waxen floor. Even at the +Point she had never seen more beautiful dancing. Even when her stanchest +friend, Mrs. Blake, pounced upon her with fond, anxious, welcoming +words, and Mrs. Ray, seeing it all, broke from her partner's encircling +arm, and sped to add her greeting, the child could hardly regain +self-control, and one loving-hearted woman cried herself to sleep that +night for the woe that had come into the soft and tender eyes which had +first beamed with joy at sight of Beverly Field, then filled with sudden +dread immeasurable. + +But the major sought to block that morning ride in vain. The impetuous +will of the younger soldier prevailed, as he might have known it would, +and from the rear gallery of his quarters, with his strong fieldglass, +Major Webb watched the pair fording the Platte far up beyond Pyramid +Butte. "Going over to that damned Sioux village again," he swore +between his set teeth. "That makes the third time she's headed him there +this week," and with strange annoyance at heart he turned away to seek +comfort in council with his stanch henchman, Captain Ray, when the +orderly came bounding up the steps with a telegraphic despatch which the +major opened, read, turned a shade grayer and whistled low. + +"My compliments to Captains Blake and Ray," said he, to the silent young +soldier, standing attention at the doorstep, "and say I should be glad +to see them here at once." + +That night the sentries had just called off half past one when there was +some commotion at the guard-house. A courier had ridden in post haste +from the outlying station of Fort Beecher, far up under the lee of the +Big Horn range. The corporal of the guard took charge of his reeking +horse, while the sergeant led the messenger to the commander's quarters. +The major was already awake and half dressed. "Call the adjutant," was +all he said, on reading the despatch, and the sergeant sped away. In +less than five minutes he was back. + +"I could get no answer to my knock or ring, sir, so I searched the +house. The adjutant isn't there!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ABSENT FROM DUTY + + +For a moment the major stood in silence; then, briefly saying, "Call +Captain Ray," turned again to the dimly lighted hallway of his +commodious quarters, (the women thought it such a shame there should be +no "lady of the house" for the largest and finest of the long line known +as "Officers' Row") while the sergeant of the guard scurried away to the +soldier home of the senior cavalry captain on duty at the post. When the +major again came forth his field glasses were in his hand and he had +hurried down the steps and out into the broad sheen of the moonlight +when he caught sight of the courier seated on the horseblock at the +gate, wearily leaning his head upon his gauntleted hand. Webb stopped +short: + +"Come right in here, my lad," he cried, "I want to speak with you," and, +followed slowly by the soldier, he entered his parlor, and whirled an +easy chair in front of the open fireplace. "Sit right down there now, +and I'll be with you in a minute," he added; bustled into the rear room +and presently reappeared with a decanter and glass; poured out a stiff +tot of Monongahela; "A little water?" he asked, as the trooper's eye +brightened gratefully. A little water was added and off came the right +hand gauntlet. "I drink the major's health and long life to him," said +the soldier, gulping down the fluid without so much as a wink. Then, +true to his training, set down the glass and stood strictly at +attention. + +"You've had nothing to eat since yesterday morning, I'll be bound," said +Webb. "Now, I've got to see some of my officers at once. You make +yourself at home here. You'll find cold beef, bread, cheese, pickles, +milk, if you care for it, and pie right there in the pantry. Take the +lamp in with you and help yourself. If you want another nip, there's the +decanter. You've made splendid time. Did you meet no Indians?" + +"Not one, sir, but I saw smokes at sunset out toward Eagle Butte." + +"Your name--I see you belong to Captain Truscott's troop." + +"Kennedy, sir; and I thank the major." + +"Then I'll leave you in charge until you've had your fill," said the +commander. "Then go over to 'F' Troop's quarters and get a bed. Tell +anybody who comes I've gone to the flagstaff." With that the major +stalked from the room, followed by the Irishman's adoring eyes. A moment +later he stood by the tall white staff at the edge of the northward +bluff, at whose feet the river swept by in musical murmurings. There he +quickly focussed his glass, and gazed away westward up the Platte to +where but the evening before a score of Indian lodges dotted the other +bank, perhaps two miles away. The September moon was at its full and, in +that rare, cloudless atmosphere, flooding the valley with its soft, +silvery light so that close at hand, within the limits of the garrison, +every object could be almost as distinctly seen as in broad day-light, +but, farther away, over the lowlands and the river bottom and the +rolling prairie stretching to the northern horizon, the cottonwoods +along the stream or in the distant swales made only black blotches +against the vague, colorless surface, and the bold bluffs beyond the +reservation limits south of the flashing waters, the sharp, sawlike edge +of the distant mountain range that barred the way to the west, even the +cleancut outlines of Eagle Butte, the landmark of the northward prairie, +visible for fifty miles by day, were now all veiled in some intangible +filament that screened them from the soldier's searching gaze. Later in +the season, on such a night, their crests would gleam with radiance +almost intolerable, the glistening sheen of their spotless crown of +snow. All over this broad expanse of upland prairie and wooded river bed +and boldly undulating bluff line not so much as a spark of fire peeped +through the wing of night to tell the presence of human wayfarer, white, +halfbreed or Indian, even where the Sioux had swarmed, perhaps two +hundred strong, at sunset of the day gone by. + +Close at hand, northernmost of the brown line, was the double set of +quarters occupied by Captains Blake and Ray, the latter, as senior, +having chosen the half nearest the bluff because of the encircling +veranda and the fine, far-extending view. A bright light gleamed now +behind the blinds of the corner room of the second floor, telling that +the captain was up and dressing in answer to the commander's summons, +but all the rest of the dozen houses were black, save where at the +middle of the row a faint glow came from the open doorway at the +commanding officer's. Across the broad level of the parade were the +long, low barracks of the troops, six in number, gable-ending east and +west. Closing the quadrangle on the south were the headquarters +buildings and the assembly room, the offices of the adjutant and +quartermaster, the commissary and quartermaster's storehouses, etc. At +the southwest angle stood the guard-house, where oil lamps, backed by +their reflectors of polished tin, sent brilliant beams of light athwart +the roadway. Beyond these low buildings the black bulk of the Medicine +Bow Mountains, only a dozen miles away, tumbled confusedly against the +sparkling sky. All spoke of peace, security, repose, for even in the +flats under the westward bluff, where lay the wide extended corrals, hay +and wood yards and the stables, not one of the myriad dogs that hung +about the post was lifting up his voice to bay the autumn moon. Even +those easily-started night trumpeters, the big Missouri mules, sprawled +about their roomy, sand-floored stables and drowsed in placid comfort, +wearied with their musical efforts of the earlier hours of the night and +gathering impetus for the sonorous braying with which they should +presently salute the dawn. + +Beyond the guard-house, at the edge of the plateau overlooking the +westward flats, but invisible from the flagstaff bluff, stood the big +wooden edifice known as the store, with its card and billiard room for +the officers on the southern side, another for the enlisted men upon the +northern, the bar and general merchandise establishment compressed +between them. Southward, farther still, surrounded by crude greenhouses +abounding in potted plants and beds of vine and vegetables, was the big +and somewhat pretentious house of the post trader himself, his own +stables and corral being half way down the slope and well away from +those of the garrison. "Out of sight," muttered Webb, "but by no means +out of mind," for it was safe to say the thoughts of more than half the +men and women making up the social element of Fort Frayne had been +centering within the last few days beneath the roof that gave shelter to +that brilliant, fascinating beauty Nanette Flower. + +Ten days a denizen of the fort, it seemed as though she had been there +as many weeks, so completely had she accepted the situation and +possessed herself of the ins and outs of garrison life. The women had +called, of course, and gone away filled with unwilling admiration, for +the girl's gowns and graces were undeniable. The married men, as was the +army way, had called with their wives on the occasion of the first +visit. The bachelors, from Webb down to the junior subaltern, had called +in little squads at first; afterwards, except the major, they sought to +see Miss Flower when other fellows were not present. Even Hartley and +Donovan, the two whose devotions to Esther Dade had been carried to the +verge of oppression, and who were on terms of distant civility only when +compelled to appear together in the presence of women or their other +superiors, had been moved to more than one visit at the Hays', but +Hartley speedily returned to his undesired siege at the quarters of +Captain Dade, while Donovan joined forces with two other youngsters, +Bruce and Putney, because it gave them comfort to bother Field; who, +being the adjutant, and a very busy man, could visit only at certain +hours of the day or evening. Now, it had become apparent to the boys +that despite her general attitude of cordiality their attentions were +not what Mrs. Hay so much desired as those of the major commanding. +Twice had he been invited to dine within the week of Nanette's coming. +Once he accepted. The second time he begged off on plea of a previous +engagement, subsequently made, to go shooting with Blake. It was the +bachelor heart and home of Major Webb to which Mrs. Hay would have laid +vicarious siege, small blame to her, for that indomitable +cross-examiner, Mrs. Wilkins, wife and manager of the veteran ranker now +serving as post quartermaster, had wormed out of Mrs. Hay the admission +that Nanette had no fortune. She was the only daughter of a half +brother, very dear to Mrs. Hay, whom she had lost, she said, long years +before. To do her justice, it was quite apparent that Miss Flower was no +party to the plan, for, though she beamed on Webb as she did on all, she +frankly showed her preference for the younger officers who could dance +as well as ride, and either dancing or riding was her glory. She danced +like a sylph; she seemed to float about the room as though on air; she +rode superbly, and shirked no leap that even Ray and Field took with +lowered hands and close gripping knees. She was joyous, laughing, +radiant with all the officers, and fairly glowed with cordiality for all +the women. But it speedily developed that she would rather dance with +Field than any of the others, probably because he was by far the best +waltzer, and to ride with him, because, Ray excepted, there was none to +excel him in the saddle. Ten days had she been at Frayne and within that +time had become as thoroughly at ease and home as though it had been her +abiding place since babyhood. It was plain to see that big Bill Hay +almost worshipped this lovely _protegee_ of the wife he more than +worshipped. It was plain to see that Webb uneasily held aloof, as though +fearful of singeing his shrivelling wings. It was plain to see that the +hitherto indomitable Mrs. Wilkins was puzzled. It was not so plain to +see that there were two women at the post on whom Miss Flower's charms +made slight impression--Mesdames Blake and Ray--two wise young matrons +who were known to have few secrets from each other and no intimacies--or +rather no confidences--with any other woman at Fort Frayne--Mrs. Dade +possibly excepted. + +But what they thought, their liege lords stood ready to swear to; and it +was to them Webb turned in his perplexity when it became apparent that +his young adjutant was ensnared. It was to Ray he promptly opened his +heart, as that veteran of a dozen Indian campaigns, then drawing his +fourth "fogy," came hastening out to join the commander. + +"Here's confirmation of the telegram. Read that, Ray," said Webb, +handing him the despatch from Fort Beecher. "Then come with me to +Field's. He's missing." + +"Missing!" cried Ray, in consternation, as he hurriedly opened the page. +"In God's name what do you mean?" + +"I mean he isn't in quarters and hasn't been in bed to-night. Now I need +him--and it's two o'clock." + +Even as he spoke the voice of the sentry at the guard-house rang out the +watch call through the still and sparkling night. It was taken up by +Number Two back of the storehouses, and his "All's well" was still +echoing among the foothills, prolonged and powerful, when Number Three, +down at the quartermaster's corral, began his soldier song; and so, +alert, cheery, reassuring, the sentries sent their deep-voiced assurance +on its unbroken round to the waking guardian at the southwest angle, and +as his final "A-a-a-ll's W-e-ell" went rolling away over bluff and +stream and prairie, Ray lifted a grave and anxious face from the fateful +paper. + +"Lame Wolf out? That's bad in itself! He's old Red Cloud's nephew and a +brute at best. Stabber's people there yet?" he suddenly asked, whirling +on his heel and gazing westward. + +"Can't make out even with my glasses. All dark as pitch among the +cottonwoods, but Kennedy, who made the ride, says he saw smokes back of +Eagle Butte just before sunset." + +"Then you can bet they won't be there at dawn--the warriors at least. Of +course the women, the kids and old men will stay if only for a blind. He +had forty fighting men, and Wolf's got at least two hundred. What +started the row?" + +"The arrest of those two young bucks on charge of killing Finn, the +sheep herder, on the Piney last week. I don't believe the Sioux began +it. There's a bad lot among those damned rustlers," said Webb, snapping +the glass into its well-worn case. "But no matter who starts, we have to +finish it. Old Plodder is worried and wants help. Reckon I'll have to +send you, Ray." + +"Ready whenever you say, sir," was the prompt and soldierly reply. Even +marriage had not taken the edge from Ray's keen zest for campaigning. +"Shall I have out my sergeant and cooks at once? We'll need to take +rations." + +"Yes, but wait with me till I wire the chief at Laramie. Come to the +office." So saying the post commander turned and strode away. The +captain glanced at the upper window where the light now dimly burned, +but blind and window were open, and a woman's form appeared. + +"It's all right, Maidie," called the captain, softly. "May have to start +out on scout at daybreak. That's all. Home soon," and with a reassuring +wave of the hand, turned again to his stanch friend and commander. + +"I hate to send you--again," said Webb. "You were out in June, and the +others have had only short scouts since--" + +"Don't bother. What's a cavalryman for? Shall we?--I--can't believe +it--some how," and Ray stopped, glanced inquiringly at the major, and +then nodded toward the doorway of the third house on the row. The ground +floor was occupied by Field as his quarters, the up-stair rooms by +Putney and Ross. + +"Come in," said the major, briefly, and, pushing through the gate they +softly entered the dark hallway and struck a light in the front room. A +wood fire was smouldering on the andirons in the wide brick chimney +place. An open book, face downward, was on the centre table. Two +embroidered slippers lay as though hurriedly kicked off, one under the +sofa beyond the mantelpiece, the other half way across the worn carpet. +Striking another match at the doorway, Ray passed on to the little inner +room,--the bed chamber. On the bed, carelessly thrown, were the young +officer's best and newest forage cap, undress uniform coat and trousers. +He had used them during the evening when calling at the Hays'. On the +floor were the enamelled leather buttoned boots he wore on such +occasions. The bed was otherwise untouched. Other boots and shoes in +orderly row stood against the wall beside the plain, unpainted wardrobe. +The spurred riding boots and the knee-tight breeches were gone. Turning +back to the front room, Ray found the major, his face gray and +disturbed, holding forth to him an open envelope. Ray took it and +glanced at the superscription. "Lieutenant Beverly Field, Fort Frayne," +and returned it without a word. Both knew the strange, angular, slashing +hand-writing at a glance, for both had seen and remarked it before. It +was Nanette Flower's. + +Dropping the envelope on the table--he had found it on the floor--Webb +led the way to the open air. There was then no time to compare views. +There stood the sergeant. + +"Sir," said he, with a snap of the gloved left hand at the brown tube +nestling in the hollow of the shoulder, "Number Five reports that he has +heard galloping hoofbeats up the bench twice in the last half hour, and +thought he saw distant horsemen,--three;--couldn't say whether they were +Indians or cowboys." + +"Very good, sergeant," was the major's brief answer. "Send for the +telegraph operator and my orderly." + +The sergeant turned. + +"One moment," called Ray,--"your pardon, Major--My first sergeant, too, +and--sergeant, have any sentries reported horses taken out from the +stables to-night?" + +"Not one, sir," and, stanch and sturdy, the commander of the guard stood +ready to vouch for his men. + +"That's all!" + +A quick salute, a face to the right about and the sergeant was gone. +Webb turned and looked inquiringly at Ray. + +"I asked, sir," was that officer's brief explanation, "because wherever +Field has gone he wore riding dress." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A NIGHT ENCOUNTER + + +Comforted by abundant food, refreshed and stimulated by more than two or +three enthusiastic toasts to the health of the major the men so loved, +Trooper Kennedy, like a born dragoon and son of the ould sod, bethought +him of the gallant bay that had borne him bravely and with hardly a halt +all the long way from Beecher to Frayne. The field telegraph had indeed +been stretched, but it afforded more fun for the Sioux than aid to the +outlying posts on the Powder and Little Horn, for it was down ten days +out of twelve. Plodder, lieutenant colonel of infantry commanding at +Beecher, had been badly worried by the ugly demonstrations of the +Indians for ten days past. He was forever seeing in mind's eye the +hideous details of the massacre at Fort Phil Kearny, a few miles further +on around the shoulder of the mountains, planned and carried out by Red +Cloud with such dreadful success in '67. Plodder had strong men at his +back, whom even hordes of painted Sioux could never stampede, but they +were few in number, and there were those ever present helpless, +dependent women and children. His call for aid was natural enough, and +his choice of Kennedy, daring, dashing lad who had learned to ride in +Galway, was the best that could be made. No peril could daunt the +light-hearted fellow, already proud wearer of the medal of honor; but, +duty done, it was Kennedy's creed that the soldier merited reward and +relaxation. If he went to bed at "F" Troop's barracks there would be no +more cakes and ale, no more of the major's good grub and rye. If he went +down to look after the gallant steed he loved--saw to it that Kilmaine +was rubbed down, bedded, given abundant hay and later water--sure then, +with clear conscience, he could accept the major's "bid," and call again +on his bedward way and toast the major to his Irish heart's and +stomach's content. Full of pluck and fight and enthusiasm, and only +quarter full, he would insist, of rye, was Kennedy as he strode +whistling down the well-remembered road to the flats, for he, with +Captain Truscott's famous troop, had served some months at Frayne before +launching forth to Indian story land in the shadows of the Big Horn +range. Kennedy, in fact, essayed to sing when once out of earshot of the +guard-house, and singing, he strolled on past the fork of the winding +road where he should have turned to his right, and in the fulness of his +heart went striding southward down the slope, past the once familiar +haunt the store, now dark and deserted, past the big house of the post +trader, past the trader's roomy stables and corral, and so wended his +moonlit way along the Rawlins trail, never noting until he had chanted +over half a mile and most of the songs he knew, that Frayne was well +behind him and the rise to the Medicine Bow in front. Then Kennedy +began to laugh and call himself names, and then, as he turned about to +retrace his steps by a short cut over the bottom, he was presently +surprised, but in no wise disconcerted, to find himself face to face +with a painted Sioux. There by the path side, cropping the dewy grass, +was the trained pony. Here, lounging by the trail, the thick black +braids of his hair interlaced with beads, the quill gorget heaving at +his massive throat; the heavy blanket slung negligently, gracefully +about his stalwart form; his nether limbs and feet in embroidered +buckskin, his long-lashed quirt in hand; here stood, almost confronting +him, as fine a specimen of the warrior of the Plains as it had ever been +Trooper Kennedy's lot to see, and see them he had--many a time and oft. + +In that incomparable tale, "My Lord the Elephant," the great Mulvaney +comes opportunely upon a bottle of whiskey and a goblet of water. "The +first and second dhrink I didn't taste," said he, "bein' dhry, but the +fourth and fifth took hould, an' I began to think scornful of +elephants." At no time stood Kennedy in awe of a Sioux. At this time he +held him only in contempt. + +"How, John," said he, with an Irishman's easy insolence, "Lookin' for a +chance to steal somethin'--is it?" And then Kennedy was both amazed and +enraptured at the prompt reply in the fervent English of the far +frontier. + +"Go to hell, you pock-marked son-of-a-scut! Where'd _you_ steal your +whiskey?" + +For five seconds Kennedy thought he was dreaming. Then, convinced that +he was awake, an Irishman scorned and insulted, he dashed in to the +attack. Both fists shot out from the brawny shoulders; both missed the +agile dodger; then off went the blanket, and with two lean, red, sinewy +arms the Sioux had "locked his foeman round," and the two were straining +and swaying in a magnificent grapple. At arms' length Pat could easily +have had the best of it, for the Indian never boxes; but, in a bear hug +and a wrestle, all chances favored the Sioux. Cursing and straining, +honors even on both for a while, Connaught and wild Wyoming strove for +the mastery. Whiskey is a wonderful starter but a mighty poor stayer of +a fight. Kennedy loosed his grip from time to time to batter wildly with +his clinched fists at such sections of Sioux anatomy as he could reach; +but, at range so close, his blows lacked both swing and steam, and fell +harmless on sinewy back and lean, muscular flanks. Then he tried a +Galway hitch and trip, but his lithe antagonist knew a trick worth ten +of that. Kennedy tried many a time next day to satisfactorily account +for it, but never with success. He found himself speedily on the broad +of his back, gasping for breath with which to keep up his vocal +defiance, staring up into the glaring, vengeful black eyes of his +furious and triumphant foeman. And then in one sudden, awful moment he +realized that the Indian was reaching for his knife. Another instant it +gleamed aloft in the moonlight, and the poor lad shut his eyes against +the swift and deadly blow. Curses changed to one wordless prayer to +heaven for pity and help. He never saw the glittering blade go spinning +through the air. Vaguely, faintly he heard a stern young voice ordering +"Hold there!" then another, a silvery voice, crying something in a +strange tongue, and was conscious that an unseen power had loosed the +fearful grip on his throat; next, that, obedient to that same +power,--one he dare not question,--the Indian was struggling slowly to +his feet, and then for a few seconds Kennedy soared away into cloudland, +knowing naught of what was going on about him. When he came to again, he +heard a confused murmur of talk about him, and grew dimly aware that his +late antagonist was standing over him, panting still and slightly +swaying, and that an officer, a young athlete, was saying rebukeful +words. Well he knew him, as what trooper of the ----th did +not?--Lieutenant Beverly Field; but, seeing the reopened eyes it was the +Indian again who sought to speak. With uplifted hand he turned from the +rescuer to the rescued. + +"You're saved this time, you cur of a Mick," were, expurgated of +unprintable blasphemy, the exact words of the semi-savage lord of the +frontier, "but by the God that made us both I'll get you before another +moon, dash dash you, and when I do I'll cut out your blackguard heart +and eat it." Then bounding on his pony, away he sped at mad gallop, +westward. + +For a moment no further word was spoken. The officer presently helped +the soldier to his feet and stayed him, for the latter's legs seemed +wobbly. Field let his salvage get its breath before asking questions. +Yet he was puzzled, for the man's face was strange to him. "Who are +you?" he asked, at length, "and what on earth are you doing out here +this time of night?" + +"Kennedy, sir. Captain Truscott's troop, at Fort Beecher. I got in with +despatches an hour ago--" + +"What!" cried Field. "Despatches! What did you do--" + +"Gave 'em to the major, sir. Beg pardon; they was lookin' for the +adjutant, sir, an' Sergeant Hogan said he wasn't home." + +Even in the moonlight the Irishman saw the color fade from the young +officer's face. The hand that stayed him dropped nerveless. With utter +consternation in his big blue eyes, Field stood for a moment, stunned +and silent. Then the need of instant action spurred him. "I must go--at +once," he said. "You are all right now--You can get back? You've been +drinking, haven't you?" + +"The major's health, sir--just a sup or two." + +"I've no time now to listen to how you came to be out here. I'll see you +by and by." But still the young officer hesitated. One hand grasped the +rein of his horse. He half turned to mount, then turned again. +"Kennedy," he faltered, "you'd have been a dead man if we--if I--hadn't +reached you at that moment." + +"I know it, sir," burst in Pat, impetuously. "I'll never forget it--" + +"Hush, Kennedy, you _must_ forget--forget that you saw--spoke with +me--forget that you saw or heard--any other soul on earth out here +to-night. Can you promise?" + +"I'll cut my tongue out before I ever spake the word that'll harm the +lieutenant, or the--the--or any one he says, sir. But never will I +forget! It ain't in me, sir." + +"Let it go at that then. Here, shake hands, Kennedy. Now, good-night!" +Another instant and Field was in saddle and speeding away toward the +post where lights were now dancing about the quartermaster's corral, and +firefly lamps were flitting down the slope toward the stables on the +flats. Ray's men were already up and doing. Slowly, stiffly following, +Pat Kennedy rubbed his aching head, with a hand that shook as never did +his resolution. His bewildered brain was puzzling over a weighty +problem. "The lieutenant's safe all right," he muttered, "but what's +gone wid the squaw that was shoutin' Sioux at that murdherin' buck?" + +Meantime all Fort Frayne had seemed to wake to life. No call had sounded +on the trumpet. No voice had been raised, save the invariable call of +the sentries, passing from post to post the half hours of the night; but +the stir at the guard-house, the bustle over at the barracks, the swift +footsteps of sergeants or orderlies on the plank walk or resounding +wooden galleries, speedily roused first one sleeper, then another, and +blinds began to fly open along the second floor fronts, and white-robed +forms to appear at the windows, and inquiring voices, male and female, +hailed the passerby with "What's the matter, sergeant?" and the answer +was all sufficient to rouse the entire garrison. + +"Captain Ray's troop ordered out, sir," or "ma'am," as the case might +be. No need to add the well-worn cause of such night excursions--"Indians." + +The office was brightly lighted, and there, sleepy-eyed and silent, were +gathered many of the officers about their alert commander. Ray was down +at his stables, passing judgment on the mounts. Only fifty were to go, +the best half hundred in the sorrel troop, for it was to be a forced +march. Neither horse nor man could be taken unless in prime condition, +for a break down on part of either on the way meant delay to the entire +command, or death by torture to the hapless trooper left behind. Small +hope was there of a march made unobserved, for Stabber's band of +Ogalallas had been for weeks encamped within plain view. Less hope was +there of Stabber's holding aloof now that his brethren at the Big Horn +had declared for war. He was a recalcitrant of the first magnitude, a +sub-chief who had never missed the warpath when the Sioux were afield, +or the consolation trip to Washington between times. Where Stabber went +his young men followed unquestioning. It was a marvel that Kennedy had +succeeded in getting through. It meant that the Indian runners, or the +Indian smokes and signals, had not at once so covered the country with +scouts that couriers could by no possibility slip between them. But now +the signal fire was gleaming at Eagle Butte, and an answering blaze had +flared from Stabber's camp. Invisible from Fort Frayne, they had both +been seen by shrewd non-commissioned officers, sent scouting up the +Platte by Major Webb within half an hour of the coming of the alarm. + +"Ray will push ahead at once," said Webb, to his silent subordinates. +"You see Colonel Plodder has only two troops up there, and he will need +all his infantry to defend the post. I've wired to Laramie and to +Department Headquarters, and further orders will come before noon. Let +all the cavalry be ready. Then if we push out, Dade, we leave Fort +Frayne to you. They'll hardly venture south of the Platte this time." + +"Is--Mr. Field going with Captain Ray?" presently ventured young Ross, +who knew Ray had but one subaltern for duty at the moment, and whose +soul was burning with eagerness to accompany the first troop to take the +field. + +"No," said the major, shortly. "Captain Ray needs no more." + +"I only asked because Field isn't here, and I thought--maybe--" stumbled +Ross, ingloriously, but the mischief was done. + +"Mr. Field is--busy," answered the major, still more shortly, then +reddened to his bushy brows, for at the doorway, in riding dress, and +with a face the color of parchment, stood the officer in question. It +was a moment that threatened panic, but Webb met the crisis with marked +aplomb. + +"Oh, Field," he cried, "there's another matter. I want two good men to +slip out at once and see how many of Stabber's people start or have +started. It may be daybreak before they can tell. Sergeant Schreiber +would be a tiptop man for one--and little Duffy. You 'tend to it." + +And so, mercifully, he sent the lad away until the crowd should have +dispersed. Only Blake and Ray were with him when, after awhile, Mr. +Field returned and stood silently before them. Well he knew that the +post commander could hardly overlook the absence of his adjutant at such +a time. + +"Have you anything to tell me, Field?" was the major's only query, his +tone full of gentle yet grave reproach. + +"I was restless. I could not sleep, sir. I went out--purposely." + +"You know no horse can be taken from the stables at night except in +presence of the sergeant or corporal of the guard." + +"I took none, sir," was the answer, and now both faces were white. "I +rode one of--Mr. Hay's." + +For one moment there was no sound but the loud ticking of the big office +clock. Then came the question. + +"Who rode the others, Field? The sentries say they heard three." + +There was another moment of silence. Ray stepped on tiptoe to the door +as though he wanted not to hear. Blake looked blankly out of the window. +Then the young soldier spoke. + +"I--cannot tell you, sir." + +For full ten seconds the post commander sat with grave, pallid face, +looking straight into the eyes of his young staff officer. White as his +senior, but with eyes as unflinching, Field returned the gaze. At last +the major's voice was heard again, sad and constrained. + +"Field, Captain Ray starts on a forced march at once for Fort Beecher. +I--wish you to go with him." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SIGN OF THE BAR SHOE + + +Many a time has it happened in the old days of the old army that the +post adjutant has begged to be allowed to go with some detachment sent +after Indians. Rarely has it happened, however, that, without any +request from the detachment commander or of his own, has the post +adjutant been ordered to go. No one could say of Beverly Field that he +had not abundantly availed himself of every opportunity for active +service in the past. During his first two years with the regiment he had +spent more than half the time in saddle and afield, scouting the trails +of war parties or marauding bands, or watching over a peaceable tribe +when on the annual hunt. Twice he had been out with Ray, which meant a +liberal education in plainscraft and frontier duty. Twice twenty times, +probably, had he said he would welcome a chance to go again with Captain +Ray, and now the chance had come, so had the spoken order, and, so far +from receiving it with rejoicing, it was more than apparent that he +heard it with something like dismay. + +But Webb was not the man to either explain or defend an order, even to a +junior for whom he cherished such regard. Field felt instinctively that +it was not because of a wish expressed in the past he was so suddenly +bidden to take the field. Ray's senior subaltern, as has been said, was +absent, being on duty at West Point, but his junior was on hand, and Ray +really did not need, and probably had not applied for, the services of +Mr. Field. It was all the major's doing, and all, reasoned he, because +the major deemed it best that for the time being his young adjutant +should be sent away from the post. Impulse prompted Field to ask wherein +he had offended or failed. Reflection taught him, however, that he would +be wise to ask no questions. It might well be that Webb knew more of +what had happened during the night than he, Beverly Field, would care to +have mentioned. + +"You can be ready, can you not?" asked the major. + +"I am ready now, sir," was the brief, firm reply, but the tone told +unerringly that the lad resented and in heart rebelled at the detail. +"To whom shall I turn over the post fund, sir?" + +"I do not care to have you transfer funds or--anything, Field. This is +but a temporary affair, one that will take you away perhaps a +fortnight." + +"I prefer that it should be permanent, sir," was the young officer's +sudden interruption, and, though his eyes were blazing, he spoke with +effort, his face still white with mingled sense of indignity and +indignation. + +"Gently, Mr. Field," said Webb, with unruffled calm, even while +uplifting a hand in quiet warning. "We will consider that, if need be, +on your return. Meantime, if you desire, I will receipt to you for the +post fund or any other public money." + +"That is the trouble, sir. The best I can do is give you an order for +it. Post treasurers, as a rule, have not had to turn over their funds at +four o'clock in the morning," which statement was true enough, however +injudicious it might be to bruit it. Mild-mannered commanding officers +sometimes amaze their subordinates by most unlooked for and unwelcome +eruptiveness of speech when they feel that an unwarrantable liberty has +been taken. Webb did not take fire. He turned icy. + +"The quartermaster's safe can be opened at any moment, Mr. Field," said +he, the blue gray eyes glittering, dangerously. "I presume your funds +are there." + +"It was because the quartermaster would _not_ open it at any moment that +I took them out and placed them elsewhere," hotly answered Field, and +not until then did Webb remember that there had been quite a fiery talk, +followed by hyperborean estrangement, between his two staff officers, +and now, as the only government safe at the post was in the office of +the quartermaster, and the only other one was Bill Hay's big "Phoenix" +at the store, it dawned upon the major that it was there Mr. Field had +stowed his packages of currency--a violation of orders pure and +simple--and that was why he could not produce the money on the spot. +Webb reflected. If he let Ray start at dawn and held Field back until +the trader was astir, it might be eight o'clock before the youngster +could set forth. By that time Ray would be perhaps a dozen miles to the +northward, and with keen-eyed Indian scouts noting the march of the +troop and keeping vigilant watch for possible stragglers, it might be +sending the lad to certain death, for Plodder had said in so many words +the Sioux about him had declared for war, had butchered three ranchmen +on the Dry Fork, had fired on and driven in his herd guards and wood +choppers, and, what started with Lane Wolf's big band, would spread to +Stabber's little one in less than no time, and what spread to Stabber's +would soon reach a host of the Sioux. Moreover, there was another +reason. It would give Field opportunity for further conference +with--inmates of the trader's household, and the major had his own grave +reasons for seeking to prevent that. + +"Your written order will be sufficient, Mr. Field," said he. "Send me +memorandum of the amounts and I will receipt at once, so that you can go +without further thought of them. And now," with a glance at the clock, +"you have hardly half an hour in which to get ready." + +Raising his hand in mechanical salute, Field faced about; cast one look +at Blake, standing uncomfortably at the window, and then strode angering +away to his quarters, smarting under a sense of unmerited rebuke yet +realizing that, as matters looked, no one was more to blame than +himself. + +Just as the first faint flush of coming day was mantling the pallid +eastern sky, and while the stars still sparkled aloft and the big, +bright moon was sinking to the snow-tipped peaks far away to the +occident, in shadowy column a troop of fifty horse filed slowly from The +Sorrels' big corral and headed straight for the Platte. Swift and +unfordable in front of Frayne in the earlier summer, the river now went +murmuring sleepily over its stony bed, and Ray led boldly down the bank +and plunged girth deep into the foaming waters. Five minutes more and +every man had lined up safely on the northward bank. In low tone the +order was given, starting as Ray ever did, in solid column of fours. In +dead silence the little command moved slowly away, followed by the eyes +of half the garrison on the bluff. Many of these were women and +children, who gazed through a mist of tears. Ray turned in saddle as the +last of his men went by; looked long at the dim light in the upper +window of his home, where, clasping her children to her heart, his +devoted wife knelt watching them, her fond lips moving in ceaseless +prayer. Dimly she could see the tried leader, her soldier husband, +sitting in saddle at the bank. Bravely she answered the flutter of his +handkerchief in farewell. Then all was swallowed up in the shadows of +the distant prairie, and from the nursery adjoining her room there rose +a querulous wail that told that her baby daughter was waking, +indifferent to the need that sent the soldier father to the aid of +distant comrades, threatened by a merciless foe, and conscious only of +her infantile demands and expectations. Not yet ten years wed, that +brave, devoted wife and mother had known but two summers that had not +torn her husband from her side on just such quest and duty, for these +were the days of the building up of the West, resisted to the bitter +end by the red wards of the nation. + +The sun was just peering over the rough, jagged outline of the eastward +buttes, when a quick yet muffled step was heard on the major's veranda +and a picturesque figure stood waiting at the door. Scout, of course, a +stranger would have said at a glance, for from head to foot the man was +clad in beaded buckskin, without sign of soldier garb of any kind. +Soldier, too, would have been the expert testimony the instant the door +opened and the commanding officer appeared. Erect as a Norway pine the +strange figure stood to attention, heels and knees together, shoulders +squared, head and eyes straight to the front, the left hand, fingers +extended, after the precise teachings of the ante-bellum days, the right +hand raised and held at the salute. Strange figure indeed, yet soldierly +to the last degree, despite the oddity of the entire make-up. The +fur-trimmed cap of embroidered buckskin sat jauntily on black and glossy +curls that hung about the brawny neck and shoulders. The buckskin coat, +heavily fringed as to the short cape and the shorter skirt, was thickly +covered with Indian embroidery of bead and porcupine quill; so, too, +were the fringed trousers and leggings; so, too, the moccasins, soled +with thick, yet pliant hide. Keen black eyes shone from beneath heavy +black brows, just sprinkled, as were the thick moustache and imperial, +with gray. The lean jowls were closely shaved. The nose was straight and +fine, the chin square and resolute. The face and hands were tanned by +sun and wind well nigh as dark as many a Sioux, but in that strange +garb there stood revealed one of the famous sergeants of a famous +regiment, the veteran of a quarter century of service with the standard, +wounded time and again, bearing the scars of Stuart's sabre and of +Southern lead, of Indian arrow and bullet both; proud possessor of the +medal of honor that many a senior sought in vain; proud as the Lucifer +from whom he took his Christian name, brave, cool, resolute and ever +reliable--Schreiber, First Sergeant of old "K" Troop for many a year, +faced his post commander with brief and characteristic report:-- + +"Sir, Chief Stabber, with over thirty warriors, left camp about three +o'clock, heading for Eagle Butte." + +"Well done, sergeant! I knew I could count on you," answered Webb, in +hearty commendation. "Now, one thing more. Go to 'F' Troop's quarters +and see how Kennedy is faring. He came in with despatches from Fort +Beecher, and later drank more, I fancy, than was good for him, for which +I assume all responsibility. Keep him out of mischief this morning." + +"I will, sir," said the sergeant, and saluting turned away while Webb +went back to set a dismantled pantry in partial order, against the +appearance of his long-suffering house-keeper, whose comments he dreaded +as he did those of no inspector general in the army. For fifteen years, +and whithersoever Webb was ordered, his bachelor _menage_ had been +presided over by Mistress Margaret McGann, wife of a former trooper, who +had served as Webb's "striker" for so many a year in the earlier days +that, when discharged for disability, due to wounds, rheumatism and +advancing years, and pensioned, as only Uncle Sam rewards his veterans, +McGann had begged the major to retain him and his buxom better half at +their respective duties, and Webb had meekly, weakly yielded, to the end +that in the fulness of time Dame Margaret had achieved an ascendancy +over the distinguished cavalry officer little short of that she had +exercised over honest Michael since the very day she consented to become +Mistress McGann. A sound sleeper was she, however, and not until morning +police call was she wont to leave her bed. Then, her brief toilet +completed, she would descend to the kitchen and set the major's coffee +on the fire, started by her dutiful spouse an hour earlier. Then she +proceeded to lay the table, and put the rooms in order against the +major's coming, and woe betide him if cigar stubs littered the bachelor +sittingroom or unrinsed glasses and half empty decanters told of even +moderate symposium over night. Returning that eventful morning from his +office at first call for reveille, after seeing the last of Ray's +gallant troop as it moved away across the dim vista of the northward +prairie, Webb had been concerned to find his decanter of Monongahela +half empty on the pantry table and the _debris_ of a hurried feast on +every side. Kennedy, who had begun in moderation, must have felt the +need of further creature comfort after his bout with the stalwart Sioux, +and had availed himself to the limit of his capacity of the major's +invitation. Webb's first thought was to partially remove the traces of +that single-handed spree; then, refilling the decanter from the big +five-gallon demijohn, kept under lock and key in the cupboard--for +Michael, too, had at long intervals weaknesses of his own--he was +thinking how best to protect Kennedy from the consequences of his, +Webb's, rash invitation when Schreiber's knock was heard. + +Ten minutes more and the sergeant was back again. + +"Sir, I have to report that Trooper Kennedy has not been seen about the +quarters," said he. + +"Then try the stables, sergeant," answered the veteran campaigner, and +thither would Schreiber next have gone, even had he not been sent. And, +sure enough, there was Kennedy, with rueful face and a maudlin romaunt +about a moonlit meeting with a swarm of painted Sioux, over which the +stable guard were making merry and stirring the trooper's soul to wrath +ungovernable. + +"I can prove ut," he howled, to the accompaniment of clinching fists and +bellicose lunges at the laughing tormentors nearest him. "I can whip the +hide off'n the scut that says I didn't. Ask Lootn't Field, bejabers! He +saw it. Ask--Oh, Mother of God! what's this I'm sayin'?"--And there, +with stern, rebuking gaze, stood the man they knew and feared, every +soul of them, as they did no commissioned soldier in the ----th, +Sergeant Schreiber, the redoubtable, and Schreiber had heard the insane +and damaging boast. + +"Come with me, Kennedy," was all he said, and Kennedy snatched his +battered felt headgear down over his eyes and tacked woefully after his +swift-striding master, without ever another word. + +But it was to his own room Schreiber took the unhappy Irishman, not to +the quarters of Company "F." He had heard words that, coupled with +others that fell through the darkness on his keenly listening ears some +two hours earlier, had given him cause for painful thought. "Lie down +here, Kennedy. Pull off your boots," said he, "and if you open your fool +head to any living soul until I give you leave, py Gott--I'll gill you!" +It was Schreiber's way, like Marryatt's famous Boatswain, to begin his +admonitions in exact English, and then, as wrath overcame him, to lapse +into dialect. + +It was but a few minutes after seven when Major Webb, having previously +despatched a messenger to the post trader's to say he had need to see +Mr. Hay as soon as possible, mounted his horse and, followed by Sergeant +Schreiber and an orderly, rode quietly past the guard-house, touching +his hat to the shouted "Turn out the guard--commanding officer" of the +sentry on Number One. Mr. Hay was dressing hurriedly, said the servant, +so Webb bade Schreiber and the orderly ride slowly down to the flats and +await him at the forks of the road. It was but five minutes before Hay +appeared, pulling on his coat as he shot from the door, but even before +he came the major had been carefully, cautiously scanning the blinds of +the second story, even while feigning deep interest in the doings of a +little squad of garrison prisoners--the inevitable inmates of the +guard-house in the days before we had our safeguard in shape of the +soldier's club--the post exchange--and now again in the days that follow +its ill-judged extinction. The paymaster had been at Frayne but five +days earlier. The prison room was full of aching heads, and Hay's +coffers' of hard-earned, ill-spent dollars. Webb sighed at sight of the +crowded ranks of this whimsically named "Company Q," but in no wise +relaxed his vigilance, for the slats of the blind of the corner window +had partially opened. He had had a glimpse of feminine fingers, and +purposely he called Hay well out into the road, then bent down over him: + +"All your horses in and all right, this morning, Hay?" + +"None have been out," said Hay, stoutly, "unless they've gone within the +hour. I never let them have the keys, you know, over night. Pete brought +them to me at eight last evening and got 'em at six this morning, the +usual time." + +"Where does he get them--without waking you?" asked Webb. + +"They hang behind the door in my sleeping room. Pete gets them when he +takes my boots to black at six o'clock." + +"Come over to the stables," said the commanding officer, and, wondering, +Hay followed. + +They found the two hostlers busily at work grooming. In his box stall, +bright as a button, was "Harney," Hay's famous runner, his coat smooth +as satin. Hay went rapidly from stall to stall. Of the six saddlers +owned by him not one gave the faintest sign of having been used over +night, but Webb, riding through the gangway, noted that "Crapaud," the +French halfbreed grooming in the third stall, never lifted his head. +Whatever evidence of night riding that might earlier have existed had +been deftly groomed away. The trader had seen suspicion in the soldier's +eye, and so stood forth, triumphant:-- + +"No, Major Webb," said he, in loud, confident, oracular tone, "no horse +of mine ever gets out without my knowing it, and never at night unless +you or I so order it." + +"No?" queried the major, placidly. "Then how do you account for--this?" + +Among the fresh hoof prints in the yielding sand, with which the police +party had been filling the ruts of the outer roadway, was one never made +by government horse or mule. In half a dozen places within a dozen rods, +plain as a pikestaff, was the print of a bar shoe, worn on the off fore +foot of just one quadruped at the post--Hay's swift running "General +Harney." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A GRAVE DISCOVERY + + +Only an hour was the major away from his post. He came back in time for +guard mounting and the reports of the officers-of-the-day. He had reason +to be on the parade at the "assembly of the details," not so much to +watch the work of the post adjutant _pro tempore_, as the effect of the +sudden and unlooked for change on certain of the customary spectators. +He had swiftly ridden to the camp of the recreant Stabber and purposely +demanded speech with that influential chieftain. There had been the +usual attempt on part of the old men left in charge to hoodwink and to +temporize, but when sharply told that Stabber, with his warriors, had +been seen riding away toward Eagle Butte at three in the morning, the +sages calmly confessed judgment, but declared they had no other purpose +than a hunt for a drove of elk reported seen about the famous Indian +race course in the lower hills of the Big Horn. Circling the camp, +however, Webb had quickly counted the pony tracks across the still dewy +bunchgrass of the bench, and found Schreiber's estimate substantially +correct. Then, stopping at the lodge of Stabbers's uncle, old "Spotted +Horse," where that superannuated but still sagacious chief was squatted +on his blanket and ostentatiously puffing a long Indian pipe, Webb +demanded to know what young men remained in the village. Over a hundred +strong, old men, squaws and children, they thronged about him, silent, +big-eyed and attentive, Schreiber interpreting as best he could, +resorting to the well-known sign language when the crafty Sioux +professed ignorance of the meaning of his words:-- + +"No young men. All gone," was the positive declaration of the venerable +head of the bailiwick, when compelled at last to answer. But Schreiber +had studied the pony herd and knew better. Moreover, not more than six +of their ponies had been led along with the war party that set forth in +the early hours of the moonlit morning. Others, both men and mounts, +unavoidably left behind, would surely be sent forward at the first +possible opportunity, and, much as Webb might wish to turn back to +capture the party, well as he might know that other bands were in revolt +and Stabber gone to help them, he was powerless under his orders to +interfere until by some openly hostile act these laggards of the little +band invited his reprisal. The rule of the road, as prescribed by the +civil authorities, to which the soldier had sworn obedience, being +practically, "Don't defend until you are hit. Don't shoot until you are +shot." + +Webb came cantering back assured that these frowsy, malodorous lodges +concealed, perhaps, half a score of fighting men who were a menace to +the neighborhood and who could be counted on to make it more than +interesting for any couriers that might have to be sent between the fort +and the forces at the front. Calling Schreiber to his side, as, with +long easy stride their trained mounts went loping swiftly homeward, he +gave instructions the veteran heard with kindling eyes. Then, parting +from him at the corrals, the commander rode on and dismounted at his +quarters just as the trumpeters were forming on the broad, grassy level +of the parade. + +Even without a band young Field had managed to make his guard mount a +pretty and attractive ceremony. Frayne was a big post and needed a daily +guard of twenty-four men, with the usual quota of non-commissioned +officers. Cowboys, herders, miners, prospectors, rustlers (those pirates +of the plains) and occasional bands of Indians, Sioux or Arapahoe, were +forever hovering about its borders in search of supplies, solid or +fluid, and rarely averse to the conversion of public property to +personal use. Like many a good citizen of well-ordered municipalities +within the confines of civilization, they held that what belonged to the +government belonged to them, and the fact that some officer would have +to pay for whatsoever they stole, from a horse to a hammer, cut no +figure in their deliberations. Frayne had long been a favorite place for +fitting out depleted stock, animal, vegetable or mineral, and there had +been times when Webb found as many as forty men almost too small a +guard, and so gave it to be understood that sentries whose carbines were +unlawfully discharged at night, without the formality of preliminary +challenge or other intimation of business intentions, would be held +blameless, provided they had something to show for their shot. A +remarkable feature of the winter's depredation had been that Hay's +corral was never molested, although unguarded by the garrison and quite +as much exposed as the most remote of the government shops, shanties or +stables. + +Field mounted his guard, except in cold or stormy weather, in full +uniform, and the daily "march past" in review brought many of the +garrison ladies, most of the children and all of the dogs to the scene. +Some of the households breakfasted just before,--some just after--guard +mounting, but, as a rule, no one sat at table when almost everybody else +was gathered along the westward edge of the broad parade. It was there +the plans for the social day were discussed and determined. Rides, +drives, hunts or picnics away from the post; dances, dinners, croquet or +tennis within the garrison limits. It was the hour when all the girls +were out, looking fair and fresh as daisies, and while the mothers +sedately gossiped along the row of broad verandas, their daughters +blithely chatted in little groups, or, as might often be, paced slowly +with downcast eyes and mantling cheeks at the side of some young gallant +who had no thought for other duty than that of the thrilling moment. And +here they were, well nigh a dozen of them, of all ages from twelve to +twenty, as the major sent his mount to the stables and made quick survey +of the scene, and a moment's glance was sufficient to show that among +them all there was stir and excitement beyond that which would be +caused by so common an incident as the sending forth of a troop on +scout. + +It was the fact that Field had gone and that young Ross was acting in +his place that set them all to speculating on the cause. One of their +number, promenading with Lieutenant Hartley, glanced up at Major Webb as +they passed him by, with such a world of mingled question and reproach +in her soft blue eyes that his heart for the moment smote him. He had +never seen Esther Dade looking so languid or so wan, yet more _of_ her +and _for_ her had he been thinking during the week gone by than of any +other girl in or out of the army. To-day, however, there was another he +eagerly sought to see, and, with something akin to keen disappointment, +noted that she was not among the strollers along the board walk or the +chatting groups about the steps and gateways. Not once during her brief +visit had she as yet missed guard mounting. Now her absence was +significant. In the very eyes of the little party hastening toward +him--three young girls and a brace of subalterns--he read question and +cross-question, and was thankful to see Hay, the trader, trudging up the +walk to join him. So seldom did the old frontiersman enter the +quadrangle that people remarked upon his coming;--remarked still more +when Webb hurried down to meet him. + +"You're right about the horses, major," said Hay, mopping a moist and +troubled face with a big bandana. "My racer and my best single footer, +Dan, were out last night. Dan's saddle cloth was wet and so was +Harney's. Some one outside has got false keys,--I'll put new padlocks on +at once,--but for the life of me I can't think who would play me such a +trick. To _steal_ the horses,--run 'em off to Rawlins or up the +Sweetwater or off to the Hills--I could understand that! but to borrow +them for an hour or two,--why, it beats me hollow!" And Hay in deep +perplexity leaned against the low fence and almost imploringly gazed +into the major's face. They all leaned on Webb. + +"Any idea who they were?" asked the commander. + +"Not the skin of a shadow, 'cept that one man rode shorter stirrups'n I +do. They forgot to set 'em back. They had my California saddle on Dan +and that light Whitman of mine on Harney." + +"Sure it was two men?" queried Webb, looking straight into the trader's +eyes. + +"What else could it be?" demanded Hay, in no little excitement. + +"Well, I thought possibly Miss Flower might have been moved to take a +moonlight ride. No reason why she shouldn't, you know, and not wishing +to disturb you----" + +"Then she would have used her own side-saddle. What's she doing with a +man's? Besides, she'd have told me!" + +"Oh! You've seen her then this morning? I thought perhaps she wasn't +up," hazarded Webb. + +"Up? Why, hang it, she was up at daybreak--up hours ago, my wife says. +Haven't you seen her? She's over here somewhere?" + +No, Webb had not seen her, and together the two started in search, first +to the flagstaff, and there at the point of bluff beyond the +Rays',--there she stood, gazing up the Platte toward the Indian village +through a pair of signal glasses that weighed heavily in her daintily +gloved hands. Captain Tracy, a bachelor assistant surgeon, stood +faithfully by her side, listening to her lively chatter, with ears that +absorbed and eyes that worshipped. + +"Come away," said Webb. "I have an order on you for Field's currency in +your safe. When are you going to try to get your cash to bank?" And Webb +keenly eyed his man as he asked the question. + +"To-morrow or next day sure,--even if I have to go part way with the +stage myself. When do you want this money?" said Hay, tapping the +envelope Webb had given him. + +"Well, now, if agreeable to you. I prefer to keep such funds at the +quartermaster's. Oh--Good morning, Mrs. Ray!" he cheerily called, +lifting his cap, at sight of a young matron at an upper window. "Can you +see them still?" he added, for the elder of the two boys was peering +through a long telescope, perched on its brass tripod upon a little +shelf projecting from the sill. Many a time had the "Rays' spyglass" +been the last to discern some departing troop as it crossed the low +divide ten miles away to the north. Many a time had the first +announcement of "courier coming" reached headquarters through Master +Sandy, the first born of their olive branches. There were unshed tears +in the gentle voice that answered. There was wordless anxiety in the +sweet, pallid face that smiled so bravely through its sorrow. "The troop +passed out of sight quarter of an hour ago, major," said Mrs. Ray. "But +Sandy could see the flankers on their left until within the last five +minutes." + +"_Way_ out on their left, major!" interposed that young gentleman, big +with importance. "If old Stabber tries any of his tricks with _that_ +troop he'll--he'll get his belly full!" and Master Sandy plainly +intimated both in tone and manner, not to mention the vernacular of the +soldier, that Stabber might take liberties with any other troop or +company at the post, but would best beware of Daddy's. And yet, not +three months agone he had stoutly taken up the cudgels for the Frayne +garrison, as a whole, against the field, the wordy battle with the son +and heir of the colonel commanding at Laramie culminating in a combat +only terminated by the joint efforts of the stable sergeant and sentry, +for both youngsters were game as their sires. What Sandy Ray was now +praying to see was an attack by Stabber's band upon the isolated troop, +but Stabber, it may be said, knew a trick worth ten of that. There was +no sense in pitching into the sorrel troop on even terms when by waiting +another day, perhaps, and the answer of Lame Wolf to the appeal of his +speedy messenger, he might outnumber and overwhelm them with five to +one. + +"We should be hearing from Omaha and Laramie by ten o'clock, Mrs. Ray," +said the major, reassuringly, "and I will send you word at once. And, of +course, Corporal Ray," he continued, and now with martial formality +addressing the lad at the telescope, "I can rely upon you to report at +once in case you see anything suspicious toward the Big Horn." + +"Yes, sir," answered the boy, straightening up to attention. Then, +scrupulously exchanging salutes, the old soldier and the young parted +company, and the major returned to receive the reports of the old and +new officers of the day. These gentlemen were still with him, Captain +Chew, of the Infantry, and the senior first lieutenant for duty with the +----th, when Hay came hurrying up the board walk from the direction of +the store. For reasons of his own, Webb had sent his orderly to the +guard-house to say to the officers in question that he would await them +at his quarters instead of the little building known as the adjutant's +office, in which were the offices of the commander, the record room in +which were placed the desks of the sergeant-major and his three clerks, +and the sleeping rooms of the special duty soldiers. It had happened +more than once in the past that garrison stories of matters not supposed +to be known outside the office had been traced back to that desk room, +and now Webb's questions of his old officer of the day, and his +instructions to the new were not things he cared to have bruited about +the post. He was listening intently to the captain's report of the +sentries' observations during the night gone by when Hay reached the +gate and stopped, not wishing to intrude at such a moment. + +"Come in, Mr. Hay," said the commander, cordially. "This all will +interest you," and, thus bidden, the trader joined the soldiers three on +the veranda, and some of the young people of the garrison, setting up +their croquet arches on the parade, looked curiously toward the group, +and wondered what should keep the old officer-of-the-day so long. +Sauntering down the walk, smiling radiantly upon the occupants of the +various verandas that she passed, then beaming between times into the +face of her smitten escort, her black eyes and white teeth flashing in +the rare sunshine, Nanette Flower was gradually nearing the major's +quarters. She was barely twenty yards away when, in obedience to some +word of the major, Mr. Hay held forth two white packages that, even at +the distance, could be recognized, so far as the outer covering was +concerned, as official envelopes. She was too far away, perhaps, to hear +what was said. + +"It seems," began Webb, to his officers, as he mechanically opened the +first packet, "that Field took fire at Wilkins's growls about the bother +of keeping his funds, so the youngster stowed his money with Hay. He +insisted on turning over everything before he left, so I receipted to +him. Let's see," he continued, glancing at the memorandum in his hand. +"Three hundred and seventy-two dollars and eighty-five cents post fund, +and four hundred belonging to various enlisted men. I may as well count +it in your presence." + +By this time the long, lean fingers had ripped open the package marked +four hundred, and were extracting the contents,--a sheet of official +paper with figures and memoranda, and then a flat package, apparently, +of currency. Topmost was a five dollar treasury note; bottom-most +another of the same denomination. Between them, deftly cut, trimmed and +sized, were blank slips of paper to the number of perhaps thirty and the +value of not one cent. With paling faces the officers watched the +trembling fingers slash open the second, its flap, as was that of the +first envelope, securely gummed,--not sealed. A nickel or two and a few +dimes slid out before the packet came. It was of like consistency with +the first--and of about the same value. Webb lifted up his eyes and +looked straight into the amazed,--almost livid, face of the trader. + +"My God! Major Webb," cried Hay, aghast and bewildered. "Don't look at +me like that! No man on earth has ever accused me of a crime. This means +that not only my stable but my safe has been robbed,--and there is a +traitor within my gates." + +Dr. Tracy, absorbed in contemplation of Miss Flower's radiant face, and +in the effort to make his own words eloquent, had no ears for those of +others. He never heeded the trader's excited outburst. He only saw her +suddenly flinch, suddenly pale, then sway. His ready arm was round her +in a twinkling. In a twinkling she twisted free from the undesired +clasp. + +"Just--my foot turned!--a pebble!" she gasped. + +But when, all assiduity, Tracy would have seated her on the horseblock +and examined the delicate ankle, she refused straightway, and with +almost savage emphasis, and with rigid lips from which all loveliness +had fled, bade him lead on home, where, despite protest and appeal, +personal and professional, she dismissed him curtly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FIRST SIGHT OF THE FOE + + +Ray's gallant half hundred, as has been said, took the route for the +north at break of day. Before them spread the open prairie, apparently +level and unbroken for full five miles to the front and either flank, +the distant slopes and ridges bounding the level expanse growing more +distinct with every moment, and presently lighting up in exulting +radiance in response to the rosy blushes of the eastward sky. Scorning +the dusty stage road, the troop commander pointed to a distant height +just visible against the northward horizon, bade the leading guide march +straight on that; then gave the order "Right by Twos," that he might the +more readily note the gait and condition of every horse and the bearing +and equipment of his rider. There was still time to weed out weaklings +of either class should any such there be. Riding slowly along the left +flank, one after another, he carefully scanned every man and mount in +his little detachment, then, at quicker pace, passed around to the +eastward side of the column, and as critically, carefully studied them +from that point of view. A light of quiet satisfaction shone in his +fine, dark eyes as he finished, for, next to his wife and children, +that troop was Ray's supreme delight. The preliminary look-over by +lantern light had been all sufficient. This later inspection on the move +revealed not a steed amiss, not an item of equipment either misplaced or +lacking. "Steady as planets," barring the irrepressible tendency of some +young, high-spirited horse to dance a bit until quieted by the monotony +of the succeeding miles, at quick, light-hoofed walk, the sorrels +tripped easily along in precise, yet companionable couples. "One yard +from head to croup," said the drill book of the day, and, but for that, +the riders might have dropped their reins upon the pommel as practically +unnecessary. But, for the first hour or so, at least, the tendency +toward the rear of column was ever to crowd upon the file leaders, a +proceeding resented, not infrequently, in less disciplined commands than +Ray's, by well-delivered kicks, or at least such signs of equine +disapprobation as switching tail or set-back ears. But Ray's troop +horses moved like so many machines, so constant and systematic had been +their drill; and Ray's men rode in the perfection of uniform, so far as +armament and equipment were concerned. Each greatcoat, precisely rolled, +was strapped with its encircling poncho at the pommel. Each blanket, as +snugly packed, with the sidelines festooned upon the top, was strapped +at the cantle. Lariat and picket pin, coiled and secured, hung from the +near side of the pommel. The canteen, suspended from its snap hook, hung +at the off side. Saddle-bags, with extra horse shoes, nails, socks, +underwear, brushes and comb, extra packages of carbine and revolver +cartridges and minor impedimenta, equally distributed as to weight, +swung from the cantle and underneath the blanket roll. From the broad, +black leather carbine sling, over each trooper's left shoulder, the +hard-shooting brown barrelled little Springfield hung suspended, its +muzzle thrust, as was the fashion of the day, into the crude socket +imposed so long upon our frontier fighters by officials who had never +seen the West, save, as did a certain writer of renown, from a car +window, thereby limiting their horizon. Ray despised that socket as he +did the Shoemaker bit, but believed, with President Grant, that the best +means to end obnoxious laws was their rigorous enforcement. Each man's +revolver, a trusty brown Colt, hung in its holster at the right hip. +Each man was girt with ammunition belt of webbing, the device of an +old-time Yankee cavalryman that has been copied round the world, the +dull-hued copper cartridges bristling from every loop. Each man wore, as +was prescribed, the heavy, cumbrous cavalry boot of the day and +generation, but had stowed in his saddle-bags light moccasins and +leggings with which to replace them when, farther afield, their +clear-headed commander should give the word. Each man, too, wore the +gauntlets of Indian-tanned buckskin, a special pattern that Ray had been +permitted to use experimentally. Each man was clad in dark blue flannel +shirt and blouse, the latter soon probably to be stored with the big, +weighty boots in Truscott's saddle room at Beecher, with, probably too, +many of the light blue riding breeches, saddle-pieced with canvas--the +uniform at the start destined, in the case of veteran troopers, at +least, to be shed in favor of brown duck hunting trousers, or even, +among certain extremists, fringed, beaded and embroidered buckskin, than +which the present chronicler knows no more uncomfortable garb when +soaked by pelting rains or immersion in some icy mountain stream. Even +the brown campaign hats, uniformly "creased," as the fifty left the +ford, would soon be knocked out of all semblance to the prescribed +shape, and made at once comfortable and serviceable. Add to these items +the well-filled haversack and battered tin quart cup, (for on a forced +march of two or three days Captain Ray would have no pack mules,) and +the personal equipment of his men was complete. As for the mounts, each +sorrel tripped easily along under the sextuple folds of the saddle +blanket, and the black-skinned McClellan saddle tree, with its broad +horsehair cincha and hooded wooden stirrups, minus the useless skirts +and sweat leathers. Neither breast strap, crupper nor martingale +hampered the free movements of the sturdy, stocky little weight +carriers. The black, single-reined curb bridle, fastened as to the +throat latch by a light buckle, was slipped on over the headstall of the +so-called watering bridle, whose toggled and detachable snaffle bit was +generally "toted" from start to finish of a field scout in the saddle +bags,--a twist of the flexible lariat, Indian fashion, between the +complaisant jaws of his pet, being the troop's ready substitute. Add to +this that, full, free and unmutilated, in glossy waves the beautiful +manes and tails tossed in the upland breeze (for the heresies of +Anglomania never took root in the American cavalry) and you have Ray's +famous troop as it looked, fresh started from old Fort Frayne this +glorious autumn morning of 188-, and with a nod of approbation, and "It +couldn't be better, sergeant," to his devoted right hand man, the +veteran senior non-commissioned officer of the troop, Ray rang out the +command "At ease," and placed himself beside the silent young lieutenant +at the head of column. + +[Illustration: RAY'S TROOP.] + +As has been said, Ray's senior subaltern was on detached service. His +junior, Mr. Clayton, had joined but the year before, and this threw Mr. +Field in command of the leading platoon and to the side of the leading +guide. Now, as the senior officer took the head of column and Mr. +Clayton fell back to the rear, the silence of the first mile of march +was broken and, though sitting erect in saddle and forbidden to lounge +or "slouch," the troop began its morning interchange of chaff and +comment. Every mother's son of them rejoiced to be once more afield with +a chance of stirring work ahead. + +"It's time to throw out our advance, Field," said Ray, in kindly, +cordial tone, as he scanned the low divide still some miles ahead and +reined in beside the stern-faced young soldier. "Send Sergeant Scott +forward with three men and the same number on each flank--corporals in +charge." + +He had more than liked Webb's adjutant. He had been his stanchest +friend and supporter among the troop and company commanders, and was +eager to befriend him now. He had expressed no wish to have him sent on +the hurried move, but well he knew the post commander's reasons and +approved his course. Still, now that Field was being removed, for the +time at least, from the possibility of an entangling alliance that might +prove disastrous, in every way in his power Ray meant to show the +mortified, indeed sorely angered, officer that his personal regard for +him had suffered no change whatever. If he could succeed in winning +Field's confidence it might well be that he could bring him to see that +there were good and sufficient grounds for the post commander's +action--that for Field's own good, in fact, it was a most desirable +move. The soul of loyalty and square dealing himself, Ray had never for +a moment dreamed that anything other than a foolish escapade had +occurred--a ride by moonlight, perhaps, demanded of her devotee by a +thoughtless, thoroughbred coquette, whose influence over the young +fellow was beginning to mar his usefulness, if not indeed his future +prospects. Just what to think of Nanette Flower Ray really did not know. +Marion, his beloved better half, was his unquestioned authority in all +such matters, and it was an uncommon tenet of that young matron never to +condemn until she had cause. Instinctively she shrank from what she had +seen of Miss Flower, even though her woman's eye rejoiced in the +elegance of Miss Flower's abundant toilets; and, conscious of her +intuitive aversion, she would utter no word that might later prove +unjust. Oddly enough, that instinctive aversion was shared by her +closest friend and neighbor, Mrs. Blake; but, as yet, the extent of +their condemnation had found vent only in the half whimsical, half +petulant expression on part of the younger lady--Blake's beautiful wife, +"I wish her name weren't--so near like mine," for "Nan" had been her pet +name almost from babyhood. Vaguely conscious were they both, these lords +of creation, Messrs. Blake and Ray, that the ladies of their love did +not approve of Miss Flower, but Ray had ridden forth without ever asking +or knowing why, and so, unknowing, was ill prepared to grapple with the +problem set before him. It is easier to stem a torrent with a shingle +than convince a lover that his idol is a shrew. + +Without a word of reply, Field reined out of column, glanced along the +double file of his platoon, nodded a signal "Fall out" to Sergeant +Scott, and the men nearest him at the front, merely said "Advance +guard," and then proceeded to choose his corporals and men for flankers. +No need to tell Scott what to do! He had been leading scouts in Arizona +long ere Field had even dreamed of West Point. In five minutes, riding +at easy lope, carbines advanced, three little parties of four troopers +each were spreading far out to the front and flank, guarding the little +column against the possibility of sudden assault from hidden foe. Here +upon the level prairie one would think such precaution needless, but +every acre of the surface was seamed and gullied by twisting little +water courses, dry as a chip at the moment, and some of them so deep as +to afford cover even for the biggest pony of the wild warriors of the +plains. Then, to the front, the barrier ridges, streaked with deep +winding ravines, were now billowing against the northward sky, and once +among those tangled land waves no chances could be taken now that it was +known that the Sioux had declared for war, and that Stabber's band was +out to join their red brethren in the oft recurring outbreak. Until +their lands were criss-crossed by the railways and their mountain haunts +re-echoed to the scream of the iron horse, next to nothing would start +an Indian war: it took so long to reach the scene with troops in +sufficient numbers to command their respect. + +And at this moment the situation was grave in the extreme. There had +been bad blood and frequent collision between the cattlemen, herders, +"hustlers,"--especially hustlers,--and the hunting parties of the Sioux +and the Northern Cheyenne, who clung to the Big Horn Range and the +superb surrounding country with almost passionate love and with jealous +tenacity. There had been aggression on both sides, then bloodshed, then +attempts on part of frontier sheriffs to arrest accused or suspected red +men, and equally determined and banded effort to prevent arrest of +accused and identified whites. By due process of law, as administered in +the days whereof we write, the Indian was pretty sure to get the worst +of every difference, and therefore, preferred, not unnaturally, his own +time-honored methods of settlement. In accordance therewith, had they +scalped the sheriff's posse that had shot two of their young braves who +had availed themselves of a purposely given chance to escape, and then +in their undiscriminating zeal, the Sioux had opened fire from ambush on +Plodder's hunting parties and the choppers at the wood camp, who +defended themselves as best they could, to the end that more men, red +and white, were killed. The Indians rallied in force and closed in about +Fort Beecher, driving the survivors to shelter within its guarded lines, +and then, when Plodder needed every man of his force to keep the foe at +respectful distance, so that his bullets could not reach the quarters +occupied by the women and children at the post, there reached him by +night a runner from the stage station far over to the southeast, on a +dry fork of the Powder, saying that the north and south bound stages had +taken refuge there, with only ten men, all told, to stand off some fifty +warriors, and therefore imploring assistance. Not daring to send a +troop, Plodder called for volunteers to bear despatches to Major Webb, +at Frayne, and Pat Kennedy, with half a dozen brave lads, had promptly +stepped forward. Kennedy had managed to slip through the encircling +Sioux by night, and to reach Fort Frayne after a daring and almost +desperate ride. Then Ray was ordered forth, first to raise the siege at +the stage station, then, either to hold that important relay ranch or go +on to reinforce Plodder as his judgment and the situation might dictate. + +He knew enough of the stout adobe walls of the corral on the Dry Fork, +and of the grit of the few defenders, to feel reasonably sure that, +with ammunition, provisions and water in plenty, they could easily hold +out a week if need be against the Sioux, so long as they fought on the +defensive and the Indians were not strongly reinforced. He reasoned that +Stabber and his people were probably gone to strengthen the attack, and +that having an hour's start at least, and riding faster, they would get +there somewhat ahead of him. But one of his own old sergeants, a veteran +of twenty years in the cavalry, was now stationmaster on the Dry Fork, +and all the Sioux from the Platte to Paradise couldn't stampede old Jim +Kelly. Many a forced march had Ray made in the past, and well he knew +that the surest way to bring his horses into action, strong and sound at +the finish, was to move "slow and steady" at the start, to move at the +walk until the horses were calm and quiet, was his rule. Then on this +bright September day would come the alternating trot and lope, with +brief halts to reset saddles; then, later still, the call upon his +willing men and mounts for sustained effort, and by sunset he and they +could count on riding in, triumphant, to the rescue, even though Stabber +himself should seek to bar the way. + +And that Stabber meant to watch the road, if not to block it, became +evident before the head of column began the gradual ascent of Moccasin +Ridge, from whose sharp crest the little band could take their last +look, for the time, at least, at the distant walls of Frayne. Somewhere +toward seven-thirty Corporal Connors' foremost man, far out on the left +flank, riding suddenly over a low divide, caught sight of a bonneted +warrior bending flat over his excited pony and lashing that nimble, +fleet-footed creature to mad gallop in the effort to reach the cover of +the projecting point of bluff across the shallow ravine that cut in +toward the foothills. Stone, the trooper, lifted his campaign hat on +high once, and then lowered his arm to the horizontal, hat in hand, +pointing in the direction the darting savage was seen, and thus, without +a syllable having been spoken at the front, word was passed in to Ray +that one Indian had been sighted far out to the northwest. + +"They may try to hold us among the breaks of the Mini Pusa," said he, to +his still unreconciled second in command. Field had been civil, +respectful, but utterly uncommunicative in his replies to the captain's +repeated cordialities. Any attempt to even remotely refer to the causes +that led to his being ordered out with the detachment had been met with +chilling silence. Now, however, the foe had been seen and could be +counted on to resist if his rallied force much exceeded that of the +troop, or to annoy it by long-range fire if too weak to risk other +encounter. The command halted one moment at the crest to take one long, +lingering look at the now far-distant post beyond the Platte; then, +swinging again into saddle, moved briskly down into the long, wide +hollow between them and the next divide, well nigh three miles across, +and as they reached the low ground and traversed its little draining +gully, a muttered exclamation "Look there!" from the lips of the first +sergeant, called their attention again to the far left front. Stone, +the trooper who had reported the first Indian, had turned his horse over +to the second man, as had the corporal on that flank, and together they +were crouching up along the eastward face of a billowing hillock, while, +straight to the front Sergeant Scott, obedient to a signal from his left +hand man, was speeding diagonally along the rise to the north, for all +three advance troopers had halted and two were cautiously dismounting. +Ray watched one moment, with kindling eyes, then turned to his young +chief of platoons: + +"Take your men, Field, and be ready to support. There's something behind +that second ridge!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BLOOD WILL TELL + + +As Webb had predicted, even before nine o'clock, came prompt, spirited +response from Laramie, where the colonel had ordered the four troops to +prepare for instant march, and had bidden the infantry to be ready for +any duty the general might order. From Omaha,--department +headquarters,--almost on the heels of the Laramie wire came cheery word +from their gallant chief: "Coming to join you noon train to-day. +Cheyenne 1:30 to-morrow. Your action in sending Ray's troop approved. +Hold others in readiness to move at a moment's notice. Wire further news +North Platte, Sidney or Cheyenne to meet me." + +So the note of preparation was joyous throughout the barracks on the +eastward side and mournful among the married quarters elsewhere. But +even through the blinding tears with which so many loving women wrought, +packing the field and mess kits of soldier husbands whose duties kept +them with their men at barracks or stables, there were some, at least, +who were quick to see that matters of unusual moment called certain of +the major's stanchest henchmen to the office, and that grave and earnest +consultation was being held, from which men came with sombre faces and +close-sealed lips. First to note these indications was the indomitable +helpmate of old Wilkins, the post quartermaster. She had no dread on his +account, for rheumatism and routine duties, as the official in charge of +Uncle Sam's huge stack of stores and supplies, exempted her liege from +duty in the field; and, even while lending a helping hand where some +young wife and mother seemed dazed and broken by the sudden call to +arms, she kept eyes and ears alert as ever, and was speedily confiding +to first one household, then another, her conviction that there was a +big sensation bundled up in the bosom of the post commander and his +cronies, and she knew, she said, it was something about Field. +Everybody, of course, was aware by eight o'clock that Field had gone +with Ray, and while no officer presumed to ask if it was because Ray, or +Field, had applied for the detail, no woman would have been restrained +therefrom by any fear of Webb. Well he realized this fact and, dodging +the first that sought to waylay him on the walk, he had later intrenched +himself, as it were, in his office, where Dade, Blake and the old post +surgeon had sat with him in solemn conclave while Bill Hay brought his +clerk, bar-keeper, store-keeper, Pete, the general utility man, and even +"Crapaud," the halfbreed, to swear in succession they had no idea who +could have tampered with either the safe or the stables. Closely had +they been cross-examined; and, going away in turn, they told of the +nature of the cross-examination; yet to no one of their number had been +made known what had occurred to cause such close questioning. Hay had +been forbidden to speak of it, even to his household. The +officers-of-the-day were sworn to secrecy. Neither Wilkins nor the +acting adjutant was closeted with the council, and neither, therefore, +could do more than guess at the facts. Yet that somebody knew, in part +at least, the trend of suspicion, was at once apparent to Webb and his +councilors when, about nine o'clock, he took Blake and Dade to see those +significant "bar shoe" hoof prints. Every one of them had disappeared. + +"By Jove!" said Webb, "I know _now_ I should have set a sentry with +orders to let no man walk or ride about here. See! He's used his foot to +smear this--and this--and here again!" + +There in a dozen places were signs old Indian trailers read as they +would read an open book. Places where, pivoting on the heel, a heavy +foot had crushed right and left into the yielding soil of the roadway, +making concentric, circular grooves and ridges of sandy earth, where, +earlier in the morning Dan's and Harney's dainty hoof prints were the +only new impressions. For nearly fifty yards had this obliterating +process been carried on, and in a dozen spots, until the road dipped +over the rounding edge and, hard and firm now, went winding down to the +flats. Here Webb, with Dade and Hay, returned, while Blake meandered on, +musing over what he had been told. "It's a government heel, not a +cowboy's," had Hay said, hopefully, of the print of that pivoting lump +of leather. + +"That gives no clue to the wearer," answered Blake. "Our men often sell +their new boots, or give their old ones, to these hangers-on about the +post. So far as I'm concerned, the care with which the print has been +erased is proof to me that the major saw just what he said. Somebody +about Hay's place was mighty anxious to cover his tracks." + +But a dozen "somebodies" besides the stablemen hung there at all hours +of the day, infesting the broad veranda, the barroom and stores, +striving to barter the skin of coyote, skunk or beaver, or, when they +had nothing to sell, pleading for an unearned drink. Half a dozen of +these furtive, beetle-browed, swarthy sons of the prairie lounged there +now, as the elder officers and the trader returned, while Blake went on +his way, exploring. With downcast eyes he followed the road to and +across a sandy watercourse in the low ground, and there, in two or three +places found the fresh imprint of that same bar shoe, just as described +by Webb. Then with long, swift strides he came stalking up the hill +again, passing the watchful eyes about the corral without a stop, and +only checking speed as he neared the homestead of the Hays, where, once +again, he became engrossed in studying the road and the hard pathways at +the side. Something that he saw, or fancied that he saw, perhaps a dozen +yards from the trader's gate, induced him to stop, scrutinize, turn, +and, with searching eyes, to cross diagonally the road in the direction +of the stables, then again to retrace his steps and return to the +eastward side. Just as he concluded his search, and once more went +briskly on his way, a blithe voice hailed him from an upper window, and +the radiant face and gleaming white teeth of Nanette Flower appeared +between the opening blinds. One might have said he expected both the +sight and question. + +"Lost anything, Captain Blake?" + +"Nothing but--a little time, Miss Flower," was the prompt reply as, +without a pause, the tall captain, raising his forage-cap, pushed +swiftly on. "But I've found something," muttered he to himself, between +his set teeth, and within five minutes more was again closeted with the +post commander. + +"You saw it?" asked Webb. + +"Yes. Three or four places--down in the arroyo. More than that--Where's +Hay?" he broke off suddenly, for voices were sounding in the adjoining +room. + +"Here, with Dade and the doctor." + +"Then--" But Blake got no further. Breathless and eager, little Sandy +Ray came bounding through the hallway into the presence of the officers. +He could hardly gasp his news: + +"Major, you told me to keep watch and let you know. There's a courier +coming--hard! Mother saw him--too, through the--spyglass. She says +they--see him, too at Stabber's--and she's afraid----" + +"Right!" cried Webb. "Quick, Blake; rush out half a dozen men to meet +him. Those devils may indeed cut him off. Thank you, my little man," he +added, bending down and patting the dark curly head, as Blake went +bounding away. "Thank you, Sandy. I'll come at once to the bluff. We'll +save him. Never you fear." + +In less than no time, one might say, all Fort Frayne seemed hurrying to +the northward bluff. The sight of tall Captain Blake bounding like a +greyhound toward his troop barracks, and shouting for his first +sergeant,--of Major Webb almost running across the parade toward the +flagstaff,--of Sandy rushing back to his post at the telescope,--of the +adjutant and officer of the day tearing away toward the stables, where +many of the men were now at work, were signs that told unerringly of +something stirring, probably across the Platte. As luck would have it, +in anticipation of orders to move, the troop horses had not been sent +out to graze, and were still in the sunshiny corrals, and long before +the news was fully voiced through officers' row, Blake and six of his +men were in saddle and darting away for the ford, carbines advanced the +instant they struck the opposite bank. + +From the bluff Webb had shouted his instructions. "We could see him a +moment ago," for half a dozen field glasses were already brought to +bear, "six miles out,--far east of the road. Feel well out to your left +to head off any of Stabber's people. Three of them have been seen +galloping out already." + +"Aye, aye, sir," came the answering shout, as Blake whirled and tore +away after his men. There had been a time in his distant past when the +navy, not the army, was his ambition, and he still retained some of the +ways of the sea. Just as Webb feared, some few of Stabber's young +warriors had been left behind, and their eagle-eyed lookout had sighted +the far-distant courier almost as soon as Sandy's famous telescope. Now +they were hastening to head him off. + +But he seemed to have totally vanished. Level as appeared the northward +prairie from the commanding height on which stood the throng of eager +watchers, it was in reality a low, rolling surface like some lazily +heaving sea that had become suddenly solidified. Long, broad, shallow +dips or basins lay between broad, wide, far-extending, yet slight, +upheavals. Through the shallows turned and twisted dozens of dry +arroyos, all gradually trending toward the Platte,--the drainage system +of the frontier. Five miles out began the ascent to the taller divides +and ridges that gradually, and with many an intervening dip, rose to the +watershed between the Platte and the score of tiny tributaries that +united to form the South Cheyenne. It was over Moccasin, or Ten Mile, +Ridge, as it was often called, and close to the now abandoned stage +road, Ray's daring little command had disappeared from view toward eight +o'clock. It was at least two, possibly three, miles east of the +stage-road that the solitary courier had first been sighted, and when +later seen by the major and certain others of the swift gathering +spectators, he was heading for Frayne, though still far east of the +highroad. + +And now Mrs. Ray, on the north piazza, with Webb by her side and Nannie +Blake, Mrs. Dade and Esther in close attendance, was briefly telling the +major what she had seen up stream. One glance through Sandy's glass had +told her the little fellow had not watched in vain. + +Then, with the ready binocular, she had turned to the Indian encampment +up the Platte, and almost instantly saw signs of commotion,--squaws and +children running about, ponies running away and Indian boys pursuing. +Then, one after another, three Indians,--warriors, presumably,--had +lashed away northward and she had sent Sandy on the run to tell the +major, even while keeping watch on this threatening three until they +shot behind a long, low ridge that stretched southward from the +foothills. Beyond doubt they were off in hopes of bagging that solitary +horseman, speeding with warning of some kind for the shelter of Fort +Frayne. + +By this time there must have been nearly two hundred men, women and +children lining the crest of the bluff, and speaking in low, tense +voices when they spoke at all, and straining their eyes for the next +sight of the coming courier or the swift dash of the intercepting Sioux. +Well out now, and riding at the gallop, Blake and his half dozen, widely +separating so as to cover much of the ground, were still in view, and +Dade and his officers breathed more freely. "See what a distance those +beggars of Stabber's will have to ride," said the veteran captain to the +little group about him. "They dare not cross that ridge short of three +miles out. It's my belief they'll see Blake and never cross at all." + +Then up rose a sudden shout. "There he is!" "There he comes!" "See!" +"See!" and fifty hands pointed eagerly northeastward where a little +black dot had suddenly popped into view out of some friendly, winding +watercourse, four miles still away, at least count, and far to the right +and front of Blake's easternmost trooper. Every glass was instantly +brought to bear upon the swiftly coming rider, Sandy's shrill young +voice ringing out from the upper window. "It isn't one of papa's men. +His horse is a gray!" Who then could it be? and what could it mean, this +coming of a strange courier from a direction so far to the east of the +travelled road? Another moment and up rose another shout. +"Look!"--"There they are!" "Sioux for certain!" And from behind a little +knob or knoll on the meridian ridge three other black dots had swept +into view and were shooting eastward down the gradual slope. Another +moment and they were swallowed up behind still another low divide, but +in that moment they had seen and been seen by the westernmost of Blake's +men, and now, one after another as the signals swept from the left, the +seven swerved. Their line of direction had been west of north. Now, +riding like mad, they veered to the northeast, and a grand race was on +between the hidden three and the would-be rescuers;--all heading for +that part of the low-rolling prairie where the lone courier might next +be expected to come into view;--friends and foes alike, unconscious of +the fact that, following one of those crooked arroyos with its stiff and +precipitous banks, he had been turned from his true course full three +quarters of a mile, and now, with a longer run, but a clear field ahead, +was steering straight for Frayne. + +Thus the interest of the on-lookers at the bluff became divided. Women +with straining eyes gazed at the lonely courier, and then fearfully +scanned the ridge line between him and the northward sky; praying with +white lips for his safety; dreading with sinking hearts that at any +moment those savage riders should come darting over the divide and +swooping down upon their helpless prey. Men, with eyes that snapped and +fists that clinched, or fingers that seemed twitching with mad desire to +clasp pistol butt or sabre hilt, or loud barking carbine, ran in sheer +nervous frenzy up and down the bluffs, staring only at Blake's +far-distant riders, swinging their hats and waving them on, praying only +for another sight of the Sioux in front of the envied seven, and craving +with all their soldier hearts to share in the fight almost sure to +follow. On the Rays' piazza, with pallid face and quivering lips, Esther +Dade clung to her mother's side. Mrs. Ray had encircled with her arm the +slender waist of Nannie Blake, whose eyes never for an instant quit +their gaze after the swift-speeding dots across the distant prairie. All +her world was there in one tall, vehement horseman. Other troopers, +mounting at the stables, had spurred away under Captain Gregg, and were +splashing through the ford. Other denizens of Fort Frayne, hearing of +the excitement, came hurrying to the bluff, hangers-on from the trader's +store and corral, the shopman himself, even the bar-keeper in his white +jacket and apron; two or three panting, low-muttering halfbreeds, their +eyes aflame, their teeth gleaming in their excitement; then Hay himself, +and with him,--her dark face almost livid, her hair disordered and lips +rigid and almost purple, with deep lines at the corners of her +mouth,--Nanette Flower. Who that saw could ever forget her as she forced +her way through the crowd and stood at the very brink, saying never a +word, but swiftly focussing her ready glasses? Hardly had she reached +the spot when wild, sudden, exultant, a cheer burst fiercely from the +lips of the throng. "Look!" "Look!" "By God, they've got 'em!" yelled +man after man, in mad excitement. Three black dots had suddenly swept +into view, well to the right of Blake's men, and came whirling down +grade straight for the lone courier on the gray. Theirs had been the +short side, ours the long diagonal of the race. Theirs was the race, +perhaps, but not the prize, for he had turned up far from the expected +point. Still they had him, if only,--if only those infernal troopers +failed to see them. There was their hope! Plainly in view of the high +bluff at the fort, they were yet hidden by a wave of the prairie from +sight of the interceptors, still heading for the ridge the warriors had +just left behind. Only for a second or two, however. A yell of fierce +rejoicing went up from the crowd on the bluff as the easternmost of +Blake's black specks was seen suddenly to check, then to launch out +again, no longer to the north, but straight to his right, followed +almost immediately by every one of the seven. Then, too, swerved the +would-be slayers, in long, graceful circles, away from the wrath to +come. And, while the unconscious courier still rode, steadily loping +toward the desired refuge, away for the breaks and ravines of the +Sleeping Bear lashed the thwarted Sioux,--away in hopeless stern chase +spurred the pursuers, and while women sobbed and laughed and screamed, +and men danced and shouted and swore with delight, one dark face, livid, +fearsome, turned back from the bluff, and Dr. Tracy, hastening to the +side of his enchantress, caught, in amaze, these words, almost hissed +between set and grinding teeth. + +"Seven to three--Shame!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MORE STRANGE DISCOVERIES + + +But Frayne was far from done with excitement for the day. For a while +all eyes seemed centred on the chase, now scattered miles toward the +east, and, save for two of the number left behind, blown, spent and +hopelessly out of the race, soon lost to view among the distant swales +and ravines. Then everyone turned to welcome the coming harbinger, to +congratulate him on his escape, to demand the reason for his daring +essay. Gregg and his men were first to reach him, and while one of them +was seen through the levelled glasses to dismount and give the courier +his fresh horse, thereby showing that the gray was well nigh exhausted, +the whole party turned slowly toward the post. Then one of their number +suddenly darted forth from the group and came spurring at top speed +straight for the ford. + +"That means news of importance," said Webb, at the instant. "And Gregg +and all of his squad are coming in,--not following Blake. That means he +and they are more needed elsewhere. Come on, Mr. Ross. We'll go down and +meet that fellow. Orderly, have my horse sent to the ford." So, followed +by three or four of the younger officers,--the married men being +restrained, as a rule, by protesting voices, close at hand,--the +commanding officer went slipping and sliding down a narrow, winding +pathway, a mere goat track, many of the soldiers following at respectful +distance, while all the rest of the gathered throng remained at the +crest, eagerly, almost breathlessly awaiting the result. They saw the +trooper come speeding in across the flats from the northeast; saw as he +reached the "bench" that he was spurring hard; heard, even at the +distance, the swift batter of hoofs upon the resounding sod; could +almost hear the fierce panting of the racing steed; saw horse and rider +come plunging down the bank and into the stream, and shoving breast deep +through the foaming waters; then issue, dripping, on the hither shore, +where, turning loose his horse, the soldier leaped from saddle and +saluted his commander. But only those about the major heard the stirring +message: + +"Captain Gregg's compliments, sir. It's Rudge from the Dry Fork. +Sergeant Kelly feared that Kennedy hadn't got through, for most of Lame +Wolf's people pulled away from the Fork yesterday morning, coming this +way, and the sergeant thought it was to unite with Stabber to surround +any small command that might be sent ahead from here. Rudge was ordered +to make a wide sweep to the east, so as to get around them, and that's +what took him so long. He left not two hours after Kennedy." + +[Illustration: "THE SOLDIER LEAPED FROM HIS SADDLE."] + +In spite of his years of frontier service and training in self control, +Webb felt, and others saw, that his face was paling. Ray, with only +fifty men at his back, was now out of sight--out of reach--of the post, +and probably face to face with, if not already surrounded by, the +combined forces of the Sioux. Not a second did he hesitate. Among the +swarm that had followed him was a young trumpeter of "K" Troop, reckless +of the fact that he should be at barracks, packing his kit. As luck +would have it, there at his back hung the brazen clarion, held by its +yellow braid and cord. "Boots and Saddles, Kerry, Quick!" ordered the +major, and as the ringing notes re-echoed from bluff and building wall +and came laughing back from the distant crags at the south, the little +throng at the bank and the crowd at the point of the bluff had scattered +like startled coveys,--the men full run for the barracks and stables, +never stopping to "reason why." + +Nearly half an hour later, gray-haired Captain Dade stood at the point +of bluff near the flagstaff, Esther, pale and tearful, by his side, +waving adieu and Godspeed to Webb, who had halted in saddle on reaching +the opposite bank and was watching his little column through the +ford,--three stanch troops, each about sixty strong, reinforced by half +a dozen of Ray's men left behind in the forward rush at dawn, but +scorning disqualification of any kind now that danger menaced their +beloved captain and their comrades of the sorrel troop. In all the +regiment no man was loved by the rank and file as was Billy Ray. +Brilliant soldiers, gifted officers, sterling men were many of his +comrades, but ever since he first joined the ----th on the heels of the +civil war, more than any one of its commissioned list, Ray had been +identified with every stirring scout and campaign, fight or incident in +the regimental history. Truscott, Blake, Hunter and Gregg among the +junior captains had all had their tours of detached duty--instructing at +West Point, recruiting in the big Eastern cities, serving as +aide-de-camp to some general officer, but of Ray it could be said he had +hardly been east of the Missouri from the day he joined until his +wedding day, and only rarely and briefly since that time. More than any +officer had he been prominent in scout after scout--Arizona, Mexico, +Texas, the Indian Territory, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, the +Dakotas, Montana, even parts of Idaho and Utah he knew as he used to +know the roads and runways of the blue grass region of his native state. +From the British line to the Gulfs of Mexico and California he had +studied the West. The regiment was his home, his intense pride, and its +men had been his comrades and brothers. The veterans trusted and swore +by, the younger troopers looked up to and well nigh worshipped him, and +now, as the story that the Sioux had probably surrounded the sorrel +troop went like wild fire through the garrison, even the sick in +hospital begged to be allowed to go, and one poor lad, frantic through +fever and enforced confinement, broke from the hold of the half-hearted +attendant; tore over to "K" Troop barracks, demanding his "kit" of +Sergeant Schreiber, and, finding the quarters deserted, the men all gone +to stables, dared to burst into that magnate's own room in search of his +arms and clothing, and thereby roused a heavily sleeping soldier, who +damned him savagely until, through wild raving, he gathered that some +grave danger menaced Captain Ray. Even his befuddled senses could +fathom that! And while guards and nurses bore the patient, shrieking and +struggling, back to hospital, Kennedy soused his hot head in the cooling +waters of their frontier lavatory and was off like a shot to the +stables. + +It was long before he found his horse, for the guard had taken Kilmaine +to "F" Troop's stables, and Kennedy had been housed by "K." It was +longer still before he could persuade the guard that he "had a right," +as he put it, to ride after the major. Not until Captain Dade had been +consulted would they let him go. Not, indeed, until in person Kennedy +had pleaded his cause with that cool-headed commander. Dade noted the +flushed and swollen face, but reasoned that nothing would more speedily +shake the whiskey from his system than a long gallop in that glorious +air and sunshine. "Major Webb is following the trail of Captain Ray," +said he. "You follow the major's. You can't miss him, and there are no +more Indians now to interpose. You should catch him by noon--then give +him this." + +"This" was a copy of a late despatch just in from Laramie, saying that +the revolt had reached the Sioux at the agencies and reservations on the +White Earth, and would demand the attention of every man at the post. No +reinforcement, therefore, could be looked for from that quarter until +the general came. It was no surprise to Dade. It could be none to Webb, +for old Red Cloud had ever been an enemy, even when bribed and petted +and fed and coddled in his village on the Wakpa Schicha. His nephew led +the bolt afield. No wonder the old war chief backed him with abundant +food, ammunition and eager warriors sent "from home." + +But it was after eleven when Kennedy drove his still wearied horse +through the Platte and, far to the north, saw the dun dust cloud that +told where Webb's little column was trotting hard to the support of the +sorrels. His head was aching and he missed the morning draught of +soldier coffee. He had eaten nothing since his cold lunch at the +major's, and would have been wise had he gone to Mistress McGann and +begged a cup of the fragrant Java with which she had stimulated her +docile master ere he rode forth, but the one idea uppermost in Kennedy's +muddled brain was that the sorrels were trapped by the Sioux and every +trooper was needed to save them. At three in the morning he felt equal +to fighting the whole Sioux nation, with all its dozen tribes and +dialects. At 3:30 he had been whipped to a stand by just one of their +number, and, "Mother av Moses," one that spoke English as well, or as +ill, as any man in the ----th. + +Sore in soul and body was Kennedy, and sore and stiff was his gallant +bay, Kilmaine, when these comrades of over three years' service shook +the spray of the Platte from their legs and started doggedly northward +on the trail. Northward they went for full three miles, Kilmaine sulky +and protesting. The dust cloud was only partially visible now, hidden by +the ridge a few miles ahead, when, over that very ridge, probably four +miles away to the right front, Kennedy saw coming at speed a single +rider, and reined to the northeast to meet him. Blake and his men had +gone far in that direction. Two of their number, with horses too slow +for a chase after nimble ponies, had, as we have seen, drifted back, and +joined, unprepared though they were for the field, the rear of Webb's +column. But now came another, not aiming for Webb, but heading for +Frayne. It meant news from the chase that might be important. It would +take him but little from the direct line to the north, why not meet him +and hear? Kennedy reined to the right, riding slowly now and seeking the +higher level from which he could command the better view. + +At last they neared each other, the little Irish veteran, sore-headed +and in evil mood, and a big, wild-eyed, scare-faced trooper new to the +frontier, spurring homeward with panic in every feature, but rejoicing +at sight of a comrade soldier. + +"Git back; git back!" he began to shout, as soon as he got within +hailing distance. "There's a million Indians just over the ridge. +They've got the captain----" + +"What captain?" yelled Kennedy, all ablaze at the instant. "Spake up, ye +shiverin' loon!" + +"Blake! He got way ahead of us----" + +"Then it's to him you should be runnin', not home, ye cur! Turn about +now! Turn about or I'll----" And in a fury Pat had seized the other's +rein, and, spurring savagely at Kilmaine,--both horses instantly waking, +as though responsive to the wrath and fervor of their little master,--he +fairly whirled the big trooper around and, despite fearsome protests, +bore him onward toward the ridge, swift questioning as they rode. How +came they to send a raw rookie on such a quest? Why, the rookie gasped +in explanation that he was on stable guard, and the captain took the +first six men in sight. How happened it that the captain got so far +ahead of him? There was no keepin' up with the captain. He was on his +big, raw-boned race horse, chasin' three Indians that was firin' and had +hit Meisner, but there was still three of the troop to follow him, and +the captain ordered "come ahead," until all of a sudden, as they filed +round a little knoll, the three Indians they'd been chasin' turned about +and let 'em have it, and down went another horse, and Corporal Feeney +was killed sure, and he, the poor young rookie, saw Indians in every +direction, "comin' straight at 'em," and what else could he do but +gallop for home--and help? All this, told with much gasping on his part, +and heard with much blasphemy by Kennedy, brought the strangely assorted +pair at swift gallop over the springy turf back along the line of that +panicky, yet most natural retreat. Twice would the big fellow have +broken away and again spurred for home, but the little game cock held +him savagely to his work and so, together, at last they neared the +curtaining ridge. "Now, damn you!" howled Kennedy, "whip out your +carbine and play you're a man till we see what's in front! an' if ye +play false, the first shot from this barker," with a slap at the butt of +his Springfield, "goes through your heart." + +And this was what they saw as, together, they rounded the hillock and +came in view of the low ground beyond. + +Half way down the long, gradual slope, in a shallow little dip, possibly +an old buffalo wallow, two or three horses were sprawled, and a tiny +tongue of flame and blue smoke spitting from over the broad, brown backs +told that someone, at least, was on the alert and defensive. Out on the +prairie, three hundred yards beyond, a spotted Indian pony, heels up, +was rolling on the turf, evidently sorely wounded. Behind this rolling +parapet crouched a feathered warrior, and farther still away, sweeping +and circling on their mettlesome steeds, three more savage braves were +darting at speed. Already they had sighted the coming reinforcements, +and while two seemed frantically signalling toward the northwest, the +third whirled his horse and sped madly away in that direction. + +"Millions, be damned!" yelled Kennedy. "There's only three. Come on, ye +scut!" And down they went, full tilt at the Sioux, yet heading to cover +and reach the beleaguered party in the hollow. Someone of the besieged +waved a hat on high. Two more carbines barked their defiance at the +feathered foe, and then came a pretty exhibit of savage daring and +devotion. Disdainful of the coming troopers and of the swift fire now +blazing at them from the pit, the two mounted warriors lashed their +ponies to mad gallop and bore down straight for their imperilled +brother, crouching behind the stricken "pinto." Never swerving, never +halting, hardly checking speed, but bending low over and behind their +chargers' necks, the two young braves swept onward and with wild whoop +of triumph, challenge and hatred, gathered up and slung behind the rider +of the heavier pony the agile and bedizened form on the turf; then +circled away, defiant, taunting, gleeful, yes and even more:--With +raging eyes, Kennedy sprang from saddle and, kneeling, drove shot after +shot at the scurrying pair. Two of the three troopers at the hollow +followed suit. Even the big, blubbering lad so lately crazed with fear +unslung his weapon and fired thrice into empty space, and a shout of +wrath and renewed challenge to "come back and fight it out" rang out +after the Sioux, for to the amaze of the lately besieged, to the +impotent fury of the Irishman, in unmistakable, yet mostly unquotable, +English, the crippled warrior was yelling mingled threat and +imprecation. + +"Who was it, Kennedy?--and where did you ever see him before?" a moment +later, demanded Captain Blake, almost before he could grasp the +Irishman's hands and shower his thanks, and even while stanching the +flow of blood from a furrow along his sun-burnt cheek. "What's that he +said about eating your heart?" + +And Kennedy, his head cleared now through the rapture of battle, minded +him of his promise to Field, and lied like a hero. "Sure, how should I +know him, sorr? They're all of the same spit." + +"But, he called you by name. I heard him plainly. So did Meisner, here," +protested Blake. "Hello, what have you there, corporal?" he added, as +young Feeney, the "surely killed," came running back, bearing in his +hand a gaily ornamented pouch of buckskin, with long fringes and heavy +crusting of brilliant beads. + +"Picked it up by that pony yonder, sir," answered the corporal, with a +salute. "Beg pardon, sir, but will the captain take my horse? His is hit +too bad to carry him." + +Two, indeed, of Blake's horses were crippled, and it was high time to be +going. Mechanically he took the pouch and tied it to his waist belt. +"Thank God no _man_ is hurt!" he said. "But--now back to Frayne! Watch +those ridges and be ready if a feather shows, and spread out a +little--Don't ride in a bunch." + +But there was bigger game miles to the west, demanding all the attention +of the gathered Sioux. There were none to spare to send so far, and +though three warriors,--one of them raging and clamoring for further +attempt despite his wounds,--hovered about the retiring party, Blake and +his fellows within another hour were in sight of the sheltering walls of +Frayne; and, after a last, long-range swapping of shots, with Blake and +Meisner footing it most of the way, led their crippled mounts in safety +toward that Rubicon of the West--the swift flowing Platte. They were +still three miles out when Blake found leisure to examine the contents +of that beaded pouch, and the first thing drawn from its depths was +about the last a Christian would think to find in the wallet of a +Sioux--a dainty little billet, scented with wood violet,--an envelope of +delicate texture, containing a missive on paper to match, and the +envelope was addressed in a strange, angular, characteristic hand that +Blake recognized at once, to a man of whom, by that name at least, he +had never heard before: + + "MR. RALPH MOREAU, + "_En Ville._" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BAD NEWS FROM THE FRONT + + +It might well be imagined that a man returning from such a morning's +work as had been Blake's could be excused from duty the rest of the day. +He and his little party had had a spirited running fight of several +hours with an evasive and most exasperating trio of warriors, better +mounted for swift work than were the troopers. He had managed eventually +to bring down one of the Indians who lingered a little too long within +short range of the carbines, but it was the pony, not the rider, that +they killed. Meanwhile other Indians had appeared on distant divides, +and one feathered brave had galloped down to meet his comrades, and fire +a few shots at the pursuing pale faces. But at no time, until near their +supports and far from the fort, had the Sioux halted for a hand to hand +fight, and Blake's long experience on the frontier had stood him in good +stead. He saw they were playing for one of two results;--either to lure +him and his fellows in the heat of pursuit far round to the northwest, +where were the united hundreds of Lame Wolf and Stabber stalking that +bigger game, or else to tempt Blake himself so far ahead of his fellows +as to enable them to suddenly whirl about, cut him off, and, three on +one, finish him then and there; then speed away in frenzied delight, +possessors of a long-coveted scalp. + +They well knew Blake,--almost as well as they did Ray. Many a year he +had fought them through the summer and fed them through the winter. +They, their squaws and pappooses, had fattened on his bounty when the +snows were deep and deer were gone, and their abundant rations had been +feasted or gambled away. Many of their number liked him well, but now +they were at the war game again, and, business is business with the +aborigines. Blake was a "big chief," and he who could wear at his belt +the scalp of so prominent a pale face leader would be envied among his +people. "Long Legs," as they called him, however, was no fool. Brave and +zealous as he was, Blake was not rash. He well knew that unless he and +his few men kept together they would simply play into the hands of the +Indians. It would have been easy for him, with his big racer, to +outstrip his little party and close with the Sioux. Only one of the +troopers had a horse that could keep pace with Pyramus, but nothing he +could gain by such a proceeding would warrant the desperate risk. +Matchless as we have reason to believe our men, we cannot so believe our +mounts. Unmatched would better describe them. Meisner's horse might have +run with the captain's, until crippled by the bullets of the Sioux, but +Bent's and Flannigan's were heavy and slow, and so it resulted that the +pursuit, though determined, was not so dangerous to the enemy but that +they were able to keenly enjoy it, until the swift coming of Kennedy +and his captive comrade turned the odds against them, for then two of +Blake's horses had given out through wounds and weakness, and they had +the pursuers indeed "in a hole." + +That relief came none too soon. Blake and his fellows had been brought +to a stand; but now the Sioux sped away out of range; the crippled party +limped slowly back to the shelter of Frayne, reaching the post long +hours after their spirited start, only to find the women and children, +at least, in an agony of dread and excitement, and even Dade and his +devoted men looking grave and disturbed. Unless all indications failed, +Ray and his people must have been having the fight of their lives. Two +couriers had galloped back from Moccasin Ridge to say that Major Webb's +scouts could faintly hear the sound of rapid firing far ahead, and that, +through the glass, at least a dozen dead horses or ponies could be seen +scattered over the long slope to the Elk Tooth range, miles further on. +Webb had pushed forward to Ray's support, and Blake, calling for fresh +horses for himself and two of his men, bade the latter get food and +field kits and be ready to follow him. Then he hastened to join his +devoted young wife, waiting with Mrs. Ray upon the piazza. Dade, who had +met him at the ford, had still much to tell and even more to hear; but +at sight of those two pale, anxious faces, lifted his cap and called out +cheerily, "I hand him over to you, Mrs. Blake, and will see him later," +then turned and went to his own doorway, and took Esther's slender form +in his strong arms and kissed the white brow and strove to think of +something reassuring to say, and never thought to ask Blake what he had +in that fine Indian tobacco pouch swinging there at his belt, for which +neglect the tall captain was more than grateful. It was a woman's +letter, as we know, and that, he argued, should be dealt with only in a +woman's way. + +Sorely puzzled as Blake had been by the discovery, he had been able on +the long homeward march,--walking until in sight of Frayne and safety, +then galloping ahead on the corporal's horse,--to think it out, as he +said, in several ways. Miss Flower had frequently ridden up the valley +and visited the Indian village across the Platte. Miss Flower might +easily have dropped that note, and some squaw, picking it up, had +surrendered it to the first red man who demanded it, such being the +domestic discipline of the savage. The Indian kept it, as he would any +other treasure trove for which he had no use, in hopes of reward for its +return, said Blake. It was queer, of course, that the Indian in whose +pouch it was found should have been so fluent a speaker of English, yet +many a Sioux knew enough of our tongue to swear volubly and talk ten +words of vengeance to come. There were several ways, as Blake reasoned, +by which that letter might have got into the hands of the enemy. But at +any rate, with everything said, it was a woman's letter. He had no right +to read it. He would first confide in his wife, and, if she said so, in +Mrs. Ray. Then what they decided should decide him. + +But now came a new problem. Despite the long morning of peril and chase +and excitement, there was still much more ahead. His men were in saddle; +his troop was afield; the foe was in force on the road to the north; the +battle, mayhap, was on at the very moment, and Frayne and home was no +place for him when duty called at the distant front. Only, there was +Nan, silent, tremulous, to be sure, and with such a world of piteous +dread and pleading in her beautiful eyes. It was hard to have to tell +her he must go again and at once, hard to have to bid her help him in +his hurried preparations, when she longed to throw herself in his arms +and be comforted. He tried to smile as he entered the gate, and thereby +cracked the brittle, sun-dried court plaster with which a sergeant had +patched his cheek at the stables. The would-be glad-some grin started +the blood again, and it trickled down and splashed on his breast where +poor Nan longed to pillow her bonny head, and the sight of it, despite +her years of frontier training, made her sick and faint. He caught her +in his left arm, laughing gayly, and drew her to the other side. "Got +the mate to that scoop of Billy's," he cried, holding forth his other +hand to Mrs. Ray. "'Tisn't so deep, perhaps, but 'twill serve, 'twill +do, and I'll crow over him to-night. Come in with us, Mrs. Ray. I--I've +something to show you." + +"One minute," said that wise young matron. "Let me tell the children +where to find me. Sandy and Billy are on post at the telescope. They +wouldn't leave it even for luncheon." With that she vanished, and +husband and wife were alone. + +"You must go, Gerald," she sobbed--"I know it, but--isn't there _some_ +way?--Won't Captain Dade send more men with you?" + +"If he did, Nan, they'd only hamper me with horses that drag behind. Be +brave, little woman. Webb has swept the way clear by this time! Come, I +need your help." + +And the door closed on the soldier and his young wife. They never saw +that Nanette Flower, in saddle, was riding swiftly up the row, and, for +the first time since her coming to Frayne, without an escort. Dade +reappeared upon his front gallery in time to greet her, but Esther, +after one quick glance, had darted again within. Dade saw unerringly +that Miss Flower was in no placid frame of mind. Her cheeks were pale; +her mouth had that livid look that robbed her face of all beauty; but +her eyes were full and flashing with excitement. + +"What news, captain?" she hailed, and the joyous, silvery ring had gone +from her voice. "They tell me Captain Blake is back--two horses +crippled, two men hit, including himself." + +"His own share is a scratch he wouldn't think of mentioning outside the +family, Miss Flower," answered Dade, with grim civility. He had his +reasons for disapproving of the young woman; yet they were not such as +warranted him in showing her the least discourtesy. He walked to his +gate and met her at the curb beyond and stood stroking the arching neck +of her spirited horse--"Harney" again. + +"Did they--were there any Indians--killed?" she asked, with anxiety +scarcely veiled. + +"Oh, they downed one of them," answered the captain, eying her closely +the while and speaking with much precision, "a fellow who cursed them +freely in fluent English." Yes, she was surely turning paler.--"A bold, +bad customer, from all accounts. Blake thought he must be of Lame Wolf's +fellows, because he--seemed to know Kennedy so well and to hate him. +Kennedy has only just come down from Fort Beecher, where Wolf's people +have been at mischief." + +"But what became of him? What did they do with him?" interrupted the +girl, her lips quivering in spite of herself. + +"Oh,--left him, I suppose," answered the veteran, with deliberate +design. "What else could they do? There was no time for ceremony. His +fellow savages, you know, can attend to that." + +For a moment she sat there rigid, her black eyes staring straight into +the imperturbable face of the old soldier. No one had ever accused Dade +of cruelty or unkindness to man or woman, especially to woman; yet here +he stood before this suffering girl and, with obvious intent, pictured +to her mind's eye a warrior stricken and left unburied or uncared for on +the field. Whatever his reasons, he stabbed and meant to stab, and for +just one moment she seemed almost to droop and reel in saddle; then, +with splendid rally, straightened up again, her eyes flashing, her lip +curling in scorn, and with one brief, emphatic phrase ended the +interview and, whirling Harney about, smote him sharply with her whip, +and darted away:-- + +"True!" said she. "Civilized warfare!" + +"If that girl isn't more than half savage," said Dade, to himself, as +Harney tore away out of the garrison on the road to the ford, "I am more +than half Sioux. Oh, for news of Ray!" + +Ray indeed! It was now nearly four o'clock. Telegrams had been coming +and going over the Laramie wire. "The Chief," as they called their +general, with only one of his staff in attendance, had reached Cheyenne +on time, and, quitting the train, declining dinner at the hotel and +having but a word or two with the "Platform Club,"--the little bevy of +officers from Fort Russell whose custom it was to see the westbound +train through almost every day--had started straightway for Laramie +behind the swiftest team owned by the quartermaster's department, while +another, in relay, awaited him at the Chugwater nearly fifty miles out. +Driving steadily through the starlit night, he should reach the old +frontier fort by dawn at the latest, and what news would Dade have to +send him there? Not a word had he uttered to either the officers who +respectfully greeted, or reporters who eagerly importuned, him as to the +situation at Frayne; but men who had served with him in Arizona and on +the Yellowstone many a year before, knew well that grave tidings had +reached him. Dade had, in fact, supplemented Webb's parting despatch +with another saying that Blake's little party, returning, had just been +sighted through the telescope nine miles out, with two men afoot. But +not until the general reached Lodge Pole Creek did the message meet him, +saying that Webb's advance guard could hear the distant attack on Ray. +Not until he reached the Chugwater in the early night could he hope to +hear the result. + +It was nightfall when the awful suspense of the garrison at Frayne was +even measurably lifted. Blake, with three troopers at his back, had then +been gone an hour, and was lost in the gloaming before Dr. Tracy's +orderly, with a face that plainly told the nervous tension of his two +hours' ride, left his reeking, heaving horse at the stables and climbed +the steep path to the flagstaff, the shortest way to the quarters of the +commanding officer. Despite the gathering darkness, he had been seen by +a dozen eager watchers and was deluged with questions by trembling, +tearful women and by grave, anxious men. + +"There's been a fight; that's all I know," he said. "I was with the pack +mules and the ambulances and didn't get to see it. All I saw was dead +ponies way out beyond Ten Mile Ridge. Where's the major?--I mean the +captain?" No! the orderly didn't know who was killed or wounded, or that +anybody was killed and wounded. All he knew was that Dr. Tracy came +galloping back and ordered the ambulances to scoot for the front and him +to spur every bit of the way back to Frayne with the note for Captain +Dade. + +All this was told as he eagerly pushed his way along the board walk; +soldiers' wives hanging on his words and almost on him; officers' wives +and daughters calling from the galleries or running to the gates, and +Dade heard the hubbub almost as quickly as did Esther, who hurried to +the door. By the light of the hall lamp the commander read the pencilled +superscription of the gummed envelope and the word "Immediate" at the +corner. The same light fell on a dozen anxious, pleading faces beyond +the steps. His hand shook in spite of himself, and he knew he could not +open and read it in their presence. "One moment," he said, his heart +going out to them in sympathy as well as dread. "You shall hear in one +moment," and turned aside into the little army parlor. + +But he could not turn from his wife and child. They followed and stood +studying his pale face as he read the fateful words that told so little, +yet so much:-- + + Reached Ray just in time. Sharp affair. Dr. Waller will have to + come at once, as Tracy goes on with us to rescue stage people at + Dry Fork. Better send infantry escort and all hospital attendants + that can be possibly spared; also chaplain. Sergeants Burroughs and + Wing, Corporal Foot and Troopers Denny, Flood, Kerrigan and + Preusser killed. Many wounded--Lieutenant Field seriously. + + WEBB. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"I'LL NEVER GO BACK" + + +A sharp affair indeed was that of this September day!--a fight long +talked of on the frontier if soon forgotten in "the States." Obedient to +his orders to push to the relief of the imperilled party on the Dry +Fork, Ray had made good time to Moccasin Ridge, even though saving +horses and men for the test of the later hours. Well he knew his march +would be watched by some of Stabber's band, but little did he dream at +starting that Indian strategy would take the unusual form of dropping +what promised to be a sure thing, leaving the people at the stage +station to the guardianship of less than a dozen braves, and launching +out with a big band to aid a little one in attack on one lone detachment +that might not come at all. But Lame Wolf reasoned that the people +penned at the stage station were in no condition to attempt escape. They +were safe whenever he chose to return to them, and Lame Wolf knew this +of Stabber--that he had long been a hanger-on about the military +reservations, that he had made a study of the methods of the white +chiefs, that he was able to almost accurately predict what their course +would be in such event as this, and that Stabber had recently received +accessions whose boast it was that they had information at first hand of +the white chief's plans and intentions. Stabber had sent swift runners +to Lame Wolf urging him to bring his warriors to aid him in surrounding +the first troops sent forth from Frayne. Stabber had noted, year after +year, that it was the almost invariable policy of our leaders to order a +small force at the start, and then, when that was crushed, to follow it +with the big one that should have been sent in the first place. +Kennedy's successful coming was known to Stabber quite as soon as it was +to Webb. It may well be that Stabber let him through, feeling confident +what the result would be, and then, despite a certain jealousy, not +confined entirely to savage rival leaders, Lame Wolf had confidence in +Stabber's judgment. Ray had expected long range flank fire, and possibly +occasional resistance in front; but, assured of Stabber's paucity in +numbers and believing Lame Wolf too busy to send Stabber substantial +aid, he thought a sharp lesson or two would clear his front of such +Indians as sought to check him, and so rode serenely forward, rejoicing +in his mission and in his game and devoted little command. + +"Something beyond that second ridge," he had said to Field, in sending +him forward with the bulk of the platoon, and Field, who had been silent +and brooding, woke at the summons and, all animation at the scent of +danger, spurred swiftly ahead to join the advance and see for himself +what manner of hindrance awaited them, leaving the baker's dozen of his +platoon to trot steadily on under lead of its sergeant, while Ray, with +his trumpeter, followed mid way between his advance and Clayton's +platoon, intact, moving quietly at the walk and held in reserve. + +Ordinarily Ray would himself have ridden to the far front and personally +investigated the conditions, but he was anxious that Field should +understand he held the full confidence of his temporary commander. He +wished Field to realize that now he had opportunity for honorable +distinction, and a chance to show what was in him and, having sent him +forward, Ray meant to rely on his reports and be ready to back, if +possible, his dispositions. Nothing so quickly demolishes prejudice in +garrison as prowess in the field. Not infrequently has an officer gone +forth under a cloud and returned under a crown. It is so much easier to +be a hero in a single fight than a model soldier through an entire +season--at least it was so in the old days. + +But the moment Mr. Field dismounted and, leaving his horse with the +others along the slope, had gone crouching to the crest, he levelled his +glasses for one look, then turned excitedly and began rapid signals to +his followers. Presently a young trooper came charging down, making +straight for Ray. "The lieutenant's compliments," said he, "but there's +a dozen Sioux in sight, and he wishes to know shall he charge." + +A dozen Sioux in sight! That was unusual. Ordinarily the Indian keeps in +hiding, lurking behind sheltering crests and ridges in the open country, +or the trees and underbrush where such cover is possible. A dozen in +sight? + +"How far ahead, Murray?" asked the captain, as he shook free his rein +and started forward at the gallop. "Did you see them yourself?" + +"Yes, sir. Most of 'em were bunched by the roadside, jabbing with their +lances at something or other. Two or three were closer in. They must ha' +been watching us, for they only quit the ridge just before we came up. +Then they skedaddled." The vernacular of the civil war days, long since +forgotten except about the few Veteran Soldiers' Homes in the East, was +still in use at times in regiments like the ----th, which had served the +four years through with the Army of the Potomac. Old sergeants give the +tone to younger soldiers in all the customs of the service. The captain +and the two men now with him had caught up with Field's swift trotting +support by this time, and the eyes of the men kindled instantly at sight +of their leader speeding easily by, cool, confident and as thoroughly at +home as though it were the most ordinary skirmish drill. Those who have +never tried it, do not quite realize what it means to ride in closed +ranks and compact column, silent and unswerving, straight forward over +open fields toward some equally silent crest, that gives no sign of +hostile occupancy, and yet may suddenly blaze with vengeful fires and +spit its hissing lead into the faces of the advancing force. Even here +where the ridge was already gained by two or three of the advance, +proving, therefore, that the enemy could not be in possession, men saw +by the excitement manifest in the signals of the lieutenant, and indeed +of Sergeant Scott, who had spent fifteen years in the ranks, that +Indians must be close at hand. The crest was barely five hundred yards +in front of the section, and they were still "bunched," a splendid mark +if the foe saw fit by sudden dash to regain the ridge and pour in rapid +fire from their magazine rifles. Every ward of the nation, as a rule, +had his Winchester or Henry,--about a six to one advantage to the red +men over the sworn soldier of the government in a short range fight. The +lieutenant was a brave lad and all that, and could be relied on to "do +his share in a shindy," as the sergeant put it, but when it came to +handling the troop to the best advantage, giving them full swing when +they met the foe on even terms and a fair field, but holding them clear +of possible ambuscade, then "Captain Billy is the boss in the business," +was the estimate of his men, and every heart beat higher at sight of +him. He would know just what to do for them, and knowing, would do it. + +Even as he went loping by Ray had half turned, with something like a +smile in his dark eyes and a nod of his curly head to the sergeant +commanding, and a gesture of the gauntleted hand,--a horizontal sweep to +right and left, twice repeated,--had given the veteran his cue, and with +another moment Winsor had the dozen in line at open, yet narrow, +intervals, with carbines advanced and ready for business. They saw their +captain ride swiftly up the gentle slope until close to the crest, then +off he sprang, tossed his reins to the trumpeter and went hurrying +afoot to join the lieutenant. They saw him kneeling as though to level +his glasses and look fixedly forward; saw Field run back to his horse +and mount in a twinkling; saw him whirl about as though coming to place +himself at their head, yet rein in at once--his charger's fore feet +ploughing the turf at some word from their leader. Field was eager to +charge, but Ray had seen for himself and for his men, and Ray said, no. +Another moment and all at the front were again in saddle--Field back +with the advance, Ray coolly seated astride his pet sorrel,--scouting a +second ridge, far to the north, with his glasses, and sending, as +before, Scott and his three troopers straight on to the front, and +signalling to the flankers to continue the move. Ten seconds' study of +the position in the long, wide, shallow depression before him had +fathomed the scheme of the savage. The little knot of Indians, +jabbering, yelping, prodding and circling about some unseen object on +the turf, feigning ignorance of the soldiers' coming, was at the +old-time trick to get the foremost troopers to charge and chase, to draw +them on in all the dash and excitement of the moment, far ahead--three +miles, perhaps--of the main body, and so enable all the lurking band +behind that second curtain, the farther ridge, to come swooping down to +surround, overwhelm and butcher the luckless few, then be off to safe +distance long before the mass of the troop could possibly reach the +scene. + +"No you don't, Stabber!" laughed Ray, as Field, not a little chagrined, +and the dozen at his back, came trotting within hearing distance. "That +dodge was bald-headed when I was a baby. Look, Field," he continued. +"They were jabbing at nothing there on the prairie. That was a fake +captive they were stabbing to death. See them all scooting away now. +They'll rally beyond that next ridge, and we'll do a little fooling of +our own." + +And so, with occasional peep at feathered warriors on the far left +flank, and frequent hoverings of small parties on the distant front, +Ray's nervy half hundred pushed steadily on. Two experiments had +satisfied the Sioux that the captain himself was in command and they had +long since recognized the sorrels. They knew of old Ray was not to be +caught by time-worn tricks. They had failed to pick off the advance, or +the officers, as the troop approached the second ridge. Lame Wolf's big +band was coming fast, but only a dozen of his warriors, sent lashing +forward, had as yet reached Stabber. The latter was too weak in numbers +to think of fighting on even terms, and as Ray seemed determined to come +ahead, why not let him? Word was sent to Wolf not to risk showing south +of the Elk Tooth spur. There in the breaks and ravines would be a famous +place to lie in ambush, leaving to Stabber the duty of drawing the +soldiers into the net. So there in the breaks they waited while Ray's +long skirmish line easily manoeuvred the red sharp-shooters out of their +lair on the middle divide. Then, reforming column, the little command +bore straight away for the Elk. + +But all these diversions took time. Twenty miles to the north of Frayne +stretched the bold divide between the Elk Fork, dry as a dead tooth much +of the year, and the sandy bottom of the Box Elder. Here and there +along the ridge were sudden, moundlike upheavals that gave it a +picturesque, castellated effect, for, unlike the general run of the +country, the Elk Tooth seemed to have a backbone of rock that shot forth +southeastward from the southern limit of the beautiful Big Horn range; +and, in two or three places, during some prehistoric convulsion of +nature, it had crushed itself out of shape and forced upward a mass of +gleaming rock that even in the course of centuries had not been +overgrown with grass. "Elk teeth" the Indians had called these odd +projections, and one of them, the middle one of the three most +prominent, was a landmark seen for many a mile except to the south and +west. Eagle Butte was the only point south of the Big Horn and in the +valley of the Platte from which it could be seen, and famous were these +two points in the old days of the frontier for the beacon fires that +burned or the mirror signals that flashed on their summits when the war +parties of the Sioux were afield. + +It was the sight of puffs of smoke sailing skyward from the crest of the +middle tooth that caught Ray's attention the moment he reached the +second ridge. A moment more had been devoted to recalling some of his +eager men who, from the extreme right of the swinging skirmish line, had +broken away in pursuit of certain intentional laggards. Then a dozen of +the Indians, finding themselves no longer followed, gathered at +comparatively safe distance across the prairie, and, while in eager +consultation, found time for taunting, challenging and occasionally +firing at the distant and angering troopers, whom Sergeant Scott had +sharply ordered back, and Ray, after calm survey of these fellows +through his glass, had then levelled it at the trio of buttes along the +distant ridge and turned to Field, sitting silent and disappointed by +his side. + +"There, Field," said the captain. "Take this glass and look at those +signal smokes--Stabber has more men now at his call than he had when he +started, and more yet are coming. They were just praying you would +charge with a handful of men. They would have let you through, then +closed around and cut you off. Do you see, boy?" + +Field touched his hat brim. "You know them best, sir," was the brief +answer. "What I wanted was a chance at those fellows hanging about our +front and calling us names." + +"You'll get it, I'm thinking, before we're an hour older. They know +whither we're bound and mean to delay us all they can. Ah, Clayton," he +added, as the junior lieutenant rode up to join them, while his platoon +dismounted to reset saddles behind the screen of the skirmish line. "Men +look full of fight, don't they? There, if anywhere, is where we'll get +it. I've just been showing Field those signal smokes. Mount and follow +when we're half way down to that clump of cottonwoods yonder. We must +reach those people at the stage station to-night, and I may have to give +these beggars a lesson first. Watch for my signal and come ahead lively +if I turn toward you and swing my hat. All ready, Field. Shove ahead." + +And this was the last conference between the three officers that +eventful morning. As once again the advance guard pushed cautiously +forward toward the banks of the arroyo in the bottom, Ray turned to +Field. "Skirmish work suits you better than office duty, Field. You look +far livelier than you did yesterday. Don't you begin to see that the +major was right in sending you out with us?" And the dark eyes of the +trained and experienced soldier shone kindly into the face of the +younger man. + +"I'm glad to be with you, Captain Ray," was the prompt answer. "It +isn't--my being sent, but the _way_ I was sent, or the--cause for which +I was sent that stings me. I thought then, and I think now, that if you +had been post commander it wouldn't have been done. I don't know yet +what charge has been laid at my door----" + +"There was no time to talk of reasons, Field," interposed Ray, though +his keen eyes were fixed on the distant ridge ahead, beyond which the +last of the Indians had now disappeared. The outermost troopers, with +Sergeant Scott, were within a few hundred yards of the little clump of +cottonwoods that marked the site of a water hole. To the right and left +of it curved and twisted the dry water course between its low, jagged, +precipitous banks. Behind the advance, full four hundred yards, rode the +skirmish line from the first platoon, a dozen strong. Far out to the +east and west the flankers moved steadily northward, keenly watching the +slopes beyond them and scanning the crooked line of the arroyo ahead. +Not a sign at the moment could be seen of the painted foe, yet every man +in the troop well knew they swarmed by dozens behind the buttes and +ridges ahead. Ray and Field, riding easily along in rear of the line, +with only the trumpeter within earshot, relaxed in no measure the +vigilance demanded by the situation, yet each was deeply concerned in +the subject of the talk. + +"There was no time. We had to start at once," continued Ray. "Wait until +you are back at the old desk, Field, and you'll find the major is, and +was, your stanch friend in this matter--" + +"I'll never go back to it, captain!" broke in Field, impetuously. "If +ordered to resume duty as adjutant, come what may, I shall refuse." + +But before Ray could interpose again there came sudden and stirring +interruption. From a point far down the "swale," from behind the low +bank of the stream bed, three rifle shots rang out on the crisp morning +air. The horse of the leading flanker, away out to the right, reared and +plunged violently, the rider seeming vainly to strive to check him. +Almost instantly three mounted warriors were seen tearing madly away +northeastward out of the gully, their feathers streaming in the wind. +Field spurred away to join his men. Ray whirled about in saddle, and +swung his broad-brimmed scouting hat high above his head, in signal to +Clayton; then shouted to Field. "Forward to the cottonwoods. Gallop!" he +cried. "We need them first of all!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A FIGHT WITH A FURY + + +The noonday sun was staring hotly down, an hour later, on a stirring +picture of frontier warfare, with that clump of cottonwoods as the +central feature. Well for Ray's half hundred, that brilliant autumn +morning, that their leader had had so many a year of Indian campaigning! +He now seemed to know by instinct every scheme of his savage foe and to +act accordingly. Ever since the command had come in sight of the Elk +Tooth the conviction had been growing on Ray that Stabber must have +received many accessions and was counting on the speedy coming of +others. The signal smokes across the wide valley; the frequent essays to +tempt his advance guard to charge and chase; the boldness with which the +Indians showed on front and flank; the daring pertinacity with which +they clung to the stream bed for the sake of a few shots at the foremost +troopers, relying, evidently, on the array of their comrades beyond the +ridge to overwhelm any force that gave close pursuit; the fact that +other Indians opened on the advance guard and the left flankers, and +that a dozen, at least, tore away out of the sandy arroyo the moment +they saw the line start at the gallop;--all these had tended to convince +the captain that, now at last, when he was miles from home and succor, +the Sioux stood ready in abundant force to give him desperate battle. + +To dart on in chase of the three warriors would simply result in the +scattering of his own people and their being individually cut off and +stricken down by circling swarms of their red foes. To gather his men +and attempt to force the passage of the Elk Tooth ridge meant certain +destruction of the whole command. The Sioux would be only to glad to +scurry away from their front and let them through, and then in big +circle whirl all about him, pouring in a concentric fire that would be +sure to hit some, at least, exposed as they would be on the open +prairie, while their return shots, radiating wildly at the swift-darting +warriors, would be almost as sure to miss. He would soon be weighted +down with wounded, refusing to leave them to be butchered; unable, +therefore, to move in any direction, and so compelled to keep up a +shelterless, hopeless fight until, one by one, he and his gallant +fellows fell, pierced by Indian lead, and sacrificed to the scalping +knife as were Custer's three hundred a decade before. + +No, Ray knew too much of frontier strategy to be so caught. There stood +the little grove of dingy green, a prairie fortress, if one knew how to +use it. There in the sand of the stream bed, by digging, were they sure +to find water for the wounded, if wounded there had to be. There by the +aid of a few hastily thrown intrenchments he could have a little plains +fort and be ready to repel even an attack in force. Horses could be +herded in the depths of the sandy shallows. Men could be distributed in +big circle through the trees and along the bank; and, with abundant +rations in their haversacks and water to be had for the digging, they +could hold out like heroes until relief should come from the south. + +Obviously, therefore, the cottonwood grove was the place, and thither at +thundering charge Field led the foremost line, while Ray waved on the +second, all hands cheering with glee at sight of the Sioux darting +wildly away up the northward slope. Ten men in line, far extended, were +sent right forward half way across the flats, ordered to drive the +Indians from the bottom and cripple as many as possible; but, if menaced +by superior numbers, to fall back at the gallop, keeping well away from +the front of the grove, so that the fire of its garrison might not be +"masked." The ten had darted after the scurrying warriors, full half way +to the beginning of the slope, and then, just as Ray had predicted, down +came a cloud of brilliant foemen, seeking to swallow the little ten +alive. Instantly their sergeant leader whirled them about and, pointing +the way, led them in wide circle, horses well in hand, back to the dry +wash, then down into its sandy depths. Here every trooper sprang from +saddle, and with the rein looped on the left arm, and from the shelter +of the straight, stiff banks, opened sharp fire on their pursuers, just +as Clayton's platoon, dismounting at the grove, sprang to the nearest +cover and joined in the fierce clamor of carbines. Racing down the +slope at top speed as were the Sioux, they could not all at once check +the way of their nimble mounts, and the ardor of the chase had carried +them far down to the flats before the fierce crackle began. Then it was +thrilling to watch them, veering, circling, sweeping to right or left, +ever at furious gallop, throwing their lithe, painted bodies behind +their chargers' necks, clinging with one leg and arm, barely showing so +much as an eyelid, yet yelping and screeching like so many coyotes, not +one of their number coming within four hundred yards of the slender +fighting line in the stream bed; some of them, indeed, disdaining to +stoop, riding defiantly along the front, firing wildly as they rode, yet +surely and gradually guiding their ponies back to the higher ground, +back out of harm's way; and, in five minutes from the time they had +flashed into view, coming charging over the mile away ridge, not a red +warrior was left on the low ground,--only three or four luckless ponies, +kicking in their last struggles or stiffening on the turf, while their +riders, wounded or unhurt, had been picked up and spirited away with the +marvellous skill only known to these warriors of the plains. + +Then Ray and his men had time to breathe and shout laughing comment and +congratulation. Not one, as yet, was hit or hurt. They were secure for +the time in a strong position, and had signally whipped off the first +assault of the Sioux. + +Loudly, excitedly, angrily these latter were now conferring again far +up the slope to the north. At least an hundred in one concourse, they +were having hot discussion over the untoward result of the dash. Others, +obedient to orders from the chief, were circling far out to east and +west and crossing the valley above and below the position of the +defence. Others, still, were galloping back to the ridge, where, against +the sky line, strong bodies of warriors could be plainly seen, moving +excitedly to and fro. Two little groups slowly making their way to the +crest gave no little comfort to the boys in blue. Some, at least, of the +charging force had been made to feel the bite of the cavalry weapon, and +were being borne to the rear. + +But no time was to be wasted. Already from far up the stream bed two or +three Indians were hazarding long-range shots at the grove, and Ray +ordered all horses into a bend of the "wash," where the side lines were +whipped from the blanket straps and the excited sorrels securely +hoppled. Then, here, there and in a score of places along the bank and +again at the edge of the cottonwoods, men had been assigned their +stations and bidden to find cover for themselves without delay. Many +burrowed in the soft and yielding soil, throwing the earth forward in +front of them. Others utilized fallen trees or branches. Some two or +three piled saddles and blanket rolls into a low barricade, and all, +while crouching about their work, watched the feathered warriors as they +steadily completed their big circle far out on the prairie. Bullets came +whistling now fast and frequently, nipping off leaves and twigs and +causing many a fellow to duck instinctively and to look about him, +ashamed of his dodge, yet sure of the fact that time had been in the +days of the most hardened veteran of the troop when he, too, knew what +it was to shrink from the whistle of hostile lead. It would be but a +moment or two, they all understood, before the foe would decide on the +next move; then every man would be needed. + +Meantime, having stationed Field on the north front, with orders to note +every movement of the Sioux, and having assigned Clayton to the minor +duty of watching the south front and the flanks, Ray was moving cheerily +among his men, speeding from cover to cover, suggesting here, helping +there, alert, even joyous in manner. "We couldn't have a better roost, +lads," he said. "We can stand off double their number easy. We can hold +out a week if need be, but you bet the major will be reaching out after +us before we're two days older. Don't waste your shots. Coax them close +in. Don't fire at a galloping Indian beyond three hundred yards. It's +waste of powder and lead." + +Cheerily, joyously they answered him, these his comrades, his soldier +children, men who had fought with him, many of their number, in a dozen +fields, and men who would stand by him, their dark-eyed little captain, +to the last. Even the youngest trooper of the fifty seemed inspired by +the easy, laughing confidence of the lighter hearts among their number, +or the grim, matter of fact pugnacity of the older campaigners. It was +significant, too, that the Indians seemed so divided in mind as to the +next move. There was loud wrangling and much disputation going on in +that savage council to the north. Stabber's braves and Lame Wolf's +followers seemed bitterly at odds, for old hands in the fast-growing +rifle pits pointed out on one side as many as half a dozen of the +former's warriors whom they recognized and knew by sight, while Ray, +studying the shifting concourse through his glasses, could easily see +Stabber himself raging among them in violent altercation with a tall, +superbly built and bedizened young brave, a sub-chief, apparently, who +for his part, seemed giving Stabber as good as he got. Lame Wolf was not +in sight at all. He might still be far from the scene, and this tall +warrior be acting as his representative. But whoever or whatever he was +he had hearty following. More than three-fourths of the wrangling +warriors in the group seemed backing him. Ray, after a few words to +Sergeant Winsor, crawled over beside his silent and absorbed young +second in command, and, bringing his glasses to bear, gazed across a low +parapet of sand long and fixedly at the turbulent throng a thousand +yards away. + +"It's easy to make out Stabber," he presently spoke. "One can almost +hear that foghorn voice of his. But who the mischief is that red villain +opposing him? I've seen every one of their chiefs in the last five +years. All are men of forty or more. This fellow can't be a big chief. +He looks long years younger than most of 'em, old Lame Wolf, for +instance, yet he's cheeking Stabber as if he owned the whole outfit." +Another long stare, then again--"Who the mischief can he be?" + +No answer at his side, and Ray, with the lenses still at his eyes, took +no note for the moment that Field remained so silent. Out at the front +the excitement increased. Out through the veil of surging warriors, the +loud-voiced, impetuous brave twice burst his way, and seemed at one and +the same time, in his superb poise and gesturings, to be urging the +entire body to join him in instant assault on the troops, and hurling +taunt and anathema on the besieged. Whoever he was, he was in a +veritable fury. As many as half of the Indians seemed utterly carried +away by his fiery words, and with much shouting and gesticulation and +brandishing of gun and lance, were yelling approbation of his views and +urging Stabber's people to join them. More furious language followed and +much dashing about of excited ponies. + +"Have you ever seen that fellow before?" demanded Ray, of brown-eyed +Sergeant Winsor, who had spent a lifetime on the plains, but Winsor was +plainly puzzled. + +"I can't say for the life of me, sir," was the answer. "I don't know him +at all--and yet--" + +"Whoever he is, by Jove," said Ray, "he's a bigger man this day than +Stabber, for he's winning the fight. Now, if he only leads the dash as +he does the debate, we can pick him off. Who are our best shots on this +front?" and eagerly he scanned the few faces near him. "Webber's tiptop +and good for anything under five hundred yards when he isn't excited, +and Stoltz, he's a keen, cool one. No! not you, Hogan," laughed the +commander, as a freckled faced veteran popped his head up over a nearby +parapet of sand, and grinned his desire to be included. + +"I've never seen the time you could hit what you aimed at. Slip out of +that hole and find Webber and tell him to come here--and you take his +burrow." Whereupon Hogan, grinning rueful acquiescence in his +commander's criticism, slid backwards into the stream bed and, followed +by the chaff of the three or four comrades near enough to catch the +words, went crouching from post to post in search of the desired +marksman. + +"You used to be pretty sure with the carbine in the Tonto Basin when we +were after Apaches, sergeant," continued Ray, again peering through the +glasses. "I'm mistaken in this fellow if he doesn't ride well within +range, and we must make an example of him. I want four first class shots +to single him out." + +"The lieutenant can beat the best I ever did, sir," said Winsor, with a +lift of the hand toward the hat brim, as though in apology, for Field, +silent throughout the brief conference, had half risen on his hands and +knees and was edging over to the left, apparently seeking to reach the +shelter of a little hummock close to the bank. + +"Why, surely, Field," was the quick reply, as Ray turned toward his +junior. "That will make it complete." + +[Illustration: "WITH ONE MAGNIFICENT RED ARM UPLIFTED."] + +But a frantic burst of yells and war whoops out at the front put sudden +stop to the words. The throng of warriors that had pressed so close +about Stabber and the opposing orator seemed all in an instant to split +asunder, and with trailing war bonnet and followed by only two or three +of his braves, the former lashed his way westward and swept angrily out +of the ruck and went circling away toward the crest, while, with loud +acclamation, brandishing shield and lance and rifle in superb barbaric +tableau, the warriors lined up in front of the victorious young leader +who, sitting high in his stirrups, with one magnificent red arm +uplifted, began shouting in the sonorous tongue of the Sioux some urgent +instructions. Down from the distant crest came other braves as though to +meet and ask Stabber explanation of his strange quitting the field. Down +came a dozen others, young braves mad for battle, eager to join the +ranks of this new leader, and Ray, who had turned on Field once more, +fixed his glasses on that stalwart, nearly stark naked, brilliantly +painted form, foremost of the Indian array and now at last in full and +unimpeded view. + +"By the gods of war!" he cried. "I never saw that scoundrel before, but +if it isn't that renegade Red Fox--Why, here, Field! Take my glass and +look. You were with the commissioners' escort last year at the Black +Hills council. You must have seen him and heard him speak. Isn't this +Red Fox himself?" + +And to Ray's surprise the young officer's eyes were averted, his face +pale and troubled, and the answer was a mere mumble--"I didn't meet +Fox--there, captain." + +He never seemed to see the glass held out to him until Ray almost thrust +it into his hand and then persisted with his inquiry. + +"Look at him anyhow. You may have seen him somewhere. Isn't that Red +Fox?" + +And now Ray was gazing straight at Field's half hidden face. Field, the +soul of frankness hitherto, the lad who was never known to flinch from +the eyes of any man, but to answer such challenge with his own,--brave, +fearless, sometimes even defiant. Now he kept the big binocular fixed on +the distant hostile array, but his face was white, his hand unsteady and +his answer, when it came, was in a voice that Ray heard in mingled pain +and wonderment. Could it be that the lad was unnerved by the sight? In +any event, he seemed utterly unlike himself. + +"I--cannot say, sir. It was dark--or night at all events,--the only time +I ever heard him." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ORDEAL BY FIRE + + +That action had been resolved upon, and prompt action, was now apparent. +Stabber, fighting chief though he had been in the past, had had his +reason for opposing the plans of this new and vehement leader; but +public sentiment, stirred by vehement oratory, had overruled him, and he +had bolted the field convention in a fury. Lame Wolf, a younger chief +than Stabber, had yet more power among the Ogalallas, being Red Cloud's +favorite nephew, and among the Indians at least, his acknowledged +representative. Whenever called to account, however, for that nephew's +deeds, the wary old statesman promptly disavowed them. It was in search +of Lame Wolf, reasoned Ray, that Stabber had sped away, possibly hoping +to induce him to call off his followers. It was probably the deeper +strategy of Stabber to oppose no obstacle to Ray's advance until the +little troop was beyond the Elk Tooth ridge, where, on utterly +shelterless ground, the Indian would have every advantage. He knew Ray +of old; knew well that, left to himself, the captain would push on in +the effort to rescue the stage people and he and his command might +practically be at the mercy of the Sioux, if only the Sioux would +listen and be patient. Stabber knew that to attack the troopers now +entrenching at the cottonwoods meant a desperate fight in which the +Indians, even if ultimately triumphant, must lose many a valued brave, +and that is not the thoroughbred Indian's view of good generalship. +Stabber was old, wily and wise. The new chief, whoever he might be, +seemed possessed of a mad lust for instant battle, coupled with a +possible fear that, unless the golden moment were seized, Ray might be +reinforced and could then defy them all. Indeed there were veteran +campaigners among the troopers who noted how often the tall red chief +pointed in sweeping gesture back to Moccasin Ridge--troopers who even at +the distance caught and interpreted a few of his words. "That's it, +sir," said Winsor, confidently to Ray. "He says 'more soldiers coming,' +and--I believe he knows." + +At all events he had so convinced his fellows and, even before Stabber +reached the middle tooth--where sat a little knot of mounted Indians, +signalling apparently to others still some distance to the north,--with +a chorus of exultant yells, the long, gaudy, glittering line of braves +suddenly scattered and, lashing away to right and left, dozens of them +darted at top speed to join those already disposed about that big +circle, while others still, the main body, probably seventy strong, +after some barbaric show of circus evolutions about their leader, once +more reined up for some final injunctions from his lips. Then, with a +magnificent gesture of the hand, he waved them on and, accompanied by +only two young riders, rode swiftly away to a little swell of the +prairie just out of range of the carbines, and there took his station to +supervise the attack. + +"Damn him!" growled old Winsor. "He's no charger like Crazy Horse. He's +a Sitting Bull breed of general--like some we had in Virginia," he +added, between his set teeth, but Ray heard and grinned in silent +appreciation. "Set your sights and give 'em their first volley as they +reach that scorched line," he called to the men along the northward +front, and pointed to a stretch of prairie where the dry grass had +lately been burned away. "Five hundred yards will do it. Then aim low +when they rush closer in." + +"Look at the middle tooth, captain," came the sudden hail from his left. +"Mirror flashes! See!" It was Field who spoke, and life and vim had +returned to his voice and color to his face. He was pointing eagerly +toward the highest of the knobs, where, all on a sudden, dazzling little +beams of light shot forth toward the Indians in the lowlands, tipping +the war bonnet and lance of many a brave with dancing fire. Whatever +their purport, the signals seemed ignored by the Sioux, for presently +two riders came sweeping down the long slope, straight for the point +where sat Red Fox, as, for want of other name, we must for the present +call him--who, for his part, shading his eyes with his hand, sat gazing +toward the westward side of his warrior circle, evidently awaiting some +demonstration there before giving signal for action elsewhere. Obedient +to his first instructions, the main body had spread out in long, +irregular skirmish rank, their mettlesome ponies capering and dancing in +their eagerness. Chanting in chorus some shrill, weird song, the line +was now slowly, steadily advancing, still too far away to warrant the +wasting of a shot, yet unmistakably seeking to close as much as possible +before bursting in with the final charge. + +[Illustration: "SOME FEW OF THEIR NUMBER BORNE AWAY BY THEIR COMRADES."] + +And still the red leader sat at gaze, oblivious for the moment of +everything around him, ignoring the coming of orders possibly from Lame +Wolf himself. Suddenly the silver armlets once more gleamed on high. +Then, clapping the palm of his right hand to his mouth, Red Fox gave +voice to a ringing war whoop, fierce, savage and exultant, and, almost +at the instant, like the boom and rumble that follows some vivid +lightning flash, the prairie woke and trembled to the thunder of near a +thousand hoofs. From every point of the compass--from every side, +yelling like fiends of some orthodox hell, down they came--the wild +warriors of the frontier in furious rush upon the silent and almost +peaceful covert of this little band of brothers in the dusty garb of +blue. One, two, three hundred yards they came, centering on the leafy +clump of cottonwoods, riding at tearing gallop, erect, defiant, daring +at the start, and giving full voice to their wild war cry. Then bending +forward, then crouching low, then flattening out like hunted squirrel, +for as the foremost in the dash came thundering on within good carbine +range, all on a sudden the watch dogs of the little plains fort began to +bark. Tiny jets of flame and smoke shot from the level of the +prairie, from over dingy mounds of sand, from behind the trunks of +stunted trees, from low parapet of log or leather. Then the entire grove +seemed veiling itself in a drifting film of blue, the whole charging +circle to crown itself with a dun cloud of dust that swept eastward over +the prairie, driven by the stiff, unhampered breeze. The welkin rang +with savage yell, with answering cheer, with the sputter and crackle of +rifle and revolver, the loud bellow of Springfield, and then, still +yelping, the feathered riders veered and circled, ever at magnificent +speed, each man for himself, apparently, yet all guided and controlled +by some unseen, yet acknowledged, power; and, in five minutes, save +where some hapless pony lay quivering and kicking on the turf, the low +ground close at hand was swept clean of horse or man. The wild attack +had been made in vain. The Sioux were scampering back, convinced, but +not discomfited. Some few of their number, borne away stunned and +bleeding by comrade hands from underneath their stricken chargers,--some +three or four, perhaps, who had dared too much,--were now closing their +eyes on the last fight of their savage lives. + +To Ray and to many of his men it was all an old story. Stabber would +never have counselled or permitted attack on seasoned troopers, fighting +behind even improvised shelter. Something, perhaps, had occurred to +blind his younger rival to the peril of such assault, and now, as three +or four little parties were seen slowly drifting away toward the ridge, +burdened by some helpless form, other couriers came thundering down at +Red Fox, and wild excitement prevailed among the Elk Teeth. More signals +were flashing. More Indians came popping into view, their feathered +bonnets streaming in the rising wind, and about the prairie wave, where +the savage general had established field headquarters, a furious +conference was going on. Stabber had again interposed, and with grim but +hopeful eyes, Ray and his fellows watched and noted. Every lull in the +fight was so much gain for them. + +"Twelve fifty-two," said the dark-eyed commander, swinging his watch +into the pocket of his hunting shirt, and sliding backward into the +stream bed. "All serene so far. Watch things on this front, Field, while +I make the rounds and see how we came out." + +"All serene so far" it was! Not a man hurt. Two of the sorrels had been +hit by flying bullets and much amazed and stung thereat, but neither was +crippled. Bidding their guards to dig for water that might soon be +needed, Ray once more made his way to the northward side and rejoined +Field and Winsor. + +In an almost cloudless sky of steely blue the sun had just passed the +meridian and was streaming hotly down on the stirring picture. Northward +the ridge line and the long, gradual slope seemed alive with swarms of +Indian warriors, many of them darting about in wild commotion. About the +little eminence where Stabber and the Fox had again locked horns in +violent altercation, as many as a hundred braves had gathered. About the +middle knob, from whose summit mirror flashes shot from time to time, +was still another concourse, listening, apparently, to the admonitions +of a leader but recently arrived, a chieftain mounted on an American +horse, almost black, and Ray studied the pair long and curiously through +his glasses. "Lame Wolf, probably," said he, but the distance was too +great to enable him to be certain. What puzzled him more than anything +was the apparent division of authority, the unusual display of discord +among the Sioux. These were all, doubtless, of the Ogalalla tribe, Red +Cloud's own people, yet here were they wrangling like ward "heelers" and +wasting precious time. Whatever his antecedents this new comer had been +a powerful sower of strife and sedition, for, instead of following +implicitly the counsels of one leader, the Indians were divided now +between three. + +True to its practice, the prairie wind was sweeping stronger and +stronger with every moment, as the sun-warmed strata over the wide, +billowing surface sought higher levels, and the denser, cooler current +from the west came rushing down. And now all sounds of the debate were +whisked away toward the breaks of the South Shyenne,[*] and it was no +longer possible for old Sioux campaigners to catch a word of the +discussion. The leaves of the cottonwoods whistled in the rising gale, +and every time a pony crossed the stream bed and clambered the steep +banks out to the west, little clouds of dun-colored dust came sailing +toward the grove, scattered and spent, however, far from the lair of the +defence. + +[* Oddly enough, that method of spelling the river's name became +official.] + +But, while the discussion seemed endless among the Indians on the +northward side, never for a moment was the vigilance of the circle +relaxed. South, east and west the slopes and lowlands were dotted with +restless horsemen, and from young Clayton came the word that through his +glass he could make out three or four warriors far away toward the +Moccasin Ridge. "That's good," said Ray. "It means they, too, are +looking for a column coming out from Frayne. But where on earth did all +these rascals come from? There must be four hundred now in sight." + +Well might he ask and marvel! Stabber's little village had never more +than fifty warriors. Lame Wolf's band was counted at less than two +hundred and forty fighting men, and these, so said the agents of the +omniscient Bureau, were all the Ogalallas away from the shelter of the +reservation when the trouble started. No more should be allowed to go, +was the confident promise, yet a fortnight nearly had elapsed since the +frontier fun began. News of battle sweeps with marvellous speed through +Indian haunted lands, and here were warriors by the score, come to +strengthen the hands of kindred in the field, and, more were coming. The +mirror signals plainly told them that. Yet it was now well nigh one +o'clock and not another hostile move was made. Fox then was being held +by stronger hands. It meant that Lame Wolf had listened to reason,--and +Stabber, and would permit no fresh attack until his numbers should be so +increased that resistance would practically be vain. It meant even +more--that the Indian leader in chief command felt sure no force was +yet within helping distance of the corralled troopers. He could, +therefore, take his time. + +But this was a theory Ray would not whisper to his men. He knew Webb. He +knew Webb would soon read the signs from the north and be coming to his +relief, and Ray was right. Even as he reasoned there came a message from +across the grove. Lieutenant Clayton said the Indians he had seen away +to the south were racing back. "Thank God!" was the murmured answer no +man heard. "Now, lads, be ready!" was the ringing word that roused the +little troop, like bugle call "To Arms." And even as eager faces lifted +over the low parapets to scan the distant foe, fresh signals came +flashing down from the northward ridge, fresh bands of warriors came +darting to join the martial throng about the still wrangling chieftains, +and then, all on a sudden, with mighty yelling and shrill commotion, +that savage council burst asunder, and, riding at speed, a dozen braves +went lashing away to the westward side, while with fierce brandishing of +arms and shields and much curveting and prancing of excited ponies, the +wild battle lines were formed again. The Sioux were coming for the +second trial. + +"Meet them as before! Make every shot tell!" were the orders passed from +man to man and heard and noted amidst the whistling of the wind and the +sounds of scurry and commotion at the front. Then, silent and crouching +low, the soldiers shoved the brown barrels of their carbines forth again +and waited. And then the grim silence of the little fortress was +broken, as, with startling, sudden force there went up a shout from the +westward side:-- + +"My God, boys, they're setting fire to the prairie!" + +Ray sprang to his feet and gazed. Away out to the west and southwest, +whence came the strong breeze blowing from the Sweetwater Hills, half a +dozen dark, agile forms, bending low, were scudding afoot over the +sward, and everywhere they moved there sprang up in their tracks little +sheets of lambent flame, little clouds of bluish, blinding smoke, and +almost in less time than it takes to tell it, a low wall of fire, +started in a dozen places, reaching far across the low ground, fencing +the valley from stream bed to the southward slopes, crowned by its +swift-sailing crest of hot, stifling fume, came lapping and seething and +sweeping across the level, licking up the dry buffalo grass like so much +tow, mounting higher and fiercer with every second, and bearing down +upon the little grove and its almost helpless defenders in fearful +force, in resistless fury--a charge no bullet could stop, an enemy no +human valor could hope to daunt or down. + +"Quick, men!" yelled Ray. "Out with you, you on the west front! Stay you +here, you others! Watch the Sioux! They'll be on us in an instant!" And +away he sped from the shelter of the bank, out from the thick of the +cottonwoods, out to the open prairie, straight toward the coming torrent +of flame still, thank God, full seven hundred yards away, but leaping +toward them with awful strides. Out with him rushed Field, and out from +Clayton's front sped half a dozen old hands, every man fumbling for his +match box; out until they had reached a line with their captain, already +sprawled upon the turf, and there, full an hundred yards from the grove, +they spread in rude skirmish line and, reckless of the mad chorus of +yells that came sweeping down the wind, reckless of the clamor of the +coming charge, reckless of the whistling lead that almost instantly +began nipping and biting the turf about them, here, there and +everywhere, they, too, had started little fires; they, too had run their +line of flame across the windward front; they, too, had launched a wall +of flame sailing toward the grove, and then, back through blinding smoke +they ran for their saddle blankets, just as the sharp sputter of shots +burst forth on the northward side, and the Sioux, with magnificent dash, +came thundering within range. + +Then followed a thrilling battle for life--two red enemies now enrolled +against the blue. "Fight fire with fire" is the old rule of the prairie. +Ray had promptly met the on-coming sweep of the torrent by starting a +smaller blaze that should at least clear the surface close at hand, and, +by eating off the fuel, stop, possibly, the progress of the greater +flame. + +But the minor blaze had also to be stopped lest it come snapping and +devouring within the grove. It is no easy matter to check a prairie fire +against a prairie gale when every human aid is summoned. It is desperate +work to try to check one when to the fires of nature are added the +furious blaze of hostile arms, every rifle sighted by savage, vengeful +foe. "Check it, lads, ten yards out!" shouted Ray, to his gallant +fellows, now lost in the smoke, while he again rushed across the front +to meet the charging Sioux. With his brave young face all grime, Field +was already at work, guiding, urging, aiding his little band. "Both +hands! Both hands!" he cried, as, wielding his folded blanket, he smote +the fringe of flame. "Stamp it out! Great God! Wing, are you hit?" + +For answer the sergeant by his side went plunging down, face foremost, +and little Trooper Denny, rushing to aid his young officer in the effort +to raise the stricken man, as suddenly loosed his hold and, together +again, these two sworn comrades of many a campaign lay side by side, as +they had lain in camp and bivouac all over the wide frontier, and poor +Denny could only gasp a loyal word of warning to his officer. "Get back, +sir; for God's sake, get back!" ere the life blood came gushing from his +mouth. Bending low, Field grabbed the faithful fellow in his strong arms +and, calling to the nearmost men to look to Wing, bore his helpless +burden back through stifling smoke clouds; laid him on the turf at the +foot of a cottonwood, then ran again to the perilous work of fighting +the flame, stumbling midway over another prostrate form. "Both hands! +Both hands!" he yelled as again his blanket whirled in air; and so, by +dint of desperate work, the inner line of flame at last was stayed, but +every man of the gallant little squad of fire fighters had paid the +penalty of his devotion and felt the sting of hissing lead--Field the +last of all. Westward now, well nigh an hundred yards in width, a broad, +black, smoking patch stretched across the pathway of the swift-coming +wall of smoke and flame, a safeguard to the beleaguered command worth +all the soldier sacrifice it cost. In grand and furious sweep, the +scourge of the prairie sent its destroying line across the wide level to +the south of the sheltering grove, but in the blood and sweat of heroic +men the threatening flames of the windward side had sputtered out. The +little garrison was safe from one, at least, of its dread and merciless +foes, though five of its best and bravest lay dead or dying, and others +still sore stricken, in the midst of the smoking grove. + +"Field, old boy," said Ray, with brimming eyes, as he knelt and clasped +the hand of the bleeding lad, while the Sioux fell back in wrath and +dismay from the low-aimed, vengeful fire of the fighting line. "This +means the Medal of Honor for you, if word of mine can fetch it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WOUNDED--BODY AND SOUL + + +To say the Sioux were furious at the failure of their second attempt +would be putting it far too mildly. The fierce charge from the northward +side, made under cover of the blinding smoke sent drifting by the gale +across the level flats, had been pushed so close to the grove that two +red braves and half a dozen ponies had met their death within sixty +paces of the rifle pits. There lay the bodies now, and the Indians dare +not attempt to reach them. The dread, wind-driven flame of the prairie +fire, planned by the Sioux to burn out the defence, to serve as their +ally, had been turned to their grave detriment. + +Ray and his devoted men had stopped the sweep of so much of the +conflagration as threatened their little stronghold, but, ranging +unhampered elsewhere, the seething wall rolled on toward the east, +spreading gradually toward its flanks, and so, not only consuming vast +acres of bunch grass, but checking the attack that should have been made +from the entire southern half of the Indian circle. Later, leaping the +sandy stream bed a little to the west of the cottonwoods, it spread in +wild career over a huge tract along the left bank, and now, reuniting +with the southern wing some distance down the valley, was roaring away +to the bluffs of the Mini Pusa, leaving death and desolation in its +track. Miles to the east the war parties from the reservation, riding to +join Lame Wolf, sighted the black curtain of smoke, swift sailing over +the prairie, and changed their course accordingly. Not so many miles +away to the south Webb's skirmishers, driving before them three or four +Sioux scouts from the northward slope of the Moccasin Ridge, set spurs +to their horses and took the gallop, the main body following on. + +With their eyelids blistered by heat and smoke, Ray's silent, determined +little band could see nothing of the coming force, yet knew relief was +nigh; for, close at hand, both east and west, large bodies of the enemy +could be seen swift riding away to the north. + +They had hoped, as "Fox" had planned and promised, to burn out and +overwhelm the little troop at the grove before the column from Frayne +could possibly reach the spot. They had even anticipated the probable +effort of the command to check the flames, and had told off some fifty +braves to open concentric fire on any party that should rush into the +open with that object in view. They had thought to send in such a storm +of lead, even from long range, that it should daunt and drive back those +who had dared the attempt. They had stormed indeed, but could neither +daunt nor drive back. Ray's men had braved death itself in the desperate +essay, and, even in dying, had won the day. + +But their losses had been cruel. Three killed outright; three dying and +eight more or less severely wounded had reduced their fighting strength +to nearly thirty. The guards of the sorrels, herded in the stream bed, +had all they could do to control the poor, frightened creatures, many of +them hit, several of them felled, by the plunging fire from the far +hillsides. Even though driven back, the Sioux never meant to give up the +battle. On every side, leaving their ponies at safe distance, by dozens +the warriors crawled forward, snake-like, to the edge of the burned and +blackened surface, and from there poured in a rapid and most harassing +fire, compelling the defence to lie flat or burrow further, and wounding +many horses. The half hour that followed the repulse of their grand +assault had been sorely trying to the troop, for the wounded needed aid, +more men were hit, and there was no chance whatever to hit back. Moving +from point to point, Ray carried cheer and courage on every side, yet +was so constantly exposed as to cause his men fresh anxiety. Even as he +was bending over Field a bullet had nipped the right shoulderstrap, and +later another had torn through the crown of his campaign hat. In all the +years of their frontier fighting they had never known a hotter fire; but +Ray's voice rang out through the drifting vapor with the same old cheer +and confidence. "They can't charge again till the ground cools off," he +cried. "By that time they'll have their hands full. See how they're +scudding away at the southward even now. Just keep covered and you're +all right." And, barring a growl or two from favored old hands who +sought to make the captain take his own medicine and himself keep +covered, the answer was full of cheer. + +And so they waited through the hot smoke and sunshine of the autumn +afternoon, and, even while comforting the wounded with assurance of +coming relief, kept vigilant watch on every hostile move, and at last, +toward three o'clock, the sharp fire about them slackened away, the +smouldering roots of the bunch grass had burned themselves out. The +smoke drifted away from the prairie, and, as the landscape cleared to +the south and west, a cheer of delight went up from the cottonwoods, for +the slopes three miles away were dotted here and there and everywhere +with circling, scurrying war ponies--they and their wild riders steadily +falling back before a long rank of disciplined horsemen, the extended +skirmish line of Webb's squadron, backed by supports at regular +intervals, and all heading straight on for the broad lowlands of the +Elk. + +"Send six of your men over to the south front, sergeant," were Ray's +orders to Winsor, as he hurried over to join Clayton again. "They may +try one final charge from that side, and give us a chance to empty a few +more saddles." Creeping and crouching through the timber the chosen men +obeyed, and were assigned to stations under Clayton's eye. The +precaution was wise indeed, for, just as the captain foresaw, a rally in +force began far out over the southward slopes, the Indians gathering in +great numbers about some chieftain midway between the coming force and +the still beleaguered defenders of the grove. Then, brandishing lance +and shield and rifle, as before, they began spreading out across the +prairie, heading now for the cottonwoods, while others still faced and +fired on the far blue skirmish line. The fierce wind, sweeping across +the direction of the attack, deadened all sound of hoof or war chant, +but there was no mistaking the signs, no doubt of the intent, when, in a +little moment more, the earth began to tremble beneath the dancing pony +feet, telling, almost with the swiftness of sight, that the grand +advance had again begun. But other eyes were watching too. Other +soldiers, keen campaigners as these at the Elk, were there afield, and +almost at the moment the wild barbaric horde burst yelling into their +eager gallop, and before the dust cloud hid the distant slopes beyond, +the exultant shout went up from the captain's lips, as he threw down his +glass and grabbed his carbine. "It's all right, men! The major's coming +at their heels. Now let 'em have it!" + +In former days there had been scenes of wild rejoicing, sometimes of +deep emotion, when relief came to some Indian-besieged detachment of the +old regiment. Once, far to the south in the wild, romantic park country +of Colorado, a strong detachment had been corralled for days by an +overwhelming force of Utes. Their commander,--a dozen of their best +men,--all the horses killed and many troopers sorely wounded. They had +been rescued at last by their skilled and gallant colonel, after a long +and most scientific march by both night and day. Another time, still +farther in their past, and yet within a dozen years, away down the broad +valley of the very stream of which this little Elk was a tributary, the +Cheyennes had hemmed in and sorely hammered two depleted troops that +owed their ultimate rescue to the daring of the very officer who so +coolly, confidently headed the defence this day--to a night ride through +the Indian lines that nearly cost him his brave young life, but that +brought Captain Truscott with a fresh and powerful troop sweeping in to +their succor with the dawn. Then there had been men who strained other +men to their hearts and who shed tears like women, for gallant comrades +had bitten the dust in the desperate fighting of the day before, and +hope itself had almost gone--with the ammunition of the beleaguered +command. + +Now, with heavier losses than had befallen Wayne in '76, Ray's command +beheld with almost tranquil hearts the coming of the fierce array in +final charge. Behind them, not two miles, to be sure, rode in swift, +well-ordered pursuit the long line of comrade troopers. But there had +been intervening years of campaign experiences that dulled to a degree +the earlier enthusiasms of the soldier, and taught at least the +assumption of professional composure that was the secret wonder of the +suckling trooper, and that became his chief ambition to acquire. It is +one thing to charge home at a hard-fighting command when friends and +comrades back the effort and cheer the charging line. It is another to +charge home conscious that other chargers are coming at one's heels. +Magnificent as a spectacle, therefore, this closing dash of Lame Wolf's +warriors was but a meek reminder of their earlier attack. Long before +they came within four hundred yards of the leafy stronghold,--the +moment, indeed, the brown Springfields began their spiteful bark,--to +right and left the warriors veered, far out on either flank. Screeching +and yelling as was their savage way, they tore madly by, flattened out +against their ponies' necks and, those who could use their arms at all, +pumping wild shots that whistled harmless over the heads of the +defenders and bit the blackened prairie many a rod beyond. Only jeers +rewarded the stirring spectacle,--jeers and a few low-aimed, sputtering +volleys that brought other luckless ponies to their knees and sprawled a +few red riders. But in less than five minutes from the warning cry that +hailed their coming, Lame Wolf and his hosts were lining Elk Tooth ridge +and watching with burning hate and vengeful eyes the swift, steady +advance of Webb's long blue fighting line, and the utter unconcern of +the defence. Even before the relieving squadron was within carbine range +certain of Ray's men had scrambled out upon the northward bank and, +pushing forward upon the prairie, were possessing themselves of the arms +and ornaments of the two dead warriors whom the Sioux had strived in +vain to reach and bear within their lines. Ray and Clayton at the moment +were strolling placidly forth upon the southward "bench" to receive and +welcome the little knot of comrades sent galloping in advance to greet +them. There was perhaps just a suspicion of exaggerated nonchalance +about their gait and bearing--a regimental weakness, possibly--and no +other officer save Lieutenant Field happened to be within earshot when +Winsor's voice on the other front was heard in hoarse command: + +"Come back there, you fellows! Back or you're goners!" + +The sight had proved too much for some of the Sioux. Down again at +furious speed came a scattered cloud of young braves, following the lead +of the tall, magnificent chief who had been the hero of the earlier +attack,--down into the low ground, never swerving or checking pace, +straight for the grove, the three or four inquisitive blue-coats in the +meantime scurrying for shelter; and the yell that went up at sight of +the Indian dash and the quick reopening of the sputtering fire brought +Ray, running once again to the northward edge of the timber, wondering +what could be amiss. Field was lying on his blanket, just under the +bank, as the captain darted by, and grinned his gratification as he +heard the brief, assuring words: "Webb's here--all hands with him." An +instant later a bullet whizzed through the roots of the old cottonwood +above his head, and from far out afield, deadened by the rush of the +wind, a dull crackle of shots told that something had recalled the Sioux +to the attack, and for three minutes there was a lively fusillade all +along the northward side. Then it slowly died away, and other voices, +close at hand,--someone speaking his name,--called the lad's attention. +He was weak from loss of blood, and just a little dazed and flighty. He +had meant three hours agone that when next he encountered his post +commander his manner should plainly show that senior that even a second +lieutenant had rights a major was bound to respect. But, only mistily +now, he saw bending over him the keen, soldierly features,--the kind, +winsome gray eyes, filled with such a world of concern and +sympathy,--and heard the deep, earnest tones of the voice he knew so +well, calling again his name and mingling cordial praise and anxious +inquiry, and all the rancor seemed to float away with the smoke of the +last carbine shots. He could only faintly return the pressure of that +firm, muscular hand, only feebly smile his thanks and reassurance, and +then he, too, seemed floating away somewhere into space, and he could +not manage to connect what Webb had been saying with the next words that +fastened on his truant senses. It must have been hours later, too, for +darkness had settled on the valley. A little fire was burning under the +shelter of the bank. A little group of soldiers were chatting in low +tone, close at hand. Among them, his arm in a sling, stood a stocky +little chap whose face, seen in the flickering light, was familiar to +him. So was the eager brogue in which that little chap was speaking. A +steward was remonstrating, and only vaguely at first, Field grasped the +meaning of his words:-- + +"The captain said you were not to try to follow, Kennedy, at least not +until Dr. Waller saw you. Wait till he gets here. He can't be three +miles back now." + +"To hell wid ye!" was the vehement answer. "D'ye think I'd be +maundherin' here wid the whole command gone on afther thim bloody Sioux. +I've made my mark on wan o' thim, an' he's the buck I'm afther." + +"He's made his mark on _you_, Kennedy," broke in a soldier voice. "You +mad fool, trying to tackle a chief like that--even if he was hit, for he +had his whole gang behind him." + +"Sure he dared me out, an'--what's this he called me? a d----d whiskey +thafe!--me that niver----" + +"Oh, shut up, Kennedy," laughed a brother Irishman. "You were full as a +goat at 'K' Troop's stables--Where'd ye get the whiskey if----" + +"I'll lay you, Lanigan, when I get two hands agin, though I misdoubt wan +would do it. It's me horse I want now and lave to go on wid the capt'n. +Ready now, sir," he added, with sudden change of tone and manner, for a +tall, slender form came striding into the fire light, and Field knew +Blake at the instant, and would have called but for the first word from +the captain's lips. + +"_Your_ heart's safe, Kennedy. I wish your head was. Your past master in +blasphemy out there won't eat it, at all events." + +"Did ye get him, sorr,--afther all?" + +"_I_ didn't. His English spoiled my aim. 'Twas Winsor shot him. Now, +you're to stay here, you and Kilmaine. The doctor may bring despatches, +and you follow us with the first to come." An orderly had led forth a +saddled horse, and Blake's foot was already in the stirrup. "They say +it was Red Fox himself, Kennedy," he added. "Where on earth did you meet +him before?" + +"Shure, _I_ niver knew him, sorr," was the quick reply, as Blake's long, +lean leg swung over the big charger's back and the rider settled in +saddle. + +"But he knew _you_ perfectly well. He dared you by name, when we closed +on them--you and Mr. Field." + +And when an hour later the veteran surgeon came and knelt by the side of +the young officer reported seriously wounded, and took his hand and felt +his pulse, there was something in the situation that seemed to call for +immediate action. "We'll get you back to Frayne to-morrow, Field," said +Waller, with kind intent. "Don't--worry now." + +"Don't do that, doctor," feebly, surprisingly moaned the fevered lad. +"Don't take me back to Frayne!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A VANISHED HEROINE + + +Within forty-eight hours of the coming of Trooper Kennedy with his +"rush" despatches to Fort Frayne, the actors in our little drama had +become widely separated. Webb and his sturdy squadron, including Ray and +such of his troop as still had mounts and no serious wounds, were +marching straight on for the Dry Fork of the Powder. They were two +hundred fighting men; and, although the Sioux had now three times that +many, they had learned too much of the shooting powers of these seasoned +troopers, and deemed it wise to avoid close contact. The Indian fights +well, man for man, when fairly cornered, but at other times he is no +true sportsman. He asks for odds of ten to one, as when he wiped out +Custer on the "Greasy Grass," or Fetteman at Fort Phil Kearny,--as when +he tackled the Gray Fox,--General Crook--on the Rosebud, and Sibley's +little party among the pines of the Big Horn. Ray's plucky followers had +shot viciously and emptied far too many saddles for Indian equanimity. +It might be well in any event to let Webb's squadron through and wait +for further accessions from the agencies at the southeast, or the big, +turbulent bands of Uncapapas and Minneconjous at Standing Rock, or the +Cheyennes along the Yellowstone. + +So back went Lame Wolf and his braves, bearing Stabber with them, +flitting northward again toward the glorious country beyond the +"Chakadee," and on went Webb, with Blake, Gregg, Ray and their juniors, +with Tracy to take care of such as might be wounded on the way; and, +later still, the old post surgeon reached the Elk with guards and +hospital attendants, and on the morrow row began his homeward march with +the dead and wounded,--a sad and solemn little procession. Only twenty +miles he had to go, but it took long hours, so few were the ambulances, +so rough the crossings of the ravines; and, not until near nightfall was +the last of the wounded,--Lieutenant Field,--borne in the arms of +pitying soldiers into the old post hospital, too far gone with fever, +exhaustion and some strong mental excitement to know or care that his +strange plea had been, perforce, disregarded;--to know or care later +that the general himself, the commander they loved and trusted, was +bending over him at dawn the following day. Ordering forward all +available troops from the line of the railway, "the Chief" had stopped +at Laramie only long enough for brief conference with the post +commander; then, bidding him come on with all his cavalry, had pushed +ahead for Frayne. It couldn't be a long campaign, perhaps, with winter +close at hand, but it would be a lively one. Of that the chief felt well +assured. + +Now, there was something uncanny about this outbreak on the part of the +Sioux, and the general was puzzled. Up to September the Indians had been +busy with the annual hunt. They were fat, well-fed, prosperous,--had got +from the government pretty much everything that they could ask with any +show of reason and, so they said, had been promised more. The rows +between the limited few of their young men and some bullies among the +"rustlers" had been no more frequent nor serious than on previous +summers, when matters had been settled without resort to arms; but this +year the very devil seemed to have got into the situation. Something, or +probably somebody, said the general, had been stirring the Indians up, +exciting--exhorting possibly, and almost the first thing the general did +as he climbed stiffly out of his stout Concord wagon, in the paling +starlight of the early morning, was to turn to Dade, now commanding the +post, and to say he should like, as soon as possible, to see Bill Hay. +Meantime he wished to go in and look at the wounded. + +It was not yet five o'clock, but Dr. Waller was up and devoting himself +to the needs of his patients, and Dade had coffee ready for the general +and his single aide-de-camp, but not a sip would the general take until +he had seen the stricken troopers. He knew Field by reputation, well and +favorably. He had intimately known Field's father in the old days, in +the old army, when they served together on the then wild Pacific shores +"where rolls the Oregon." The great civil war had divided them, for +Field had cast his soldier fortune with his seceding State, but all that +was a thing of the past. Here was the son, a loyal soldier of the flag +the father had again sworn allegiance to when he took his seat in the +House of Representatives. The general thought highly of Field, and was +sore troubled at his serious condition. He knew what despatches would be +coming from the far South when the telegraph line began the busy +clicking of the morning. He was troubled to find the lad in high fever +and to hear that he had been out of his head. He was more than troubled +at the concern, and something like confusion, in the old doctor's face. + +"You don't think him dangerously wounded, do you?" he asked. + +"Not dangerously, general," was the reply. "It's--well, he seems to have +something on his mind." And more than this the doctor would not say. It +was not for him to tell the chief what Webb had confided ere he left the +post--that most of the currency for which Field was accountable was so +much waste paper. Field lay muttering and tossing in restless misery, +unconscious most of the time, and sleeping only when under the influence +of a strong narcotic. Dade, with sadness and constraint apparent in his +manner, hung back and did not enter the bare hospital room where, with +only a steward in attendance, the young soldier lay. The doctor had gone +with the general to the bedside, but the captain remained out of earshot +at the door. + +First call for reveille was just sounding on the infantry bugles as the +trio came forth. "I have sent for Hay already, general," Dade was +saying, as they stood on the wooden veranda overlooking the valley of +the murmuring river; "but will you not come now and have coffee? He can +join us over at my quarters." + +Already, however, the orderly was hurrying back. They met him when not +half way over to the line of officers' quarters. The few men for duty in +the two companies of infantry, left to guard the post, were gathering in +little groups in front of their barracks, awaiting the sounding of the +assembly. They knew the chief at a glance, and were curiously watching +him as he went thoughtfully pacing across the parade by the side of the +temporary commander. They saw the orderly coming almost at a run from +the direction of the guard-house, saw him halt and salute, evidently +making some report, but they could not guess what made him so suddenly +start and run at speed toward the southward bluff, the direction of the +trader's corral and stables, while Captain Dade whirled about and +signalled Sergeant Crabb, of the cavalry, left behind in charge of the +few custodians of the troop barracks. Crabb, too, threw dignity to the +winds, and ran at the beck of his superior officer. + +"Have you two men who can ride hard a dozen miles or so--and carry out +their orders?" was the captain's sharp demand. + +"Certainly, sir," answered Crabb, professionally resentful that such +question should be asked of men of the ----th Cavalry. + +"Send two to report to me at once, mounted. Never mind breakfast." + +And by this time, apparently, the chief, the post commander and possibly +even the aide-de-camp had forgotten about the waiting coffee. They still +stood there where they had halted in the centre of the parade. The +doctor, coming from hospital, was signalled to and speedily joined them. +The bugle sounded, the men mechanically formed ranks and answered to +their names, all the while watching from the corner of their eyes the +group of officers, now increased by two infantry subalterns, Lieutenants +Bruce and Duncan, who raised their caps to the preoccupied general, such +salutation being then a fashion, not a regulation of the service, and +stood silently awaiting instructions, for something of consequence was +surely at hand. Then the orderly again appeared, returning from his +mission, out of breath and speaking with difficulty. + +"Craps--I mean the Frenchman, sir, says it was after four, perhaps half +past, when they started, Pete drivin'. He didn't see who was in it. +'Twas the covered buckboard he took, sir--the best one." + +And then, little by little, it transpired that Hay, the post trader whom +the general had need to see, had taken his departure by way of the +Rawlins road, and without so much as a whisper of his purpose to any +one. + +"I knew he had thought of going. He told Major Webb so," said Dade, +presently. "But that was before the outbreak assumed proportions. He had +given up all idea of it yesterday and so told me." + +"Has anything happened to--start him since then?" demanded the bearded +general, after a moment's thought. + +Dade and the doctor looked into each other's eyes, and the latter turned +away. It was not his affair. + +"W-ell, something has happened, general," was Dade's slow, constrained +reply. "If you will step this way--I'll see you later, gentlemen--" this +to his subalterns--"I'll explain as far as I can." + +And while Dr. Waller fell back and walked beside the aide-de-camp, +gladly leaving to the post commander the burden of a trying explanation, +the general, slowly pacing by the captain's side, gave ear to his story. + +"Hay cleaned up quite a lot of money," began the veteran, "and had +intended starting it to Cheyenne when this Indian trouble broke out. The +courier reached us during the night, as you know, and the major ordered +Ray to start at dawn and Field to go with him." + +"Why, I thought Field was post adjutant!" interposed the general. + +"He was, but--well--I beg you to let Major Webb give you his own +reasons, general," faltered Dade, sorely embarrassed. "He decided that +Field should go----" + +"He _asked_ to go, I suppose--It runs in the blood," said the general, +quickly, with a keen look from his blue-gray eyes. + +"I think not, sir; but you will see Webb within a few days and he will +tell you all about it. What I know is this, that Field was ordered to go +and that he gave the major an order on Hay for two packages containing +the money for which he was accountable. Field and Wilkins had had a +falling out, and, instead of putting the cash in the quartermaster's +safe, Field kept it at Hay's. At guard mounting Hay brought the package +to the major, who opened both in presence of the officers of the day. +Each package was supposed to contain three or four hundred dollars. +Neither contained twenty. Some paper slips inserted between five dollar +bills made up the packages. Field was then far to the north and past +conferring with. Hay was amazed and distressed--said that someone must +have duplicate keys of his safe as well as of his stables." + +"Why the stables?" asked the chief, pausing at the gate and studying the +troubled face of the honored soldier he so well knew and so fully +trusted. He was thinking, too, how this was not the first occasion that +the loss of public money had been hidden for the time in just that +way--slips inserted between good currency. + +"Because it transpires that some of his horses were out that very night +without his consent or ken. No one for a moment, to my knowledge, has +connected Field with the loss of the money. Hay thought, however, it +threw suspicion on _him_, and was mightily upset." + +"Then his sudden departure at this time, without a word to anybody +looks--odd," said the general, thoughtfully. "But _he_ had no need of +money. He's one of the wealthiest men in Wyoming. And she--his +wife,--needs nothing. He gives her all she can possibly want." By this +time they were at the door. A lamp still burned dimly in the hallway, +and Dade blew it out, as he ushered the general into the cosily lighted +dining-room. + +"You'll excuse Mrs. Dade and Esther, I hope, sir. They are not yet +up--quite overcome by anxiety and excitement,--there's been a lot about +Frayne the last two days.--Take this chair, General. Coffee will be +served at once. No, sir, as you say, the Hays have no need of money--he +and his wife, that is." + +"But you suspect--whom?" asked the general, the blue-gray eyes intent on +the troubled face before him, for Dade's very hesitancy told of some +untold theory. The doctor and the aide had taken seats at the other end +of the table and dutifully engaged in low-toned conversation. + +"That is a hard question for me to answer, General," was the answer. "I +have no right to suspect anybody. We had no time to complete the +investigation. There are many hangers-on, you know, about Hay's store, +and indeed, his house. Then his household, too, has been increased, as +perhaps you did not know. Mrs. Hay's niece--a very brilliant young +woman--is visiting them, and she and Field rode frequently together." + +The general's face was a study. The keen eyes were reading Dade as a +skilled physician would interpret the symptoms of a complicated case. +"How old--and what is she like, Dade?" he asked. + +"The women can answer that better than I, sir. They say she must be +twenty-four;--Mrs. Hay says nineteen--She is very dark and very +handsome--at times. Most of our young men seem to think so, at least. +She certainly rides and dances admirably, and Mr. Field was constantly +her partner." + +The general began to see light. "Field was constantly with her, was he? +Riding just by themselves or with others when they went out?" he asked. + +"By themselves, sir. I doubt if any other of our equestriennes would +care to ride at her pace. She rather outstrips them all. The major told +me they seemed to go--well, every time he saw them, at least,--up to +Stabber's village, and that was something he disapproved of, though I +dare say she was simply curious to see an Indian village, as an Eastern +girl might be." + +"Possibly," said the general. "And what did you tell me--she is Mrs. +Hay's niece? I don't remember _his_ having any niece when they were at +Laramie in '66, though I knew something of Mrs. Hay, who was then but a +short time married. She spoke Sioux and _patois_ French better than +English in those days. What is the young lady's name?" + +"Miss Flower, sir. Nanette Flower." + +The chief dropped his head on his hand and reflected. "It's a good +twenty years, and I've been knocking about all over the West since then, +but, I'd like to see Mrs. Hay and that young woman, Dade, whether we +overhaul Bill or not. I must go on to Beecher at once." + +"You will wait for the cavalry from Laramie, will you not, sir?" asked +the captain, anxiously. + +"I can't. I'll get a bath and breakfast and forty winks later; then see +Mrs. Hay and Bill, if he is back. They ought to catch him before he +reaches Sage Creek. There are your couriers now," he added, at the sound +of spurred heels on the front piazza. + +The captain stepped forth into the hallway. A trooper stood at the front +door, his hand lifted in salute. Another, in saddle, and holding the +reins of his comrade's horse, was at the gate. A rustle of feminine +drapery swept downward from the upper floor, and Dade glanced up, half +dreading to see Esther's face. But it was his wife who peered over the +balustrade. "I shall be down in ten minutes," she said, in low tone. +"Esther is sleeping at last. How did--he--seem this morning?" + +"Sleeping, too, but only fitfully. Dr. Waller is here," and then Dade +would have ended the talk. He did not wish to speak further of Field or +his condition. But she called again, low-toned, yet dominant, as is many +a wife in and out of the army. + +"Surely you are not letting the general start with only two men!" + +"No, he goes by and by." And again Dade would have escaped to the +piazza, but once again she held him. + +"Then where are you sending these?" + +"After Mr. Hay. He--made an early start--not knowing perhaps, the +general was coming." + +"Start!" she cried, all excitement now. "Start!--Start for where?" and +the dressing sacque in aspen-like agitations came in full view at the +head of the stairs. + +"Rawlins, I suppose. I don't know what it means." + +"But _I_ do!" exclaimed his better half, in emotion uncontrollable. "_I_ +do! It means that she has _made_ him,--that _she_ has gone, too--I mean +Nanette Flower!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A WOMAN'S PLOT + + +Woman's intuition often far outstrips the slower mental process of the +other sex. The mother who has to see a beloved daughter's silent +suffering, well knowing another girl to be, however indirectly, the +cause of it, sees all manner of other iniquities in that other girl. +Kind, charitable and gentle was Mrs. Dade, a wise mother, too, as well +as most loving, but she could look with neither kindness nor charity on +Miss Flower. She had held her peace; allowed no word of censure or +criticism to escape her when the women were discussing that young lady; +but all the more vehement was her distrust, because thus pent up and +repressed. With the swiftness of feminine thought, for no man had yet +suspected, she fathomed the secret of the trader's sudden going; and, +carried away by the excitement of the moment and the belief that none +but her husband could hear, she had made that startling announcement. +And her intuition was unerring. Nanette Flower was indeed gone. + +Yet for nearly an hour she stood alone in her conviction. Her husband +quickly cautioned silence, and, going forth, gave instructions to the +couriers that sent them speeding for the Rawlins road. But at seven +o'clock Mrs. Hay herself appeared and asked to see the general, who was +taking at the moment his accustomed bracer, tonic and stimulant,--the +only kind he was ever known to use--a cold bath. So it was to Mrs. Dade, +in all apparent frankness and sincerity, the trader's wife began her +tale. + +Everyone at Frayne well knew that her anxiety as to the outcome of the +battle on the Elk had well nigh equalled that of the wives and +sweethearts within the garrison. While her niece, after the first day's +excitement, kept to her room, the aunt went flitting from house to +house, full of sympathy and suggestion, but obviously more deeply +concerned than they had ever seen her. Now, she seemed worried beyond +words at thought of her husband's having to go at just this time. It was +mainly on Nanette's account, she said. Only last night, with the mail +from Laramie, had come a letter posted in San Francisco the week before, +telling Miss Flower that her dearest friend and roommate for four years +at school, who had been on an extended bridal tour, would pass through +Rawlins, eastward bound, on Friday's train, and begging Nanette to meet +her and go as far at least as Cheyenne. Her husband, it seems, had been +hurriedly recalled to New York, and there was no help for it. Nanette +had expected to join her, and go all the way East in late October or +early November; had given her promise, in fact, for she was vastly +excited by the news, and despite headache and lassitude that had +oppressed her for two days past, she declared she must go, and Uncle +Will must take her. So, with only a small trunk, hastily packed, of her +belongings, and an iron-bound chest of the trader's, the two had started +before dawn in Uncle Bill's stout buckboard, behind his famous four mule +team, with Pete to drive, and two sturdy ranchmen as outriders, hoping +to reach the Medicine Bow by late afternoon, and rest at Brenner's +Ranch. + +Confidentially, Mrs. Hay told Mrs. Dade that her husband was glad of the +excuse to take the route up the Platte instead of the old, rough trail +southeastward over the mountains to Rock Creek, for he had a large sum +in currency to get to the bank, and there were desperados along the +mountain route who well knew he would have to send that money in, and +were surely on lookout to waylay him--or it. Ever since pay-day two or +three rough characters had been hanging about the store, and Hay +suspected they were watching his movements, with the intention of +getting word to their comrades in crime the moment he started, and it +was almost as much to steal a march on them, as to oblige Nanette, he so +willingly left before it was light. The Rawlins road followed the Platte +Valley all the way to Brenner's, and, once there, he would feel safe, +whereas the Rock Creek trail wound through gulch, ravine and forest most +of the distance, affording many a chance for ambuscade. Of course, said +Mrs. Hay, if her husband had for a moment supposed the general would +wish to see him, he would not have gone, adding, with just a little +touch of proper, wifelike spirit, that on the general's previous visits +he had never seemed to care whether he saw Mr. Hay or not. + +All this did Mrs. Dade accept with courteous yet guarded interest. They +were seated in the little army parlor, talking in low tone; for, with +unfailing tact, Mrs. Hay had asked for Esther, and expressed her +sympathy on hearing of her being unnerved by the excitement through +which they had passed. Well she knew that Field's serious condition had +not a little to do with poor Esther's prostration, but that was +knowledge never to be hinted at. Dade himself she did not wish to meet +just now. He was too direct a questioner, and had said and looked things +about Nanette that made her dread him. She knew that, however austere +and commanding he might be when acting under his own convictions, he was +abnormally susceptible to uxorial views, and the way to win the +captain's sympathies or avert his censure, was to secure the kindly +interest of his wife. Mrs. Hay knew that he had sent couriers off by the +Rawlins road--a significant thing in itself--and that couriers had come +in from the north with further news from Webb. She knew he had gone to +the office, and would probably remain there until summoned for +breakfast, and now was her time, for there was something further to be +spoken of, and while gentle and civil, Mrs. Dade had not been receptive. +It was evident to the trader's wife that her lord and master had made a +mistake in leaving when he did. He knew the general was on the way. He +knew there was that money business to be cleared up, yet she knew there +were reasons why she _wanted_ him away,--reasons hardest of all to +plausibly explain. There were reasons, indeed, why she was glad Nanette +was gone. All Fort Frayne was devoted to Esther Dade and, however +unjustly, most of Fort Frayne,--men, women and children,--attributed +Field's defection, as they chose to call it, to Nanette--Nanette who had +set at naught her aunt's most ardent wishes, in even noticing Field at +all. Money, education, everything she could give had been lavished on +that girl, and now, instead of casting her net for that well-to-do and +distinguished bachelor, the major, thereby assuring for herself the +proud position of first lady of Fort Frayne, the wife of the commanding +officer, Nanette had been deliberately throwing herself away at a +beardless, moneyless second lieutenant, because he danced and rode well. +Mrs. Hay did not blame Mrs. Dade at that moment for hating the girl, if +hate she did. She could have shaken her, hard and well, herself, yet was +utterly nonplussed to find that Nanette cared next to nothing how badly +Field was wounded. What she seemed to care to know was about the +casualties among the Sioux, and, now that Stabber's village, the last +living trace of it, old men, squaws, children, pappooses, ponies and +puppies and other living creatures had, between two days, been whisked +away to the hills, there were no more Indians close at hand to whisper +information. + +She was glad Nanette was gone, because Field, wounded and present, would +have advantages over possible suitors absent on campaign--because all +the women and a few of the men were now against her, and because from +some vague, intangible symptoms, Mrs. Hay had satisfied herself that +there was something in the wind Nanette was hiding even from her--her +benefactress, her best friend, and it seemed like cold-blooded +treachery. Hay had for two days been disturbed, nervous and unhappy, yet +would not tell her why. He had been cross-questioning Pete, "Crapaud" +and other employees, and searching about the premises in a way that +excited curiosity and even resentment, for the explanation he gave was +utterly inadequate. To satisfy her if possible, he had confided, as he +said, the fact that certain money for which Lieutenant Field was +accountable, had been stolen. The cash had been carefully placed in his +old-fashioned safe; the missing money, therefore, had been taken while +still virtually in his charge. "They might even suspect me," he said, +which she knew would not be the case. "They forbade my speaking of it to +anybody, but I simply had to tell you." She felt sure there was +something he was concealing; something he would not tell her; something +concerning Nanette, therefore, because she so loved Nanette, he shrank +from revealing what might wound her. Indeed, it was best that Nanette +should go for the time, at least, but Mrs. Hay little dreamed that +others would be saying--even this kindly, gentle woman before her--that +Nanette should have stayed until certain strange things were thoroughly +and satisfactorily explained. + +But the moment she began, faltering not a little, to speak of matters +at the post, as a means of leading up to Nanette--matters concerning +Lieutenant Field and his financial affairs,--to her surprise Mrs. Dade +gently uplifted her hand and voice. "I am going to ask you not to tell +me, Mrs. Hay," said she. "Captain Dade has given me to understand there +was something to be investigated, but preferred that I should not ask +about it. Now, the general will be down in fifteen or twenty minutes. I +suggest that we walk over the hospital and see how Mr. Field is getting +on. We can talk, you know, as we go. Then you will breakfast with us. +Indeed, may I not give you a cup of coffee now, Mrs. Hay?" + +But Mrs. Hay said no. She had had coffee before coming. She would go and +see if there was anything they could do for Field, and would try again +to induce Mrs. Dade to listen to certain of her explanations. + +But Mrs. Dade was silent and preoccupied. She was thinking of that story +of Nanette's going, and wondering whether it could be true. She was +wondering if Mrs. Hay knew the couriers had gone to recall Hay, and that +if he and Nanette failed to return it might mean trouble for both. She +could accord to Mrs. Hay no confidences of her own, and had been +compelled to decline to listen to those with which Mrs. Hay would have +favored her. She was thinking of something still more perplexing. The +general, as her husband finally told her, had asked first thing to see +Hay, and later declared that he wished to talk with Mrs. Hay and see +Nanette. Was it possible he knew anything of what she knew--that +between Hay's household and Stabber's village there had been +communication of some kind--that the first thing found in the Indian +pouch brought home by Captain Blake, was a letter addressed in Nanette +Flower's hand, and with it three card photographs, two of them of +unmistakable Indians in civilized garb, and two letters, addressed, like +hers, to Mr. Ralph Moreau,--one care of the Rev. Jasper Strong, +Valentine, Nebraska, the other to the general delivery, Omaha? + +Yes, that pouch brought in by Captain Blake had contained matter too +weighty for one woman, wise as she was, to keep to herself. Mrs. Blake, +with her husband's full consent, had summoned Mrs. Ray, soon after his +departure on the trail of Webb, and told her of the strange discovery. +They promptly decided there was only one thing to do with the +letter;--hand or send it, unopened, to Miss Flower. Then, as Blake had +had no time to examine further, they decided to search the pouch. There +might be more letters in the same superscription. + +But there were not. They found tobacco, beeswax, an empty flask that had +contained whiskey, vaseline, Pond's Extract, salve, pigments, a few +sheets of note paper, envelopes and pencil--odd things to find in the +possession of a Sioux--a burning glass, matches, some quinine pills, +cigars, odds and ends of little consequence, and those letters addressed +to R. Moreau. The first one they had already decided should go to Miss +Flower. The others, they thought, should be handed unopened to the +commanding officer. They might contain important information, now that +the Sioux were at war and that Ralph Moreau had turned out probably to +be a real personage. But first they would consult Mrs. Dade. They had +done so the very evening of Blake's departure, even as he, long miles +away, was telling Kennedy his Irish heart was safe from the designs of +one blood-thirsty Sioux; and Mrs. Dade had agreed with them that +Nanette's letter should be sent to her forthwith, and that, as Captain +Blake had brought it in, the duty of returning the letter devolved upon +his wife. + +And so, after much thought and consultation, a little note was written, +saying nothing about the other contents or about the pouch itself. "Dear +Miss Flower:" it read. "The enclosed was found by Captain Blake some +time this morning. He had no time to deliver it in person. Yours +sincerely. N. B. Blake." + +She would enter into no explanation and would say nothing of the +consultation. She could not bring herself to sign her name as usually +she signed it, Nannie Bryan Blake. She had, as any man or woman would +have had, a consuming desire to know what Miss Flower could be writing +to a Mr. Moreau, whose correspondence turned up in this remarkable way, +in the pouch of a painted Sioux. But she and they deemed it entirely +needless to assure Miss Flower no alien eye had peered into the +mysterious pages. (It might have resulted in marvellous developments if +Miss Flower thought they had.) Note and enclosure were sent first thing +next morning by the trusty hand of Master Sanford Ray, himself, and by +him delivered in person to Miss Flower, who met him at the trader's +gate. She took it, he said; and smiled, and thanked him charmingly +before she opened it. She was coming out for her customary walk at the +hour of guard mounting, but the next thing he knew she had "scooted" +indoors again. + +And from that moment Miss Flower had not been seen. + +All this was Mrs. Dade revolving in mind as she walked pityingly by the +side of the troubled woman, only vaguely listening to her flow of words. +They had thought to be admitted to the little room in which the wounded +officer lay, but as they tiptoed into the wide, airy hall and looked +over the long vista of pink-striped coverlets in the big ward beyond, +the doctor himself appeared at the entrance and barred the way. + +"Is there nothing we can do?" asked Mrs. Dade, with tears in her voice. +"Is he--so much worse?" + +"Nothing can be done just now," answered Waller, gravely. "He has had +high fever during the night--has been wakeful and flighty again. +I--should rather no one entered just now." + +And then they noted that even the steward who had been with poor Field +was now hovering about the door of the dispensary and that only Dr. +Waller remained within the room. "I am hoping to get him to sleep again +presently," said he. "And when he is mending there will be a host of +things for you both to do." + +But that mending seemed many a day off, and Mrs. Hay, poor woman, had +graver cares of her own before the setting sun. Avoiding the possibility +of meeting the general just now, and finding Mrs. Dade both silent and +constrained at mention of her niece's name, the trader's wife went +straightway homeward from the hospital, and did not even see the post +commander hurrying from his office, with an open despatch in his hand. +But by this time the chief and his faithful aide were out on the +veranda, surrounded by anxious wives and daughters, many of whom had +been earnestly bothering the doctor at the hospital before going to +breakfast. Dade much wished them away, though the news brought in by +night riders was both stirring and cheery. The Indians had flitted away +from Webb's front, and he counted on reaching and rescuing the Dry Fork +party within six hours from the time the courier started. They might +expect the good news during the afternoon of Thursday. Scouts and +flankers reported finding _travois_ and pony tracks leading westward +from the scene of Ray's fierce battle, indicating that the Indians had +carried their dead and wounded into the fastnesses of the southern +slopes of the Big Horn, and that their punishment had been heavy. Among +the chiefs killed or seriously wounded was this new, vehement leader +whom Captains Blake and Ray thought might be Red Fox, who was so +truculent at the Black Hills conference the previous year. Certain of +the men, however, who had seen Red Fox at that time expressed doubts. +Lieutenant Field, said Webb, had seen him, and could probably say. + +Over this despatch the general pondered gravely. "From what I know of +Red Fox," said he, "I should think him a leader of the Sitting Bull +type,--a shrew, intriguing, mischief-making fellow, a sort of Sioux +walking delegate, not a battle leader; but according to Blake and Ray +this new man is a fighter." + +Then Mrs. Dade came out and bore the general off to breakfast, and +during breakfast the chief was much preoccupied. Mrs. Dade and the +aide-de-camp chatted on social matters. The general exchanged an +occasional word with his host and hostess, and finally surprised neither +of them, when breakfast was over and he had consumed the last of his +glass of hot water, by saying to his staff officer, "I should like to +see Mrs. Hay a few minutes, if possible. We'll walk round there first. +Then--let the team be ready at ten o'clock." + +But the team, although ready, did not start northward at ten, and the +general, though he saw Mrs. Hay, had no speech with her upon the +important matters uppermost in his mind during the earlier hours of the +day. He found that good lady in a state of wild excitement and alarm. +One of the two outriders who had started with her husband and niece at +dawn, was mounted on a dun-colored cow pony, with white face and feet. +One of the two troopers sent by Dade to overtake and bring them back, +was turning a blown and exhausted horse over to the care of Hay's +stablemen, as he briefly told his story to the wild-eyed, well nigh +distracted woman. Six miles up stream, he said, they had come suddenly +upon a dun-colored cow pony, dead in his tracks, with white feet in air +and white muzzle bathed in blood; bridle, saddle and rider gone; signs +of struggle in places--but no signs of the party, the team and wagon, +anywhere. + +"And no cavalry to send out after them!" said Dade, when he reached the +spot. Old Crabb was called at once, and mustered four semi-invalided +troopers. The infantry supplied half a dozen stout riders and, with a +mixed escort, the general, accompanied by Dade and the aide-de-camp, +drove swiftly to the scene. Six miles away they found the dead pony. +Seven miles away they encountered the second trooper, coming back. He +had followed the trail of the four mule team as far as yonder point, +said he, and there was met by half a dozen shots from unseen foe, and so +rode back out of range. But Dade threw his men forward as skirmishers; +found no living soul either at the point or on the banks of the rocky +ford beyond; but, in the shallows, close to the shore, lay the body of +the second outrider, shot and scalped. In a clump of willows lay another +body, that of a pinto pony, hardly cold, while the soft, sandy shores +were cut by dozens of hoof tracks--shoeless. The tracks of the mules and +wagon lay straight away across the stream bed--up the opposite bank and +out on the northward-sweeping bench beyond. Hay's famous four, and +well-known wagon, contents and all, therefore, had been spirited away, +not toward the haunts of the road agents in the mountains of the +Medicine Bow, but to those of the sovereign Sioux in the fastnesses of +the storied Big Horn. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +NIGHT PROWLING AT FRAYNE + + +In the full of the September moon the war-bands of the Sioux had defied +agents and peace chiefs, commissioners and soldiers, and started their +wild campaign in northern Wyoming. In the full of the October moon the +big chief of the whites had swept the last vestige of their warriors +from the plains, and followed their bloody trails into the heart of the +mountains, all his cavalry and much of his foot force being needed for +the work in hand. Not until November, therefore, when the ice bridge +spanned the still reaches of the Platte, and the snow lay deep in the +brakes and _coulees_, did the foremost of the homeward-bound commands +come in view of old Fort Frayne, and meantime very remarkable things had +occurred, and it was to a very different, if only temporary, post +commander that Sandy Ray reported them as "sighted." Even brave old Dade +had been summoned to the front, with all his men, and in their place had +come from distant posts in Kansas other troops to occupy the vacant +quarters and strive to feel at home in strange surroundings. + +A man of austere mold was the new major,--one of the old Covenanter +type, who would march to battle shouting hymn tunes, and to Christmas +and Thanksgiving chanting doleful lays. He hailed, indeed, from old +Puritan stock; had been a pillar in the village church in days before +the great war, and emulated Stonewall Jackson in his piety, if he did +not in martial prowess. Backed by local, and by no means secular, +influences he had risen in the course of the four years' war from a +junior lieutenancy to the grade of second in command of his far eastern +regiment; had rendered faithful services in command of convalescent +camps and the like, but developed none of that vain ambition which +prompts the seeking of "the bubble reputation" at the cannon's mouth. +All he ever knew of Southern men in ante-bellum days was what he heard +from the lips of inspired orators or read from the pens of very earnest +anti-slavery editors. Through lack of opportunity he had met no +Southerner before the war, and carried his stanch, Calvinistic +prejudices to such extent that he seemed to shrink from closer contact +even then. The war was holy. The hand of the Lord would surely smite the +slave-holding arch rebel, which was perhaps why the Covenanter thought +it work of supererogation to raise his own. He finished as he began the +war, in the unalterable conviction that the Southern President, his +cabinet and all his leading officers should be hung, and their lands +confiscated to the state--or its representatives. He had been given a +commission in the army when such things were not hard to get--at the +reorganization in '66, had been stationed in a Ku Klux district all one +winter and in a sanitarium most of the year that followed. He thought +the nation on the highroad to hell when it failed to impeach the +President of high crimes and misdemeanors, and sent Hancock to harmonize +matters in Louisiana. He was sure of it when the son of a Southerner, +who had openly flouted him, was sent to West Point. He retained these +radical views even unto the twentieth anniversary of the great +surrender; and, while devoutly praying for forgiveness of his own sins, +could never seem to forgive those whose lot had been cast with the +South. He was utterly nonplussed when told that the young officer, +languishing in hospital on his arrival, was the son of a distinguished +major-general of the Confederate Army, and he planned for the father a +most frigid greeting, until reminded that the former major-general was +now a member of Congress and of the committee on military affairs. Then +it became his duty to overlook the past. + +He had not entered Field's little room, even when inspecting hospital +(Flint was forever inspecting something or other)--the doctor's +assurance that, though feeble, his patient was doing quite well, was all +sufficient. He had thought to greet the former Confederate, a sorely +anxious father, with grave and distant civility, as an avowed and +doubtless unregenerate enemy of that sacred flag; but, as has been said, +that was before it was pointed out to him that this was the Honorable M. +C. from the Pelican State, now prominent as a member of the House +Committee on Military Affairs. Motherless and sister-less was the +wounded boy, yet gentle and almost caressing hands had blessed his +pillow and helped to drive fever and delirium to the winds. It was +twelve days after they brought him back to Frayne before the father +could hope to reach him, coming post haste, too; but by that time the +lad was propped on his pillows, weak, sorrowing and sorely troubled, +none the less so because there was no one now to whom he could say +_why_. + +The men whom he knew and trusted were all away on campaign, all save the +veteran post surgeon, whom hitherto he had felt he hardly knew at all. +The women whom he had best known and trusted were still present at the +post. Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Blake had been his friends, frank, cordial and +sincere up to the week of his return from Laramie and his sudden and +overwhelming infatuation for Nanette Flower. Then they had seemed to +hold aloof, to greet him only with courtesy, and to eye him with +unspoken reproach. The woman at Fort Frayne to whom he most looked up +was Mrs. Dade, and now Mrs. Dade seemed alienated utterly. She had been +to inquire for him frequently, said his attendant, when he was so racked +with fever. So had others, and they sent him now jellies and similar +delicacies, but came no more in person--just yet at least--but he did +not know the doctor so desired. Field knew that his father, after the +long, long journey from the distant South, was now close at hand,--would +be with him within a few hours, and even with Ray's warm words of praise +still ringing in his ears, the young soldier was looking to that +father's coming almost with distress. It was through God's mercy and +the wisdom of the old surgeon that no word, as yet, had been whispered +to him of the discovery made when the money packages were opened--of the +tragic fate that had, possibly, befallen Bill Hay and Miss Flower. + +That a large sum of money was missing, and that Field was the +accountable officer, was already whispered about the garrison. The fact +that four officers and Mr. Hay were aware of it in the first place, and +the latter had told it to his wife, was fatal to entire secrecy. But, in +the horror and excitement that prevailed when the details of the later +tragedy were noised about the post, this minor incident had been almost +forgotten. + +The disappearance of Hay and his brilliant, beautiful niece, however, +was not to be forgotten for a moment, day or night, despite the fact +that Mrs. Hay, who had been almost crazed with dread and terror when +first informed there had been a "hold-up," rallied almost immediately, +and took heart and hope when it became apparent that Indians, not white +men, were the captors. + +"The Sioux would never harm a hair of his head," she proudly declared. +"He has been their friend for half a century." Nor had she fears for +Nanette. The Sioux would harm nobody her husband sought to protect. When +it was pointed out to her that they had harmed the guards,--that one of +them was found shot dead and scalped at the shores of the Platte, and +the other, poor fellow, had crawled off among the rocks and bled to +death within gunshot of the scene,--Mrs. Hay said they must have first +shown fight and shot some of the Sioux, for all the Indians knew Mr. +Hay's wagon. Then why, asked Fort Frayne, had they molested him--and +his? + +The general had had to leave for the front without seeing Mrs. Hay. More +than ever was it necessary that he should be afield, for this exploit +showed that some of the Sioux, at least, had cut loose from the main +body and had circled back toward the Platte--Stabber's people in all +probability. So, sending Crabb and his little squad across the river to +follow a few miles, at least, the trail of the wagon and its captors, +and ascertain, if possible, whither it had gone, he hurried back to +Frayne; sent messengers by the Laramie road to speed the cavalry, and +orders to the colonel to send two troops at once to rescue Hay and his +niece; sent wires calling for a few reinforcements, and was off on the +way to Beecher, guarded by a handful of sturdy "doughboys" in +ambulances, before ever the body of the second victim was found. + +And then, little by little, it transpired that this mysterious war +party, venturing to the south bank of the Platte, did not exceed half a +dozen braves. Crabb got back in thirty-six hours, with five exhausted +men. They had followed the wheel tracks over the open prairie and into +the foothills far to the Northwest, emboldened by the evidence of there +being but few ponies in the original bandit escort. But, by four in the +afternoon, they got among the breaks and ravines and, first thing they +knew, among the Indians, for zip came the bullets and down went two +horses, and they had to dismount and fight to stand off possible swarms, +and, though owning they had seen no Indians, they had proof of having +felt them, and were warranted in pushing no further. After dark they +began their slow retreat and here they were. + +And for seven days that was the last heard, by the garrison, at least, +of these most recent captives of the Sioux. Gentle and sympathetic +women, however, who called on Mrs. Hay, were prompt to note that though +unnerved, unstrung, distressed, she declared again and again her faith +that the Indians would never really harm her husband. They might hold +him and Nanette as hostages for ransom. They might take for their own +purposes his wagon, his mules and that store of money, but his life was +safe, yes, and Nanette's too. Of this she was so confident that people +began to wonder whether she had not received some assurance to that +effect, and when Pete, the stable boy driver, turned up at the end of +the first week with a cock-and-bull story about having stolen an Indian +pony and shot his way from the midst of the Sioux away up on No Wood +Creek, on the west side of the hills, and having ridden by night and +hidden by day until he got back to the Platte and Frayne, people felt +sure of it. Pete could talk Sioux better than he could jabber English. +He declared the Indians were in the hills by thousands, and were going +to take Hay and the young lady away off somewhere to be held for safe +keeping. He said the two troops that, never even halting at Frayne, had +pushed out on the trail, would only get into trouble if they tried to +enter the hills from the South, and that they would never get the +captives, wherein Pete was right, for away out among the spurs and +gorges of the range, fifty miles from Frayne, the pursuers came upon the +wreck of the wagon at the foot of an acclivity, up which a force of +Sioux had gone in single file. Many warriors it would seem, however, +must have joined the party on the way, and from here,--where with the +wagon was found Hay's stout box, bereft of its contents,--in four +different directions the pony tracks of little parties crossed or +climbed the spurs, and which way the captives had been taken, Captain +Billings, the commander, could not determine. What the Sioux hoped he +might do was divide his force into four detachments and send one on each +trail. Then they could fall upon them, one by one, and slay them at +their leisure. Billings saw the game, however, and was not to be caught. +He knew Bill Hay, his past and his popularity among the red men. He knew +that if they meant to kill him at all they would not have taken the +trouble to cart him fifty miles beforehand. He dropped the stern chase +then and there, and on the following day skirted the foothills away to +the east and, circling round to the breaks of the Powder as he reached +the open country, struck and hard hit a scouting band of Sioux, and +joined the general three days later, when most he was needed, near the +log palisades of old Fort Beecher. + +Then there had been more or less of mysterious coming and going among +the halfbreed hangers-on about the trader's store, and these were things +the new post commander knew not how to interpret, even when informed of +them. He saw Mrs. Hay but once or twice. He moved into the quarters of +Major Webb, possessing himself, until his own should arrive, of such of +the major's belongings as the vigilance of Mistress McGann would suffer. +He stationed big guards from his two small companies about the post, and +started more hard swearing among his own men, for "getting only two +nights in bed," than had been heard at Frayne in long months of less +pious post commandership. He strove to make himself agreeable to the +ladies, left lamenting for their lords, but as luck would have it, fell +foremost into the clutches of the quartermaster's wife, the dominant and +unterrified Wilkins. + +Just what prompted that energetic and, in many ways, estimable woman, to +take the new major into close communion, and tell him not only what she +knew, but what she thought, about all manner of matters at the post, can +never be justly determined. But within the first few days of his coming, +and on the eve of the arrival of General Field, Major Flint was in +possession of the story of how devoted young Field had been to Esther +Dade, and how cruelly he had jilted her for the brilliant Miss Flower, +"her that was gone with the Sioux." The differences between her stout, +veteran liege and the smooth-faced stripling had given her text to start +with. The story of the money lost had filtered from her lips, and +finally that of other peccadilloes, attributable to the young post +adjutant, whom, as she said, "The meejor had to rejuice and sind to the +front all along of his doin's in gar'son." Dade was gone. There was no +man save Wilkins to whom Major Flint felt that he could appeal for +confirmation or denial of these stories. Dr. Waller was his senior in +the service by ten years at least, and a type of the old-time officer +and gentleman of whom such as Flint stood ever in awe. He preferred, +therefore, as he thought, to keep the doctor at a distance, to make him +feel the immensity of his, the post commander's, station, and so, as +Wilkins dare not disavow the sayings of his wife, even had he been so +minded, the stories stood. + +Flint was thinking of them this very evening when Dr. Waller, happening +to meet him on his way from hospital briefly said that General Field +should be with them on the morrow. "He leaves Rock Creek to-night, +having hired transportation there. I had hoped our lad might be in +better spirits by this time." + +The major answered vaguely. How could a lad with all these sins upon his +soul be in anything but low spirits? Here was a brand to be snatched +from the burning, a youth whom prompt, stern measures might redeem and +restore, one who should be taught the error of his ways forthwith; only, +the coming of the member of the Military Committee of the House of +Representatives might make the process embarrassing. There were other +ways, therefore and however, in which this valuable information in the +major's possession might be put to use, and of these was the major +thinking, more than of the condition of the wounded lad, physical or +spiritual, as homeward through the gloaming he wended his way. + +Might it not be well to wait until this important and influential +personage had reached the post before proceeding further? Might it not +be well, confidentially and gradually, as it were, to permit the +Honorable M. C. to know that grave irregularities had occurred?--that up +to this moment the complete knowledge thereof was locked in the breast +of the present post commander?--that the suppression or presentation of +the facts depended solely upon that post commander? and then if the +member of the House Committee on Military Affairs proved receptive, +appreciative, in fact responsive, might not the ends of justice better +be subserved by leaving to the parent the duty of personally and +privately correcting the son? and, in consideration of the post +commander's wisdom and continence, pledging the influence of the +Military Committee to certain delectable ends in the major's behalf? +Long had Flint had his eye on a certain desirable berth in the distant +East--at the national capitol in fact--but never yet had he found +statesman or soldier inclined to further his desire. That night the +major bade Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins hold their peace as to Field's +peccadilloes until further leave was given them to speak. That night the +major, calling at Captain Dade's, was concerned to hear that Mrs. Dade +was not at home. "Gone over to the hospital with Mrs. Blake and the +doctor," was the explanation, and these gentle-hearted women, it seems, +were striving to do something to rouse the lad from the slough of +despond which had engulfed him. That night "Pink" Marble, Hay's faithful +book-keeper and clerk for many a year, a one-armed veteran of the civil +war, calling, as was his invariable custom when the trader was absent, +to leave the keys of the safe and desks with Mrs. Hay, was surprised to +find her in a flood of tears, for which she declined all explanation; +yet the sight of Pete, the half breed, slouching away toward the stables +as Marble closed the gate, more than suggested cause, for "Pink" had +long disapproved of that young man. That night Crapaud, the other +stableman, had scandalized Jerry Sullivan, the bar-keeper, and old +McGann, Webb's Hibernian major domo, by interrupting their game of Old +Sledge with a demand for a quart of whiskey on top of all that he had +obviously and surreptitiously been drinking, and by further indulging in +furious threats, in a sputtering mixture of Dakota French and French +Dakota, when summarily kicked out. That night, late as twelve o'clock, +Mrs. Ray, aroused by the infantile demands of the fourth of the olive +branches, and further disturbed by the suspicious growlings and +challenge of old Tonto, Blake's veteran mastiff, peeped from the second +story window and plainly saw two forms in soldier overcoats at the back +fence, and wondered what the sentries found about Blake's quarters to +require so much attention. Then she became aware of a third form, +rifle-bearing, and slowly pacing the curving line of the bluff--the +sentry beyond doubt. Who, then, were these others who had now totally +disappeared? She thought to speak of it to Nannie in the morning, and +then thought not. There were reasons why nervous alarm of any kind were +best averted then from Mrs. Blake. But there came reason speedily why +Mrs. Ray could not forget it. + +And that night, later still, along toward four o'clock, the persistent +clicking of the telegraph instrument at the adjutant's office caught the +ear of the sentry, who in time stirred up the operator, and a "rush" +message was later thrust into the hand of Major Flint, demolishing a +day-old castle in the air. + + FROM ROCK CREEK, WYOMING, + _October 23, 188--._ 9:15 P. M. + +COMMANDING OFFICER, FORT FRAYNE, + _via Fort Laramie_. + +Stage capsized Crook Canon. General Field seriously injured. Have wired +Omaha. + +(Signed) Warner, + _Commanding Camp._ + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A RIFLED DESK + + +Events moved swiftly in the week that followed. Particulars of the +accident to General Field, however, were slow in reaching Fort Frayne; +and, to the feverish unrest and mental trouble of the son, was now added +a feverish anxiety on the father's account that so complicated the +situation as to give Dr. Waller grave cause for alarm. Then it was that, +ignoring every possible thought of misbehavior on the part of the young +officer toward the gentle girl so dear to them, not only Mrs. Blake and +Mrs. Ray, but Mrs. Dade herself, insisted on being made of +use,--insisted on being permitted to go to his bedside and there to +minister, as only women can, to the suffering and distressed. Waller +thought it over and succumbed. The lad was no longer delirious, at +least, and if he revealed anything of what was uppermost in his mind it +would be a conscious and voluntary revelation. There were some things he +had said and that Waller alone had heard, the good old doctor wished +were known to certain others of the garrison, and to no one more than +Mrs. Dade; and so the prohibition against their visiting the wounded lad +was withdrawn, and not only these, but other women, sympathetically +attracted, were given the necessary authority. + +There was other reason for this. From the commanding officer of the +supply camp at Rock Springs had come, finally, a letter that was full of +foreboding. General Field, it said, was sorely injured and might not +survive. If the department commander had only been at Omaha or Cheyenne, +as the anxious father hastened to reach his son, the mishap would never +have occurred. The general would gladly have seen to it that suitable +transportation from the railway to Frayne was afforded his old-time +comrade. But, in his absence, Field shrank from appealing to anyone +else, and, through the train conductor, wired ahead to Rock Creek for a +stout four-mule team and wagon, with a capable driver. The conductor +assured him that such things were to be had for money, and that +everything would be in readiness on his arrival. Team, wagon and driver +certainly were on hand, but the team looked rickety, so did the wagon, +so did the driver, who had obviously been priming for the occasion. It +was this rig or nothing, however; and, in spite of a courteous +remonstrance from the two officers at the supply camp, who saw and +condemned the "outfit," General Field started on time and returned on an +improvised trestle three hours later. The "outfit" had been tumbled over +a ledge into a rocky creek bottom, and with disastrous results to all +concerned except the one who deserved it most--the driver. The ways of +Providence are indeed inscrutable. + +A surgeon had been sent from Fort Russell, and his report was such that +Waller would not let it go in full to his patient. They had carried the +old soldier back to camp, and such aid as could be given by the rude +hands of untaught men was all he had for nearly twenty-four hours, and +his suffering had been great. Internal injuries, it was feared, had been +sustained, and at his advanced age that was something almost fatal. No +wonder Waller was worried. Then Flint took alarm at other troubles +closer at hand. Up to this year he had been mercifully spared all +personal contact with our Indian wards, and when he was told by his +sentries that twice in succession night riders had been heard on the +westward "bench," and pony tracks in abundance had been found at the +upper ford--the site of Stabber's village--and that others still were to +be seen in the soft ground not far from Hay's corral, the major was more +than startled. At this stage of the proceedings, Sergeant Crabb of the +Cavalry was the most experienced Indian fighter left at the post. Crabb +was sent for, and unflinchingly gave his views. The Sioux had probably +scattered before the squadrons sent after them from the north; had fled +into the hills and, in small bands probably, were now raiding down +toward the Platte, well knowing there were few soldiers left to defend +Fort Frayne, and no cavalry were there to chase them. + +"What brings them here? What do they hope to get or gain?" asked Flint. + +"I don't know, sir," answered Crabb. "But this I do know, they are +after something and expect to get it. If I might make so bold, sir, I +think the major ought to keep an eye on them blasted halfbreeds at +Hay's." + +It set Flint to serious thinking. Pete and Crapaud, paid henchmen of the +trader, had been taking advantage of their employer's absence and +celebrating after the manner of their kind. One of his officers, new +like himself to the neighborhood and to the Indians, had had encounter +with the two that rubbed his commissioned fur the wrong way. A sentry, +in discharge of his duty, had warned them one evening away from the rear +gate of a bachelor den, along officers' row, and had been told to go to +sheol, or words to that effect. They had more business there than he +had, said they, and, under the potent sway of "inspiring bold John +Barleycorn" had not even abated their position when the +officer-of-the-day happened along. They virtually damned and defied him, +too. + +The officer-of-the-day reported to the commanding officer, and that +officer called on Mrs. Hay to tell her he should order the culprits off +the reservation if they were not better behaved. Mrs. Hay, so said the +servant, was feeling far from well and had to ask to be excused, when +who should appear but that ministering angel Mrs. Dade herself, and Mrs. +Dade undertook to tell Mrs. Hay of the misconduct of the men, even when +assuring Major Flint she feared it was a matter in which Mrs. Hay was +powerless. They were afraid of Hay, but not of her. Hearing of Mrs. +Hay's illness, Mrs. Dade and other women had come to visit and console +her, but there were very few whom she would now consent to see. Even +though confident no bodily harm would befall her husband or her niece, +Mrs. Hay was evidently sore disturbed about something. Failing to see +her, Major Flint sent for the bartender and clerk, and bade them say +where these truculent, semi-savage bacchanals got their whiskey, and +both men promptly and confidently declared it wasn't at the store. +Neither of them would give or sell to either halfbreed a drop, and old +Wilkins stood sponsor for the integrity of the affiants, both of whom he +had known for years and both of whom intimated that the two specimens +had no need to be begging, buying or stealing whiskey, when Bill Hay's +private cellar held more than enough to fill the whole Sioux nation. +"Moreover," said Pink Marble, "they've got the run of the stables now +the old man's away, and there isn't a night some of those horses ain't +out." When Flint said that was something Mrs. Hay ought to know, Pink +Marble replied that was something Mrs. Hay did know, unless she refused +to believe the evidence of her own senses as well as his, and Pink +thought it high time our fellows in the field had recaptured Hay and +fetched him home. If it wasn't done mighty soon he, Pink, wouldn't be +answerable for what might happen at the post. + +All the more anxious did this make Flint. He decided that the exigencies +of the case warranted his putting a sentry over Hay's stable, with +orders to permit no horse to be taken out except by an order from him, +and Crabb took him and showed him, two days later, the tracks of two +horses going and coming in the soft earth in front of a narrow side door +that led to the corral. Flint had this door padlocked at once and +Wilkins took the key, and that night was surprised by a note from Mrs. +Hay. + +"The stablemen complain that the sentries will not let them take the +horses out even for water and exercise, which has never been the case +before," and Mrs. Hay begged that the restriction might be removed. +Indeed, if Major Flint would remove the sentry, she would assume all +responsibility for loss or damage. The men had been with Mr. Hay, she +said, for six years and never had been interfered with before, and they +were sensitive and hurt and would quit work, they said, if further +molested. Then there would be nobody to take their place and the stock +would suffer. + +In point of fact, Mrs. Hay was pleading for the very men against whom +the other employes claimed to have warned her--these two halfbreeds who +had defied his sentries,--and Flint's anxieties materially increased. It +taxed all his stock of personal piety, and strengthened the belief he +was beginning to harbor, that Mrs. Hay had some use for the horses at +night--some sojourners in the neighborhood with whom she must +communicate, and who could they be but Sioux? + +Then Mistress McGann, sound sleeper that she used to be, declared to the +temporary post commander, as he was, and temporary lodger as she +considered him, that things "was goin' on about the post she'd never +heard the likes of before, and that the meejor would never put up with +a minute." When Mrs. McGann said "the meejor" she meant not Flint, but +his predecessor. There was but one major in her world,--the one she +treated like a minor. Being a soldier's wife, however, she knew the +deference due to the commanding officer, even though she did not choose +to show it, and when bidden to say her say and tell what things "was +goin' on" Mistress McGann asseverated, with the asperity of a woman who +has had to put her husband to bed two nights running, that the time had +never been before that he was so drunk he didn't know his way home, and +so got into the back of the bachelor quarters instead of his own. "And +to think av his bein' propped up at his own gate by a lousy, frog-eatin' +half Frinchman, half salvage!" Yet, when investigated, this proved to be +the case, and the further question arose, where did McGann get his +whiskey? A faithful, loyal devoted old servitor was McGann, yet Webb, as +we have seen, had ever to watch his whiskey carefully lest the Irishman +should see it, and seeing taste, and tasting fall. The store had orders +from Mrs. McGann, countersigned by Webb, to the effect that her husband +was never to have a drop. Flint was a teetotaller himself, and noted +without a shadow of disapprobation that the decanters on the sideboard +were both empty the very day he took possession, also that the cupboard +was securely locked. Mrs. McGann was sure her liege got no liquor there +nor at the store, and his confused statement that it was given him by +"fellers at the stables," was treated with scorn. McGann then was still +under marital surveillance and official displeasure the day after Mrs. +McGann's revelations, with unexplained iniquities to answer for when his +head cleared and his legs resumed their functions. But by that time +other matters were brought to light that laid still further accusation +at his door. With the consent of Dr. Waller, Lieutenant Field had been +allowed to send an attendant for his desk. There were letters, he said, +he greatly wished to see and answer, and Mrs. Ray had been so kind as to +offer to act as his amanuensis. The attendant went with the key and came +back with a scared face. Somebody, he said, had been there before him. + +They did not tell Field this at the time. The doctor went at once with +the messenger, and in five minutes had taken in the situation. Field's +rooms had been entered and probably robbed. There was only one other +occupant of the desolate set that so recently had rung to the music of +so many glad young voices. Of the garrison proper at Frayne all the +cavalry officers except Wilkins were away at the front; all the infantry +officers, five in number, were also up along the Big Horn. The four who +had come with Flint were strangers to the post, but Herron, who had been +a classmate of Ross at the Point, moved into his room and took the +responsibility of introducing the contract doctor, who came with them, +into the quarters at the front of the house on the second floor. These +rooms had been left open and unlocked. There was nothing, said the +lawful occupant, worth stealing, which was probably true; but Field had +bolted, inside, the door of his sleeping room; locked the hall door of +his living room and taken the key with him when he rode with Ray. The +doctor looked over the rooms a moment; then sent for Wilkins, the post +quartermaster, who came in a huff at being disturbed at lunch. Field had +been rather particular about his belongings. His uniforms always hung on +certain pegs in the plain wooden wardrobe. The drawers of his bureau +were generally arranged like the clothes press of cadet days, as though +for inspection, but now coats, blouses, dressingsack and smoking jacket +hung with pockets turned inside out or flung about the bed and floor. +Trousers had been treated with like contempt. The bureau looked like +what sailors used to call a "hurrah's nest," and a writing desk, +brass-bound and of solid make, that stood on a table by a front window, +had been forcibly wrenched open, and its contents were tossed about the +floor. A larger desk,--a wooden field desk--stood upon a trestle across +the room, and this, too, had been ransacked. Just what was missing only +one man could tell. Just how they entered was patent to all--through a +glazed window between the bed-room and the now unused dining room +beyond. Just who were the housebreakers no man present could say; but +Mistress McGann that afternoon communicated her suspicion to her +sore-headed spouse, and did it boldly and with the aid of a broomstick. +"It's all along," she said, "av your shtoopin' to dhrink wid them low +lived salvages at Hay's. Now, what d'ye know about this?" + +But McGann swore piously he knew nothing "barrin' that Pete and Crapaud +had some good liquor one night--dear knows when it was--an' I helped 'em +dhrink your health,--an' when 'twas gone, and more was wanted, sure Pete +said he'd taken a demijohn to the lieutenant's, with Mr. Hay's +compliments, the day before he left for the front, and sure he couldn't +have drunk all av it, and if the back dure was open Pete would inquire +anyhow." + +That was all Michael remembered or felt warranted in revealing, for +stoutly he declared his and their innocence of having burglariously +entered any premises, let alone the lieutenant's. "Sure they'd bite +their own noses off fur him," said Mike, which impossible feat attested +the full measure of halfbreed devotion. Mistress McGann decided to make +further investigation before saying anything to anybody; but, before the +dawn of another day, matters took such shape that fear of sorrowful +consequences, involving even Michael, set a ban on her impulse to speak. +Field, it seems, had been at last induced to sleep some hours that +evening, and it was nearly twelve when he awoke and saw his desk on a +table near the window. The attendant was nodding in an easy chair; and, +just as the young officer determined to rouse him, Mrs. Dade, with the +doctor, appeared on tiptoe at the doorway. For a few minutes they kept +him interested in letters and reports concerning his father's condition, +the gravity of which, however, was still withheld from him. Then there +were reports from Tongue River, brought in by courier, that had to be +told him. But after a while he would be no longer denied. He demanded to +see his desk and his letters. + +At a sign from the doctor, the attendant raised it from the table and +bore it to the bed. "I found things in some confusion in your quarters, +Field," said Waller, by way of preparation, "and I probably haven't +arranged the letters as you would if you had had time. They were lying +about loosely--" + +But he got no further. Field had started up and was leaning on one +elbow. The other arm was outstretched. "What do you mean?" he cried. +"The desk hasn't been _opened_?" + +Too evidently, however, it had been, and in an instant Field had pulled +a brass pin that held in place a little drawer. It popped part way out, +and with trembling hands he drew it forth--empty. + +Before he could speak Mrs. Dade suddenly held up her hand in signal for +silence, her face paling at the instant. There was a rush of slippered +feet through the corridor, a hum of excited voices, and both Dr. Waller +and the attendant darted for the door. + +Outside, in the faint starlight, sound of commotion came from the +direction of the guard-house,--of swift footfalls from far across the +parade, of the vitreous jar of windows hastily raised. Two or three +lights popped suddenly into view along the dark line of officers' +quarters, and Waller's voice, with a ring of authority unusual to him, +halted a running corporal of the guard. + +"What is it?" demanded he. + +"I don't know, sir," was the soldier's answer. "There was an awful +scream from the end quarters--Captain Ray's, sir." Then on he went +again. + +And then came the crack, crack of a pistol. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BURGLARY AT BLAKE'S + + +The doctor started at the heels of the corporal, but was distanced long +before he reached the scene. The sergeant of the guard was hammering on +the front door of Blake's quarters; but, before the summons was answered +from within, Mrs. Ray, in long, loose wrapper, came hurrying forth from +her own--the adjoining--hallway. Her face was white with dread. "It is +I, Nannie. Let us in," she cried, and the door was opened by a terrified +servant, as the doctor came panting up the steps. Together he and Mrs. +Ray hurried in. "Robbers!" gasped the servant girl--"Gone--the back +way!" and collapsed on the stairs. Sergeant and corporal both tore +around to the west side and out of the rear gate. Not a sign of +fugitives could they see, and, what was worse, not a sign of sentry. +Number 5, of the third relief, should at that moment have been pacing +the edge of the bluff in rear of the northernmost quarters, and yet +might be around toward the flagstaff. "Find Number 5," were the +sergeant's orders, and back he hurried to the house, not knowing what to +expect. By that time others of the guard had got there and the +officer-of-the-day was coming,--the clink of his sword could be heard +down the road,--and more windows were uplifted and more voices were +begging for information, and then came Mrs. Dade, breathless but calm. + +Within doors she found the doctor ministering to a stout female who +seemed to have gone off in an improvised swoon--Mrs. Blake's imported +cook. Up the stairs, to her own room again, Mrs. Blake was being led by +Marion Ray's encircling arm. Three women were speedily closeted there, +for Mrs. Dade was like an elder sister to these two sworn friends, and, +not until Mrs. Dade and they were ready, did that lady descend the +stairs and communicate the facts to the excited gathering in the parlor, +and they in turn to those on the porch in front. By this time Flint +himself, with the poet quartermaster, was on hand, and all Fort Frayne +seemed to rouse, and Mrs. Gregg had come with Mrs. Wilkins, and these +two had relieved the doctor of the care of the cook, now talking +volubly; and, partly through her revelations, but mainly through the +more coherent statements of Mrs. Dade, were the facts made public. +Margaret, the cook, had a room to herself on the ground floor adjoining +her kitchen. Belle, the maid, had been given the second floor back, in +order to be near to her young mistress. Bitzer, the Blakes' +man-of-all-work,--like McGann, a discharged soldier,--slept in the +basement at the back of the house, and there was he found, blinking, +bewildered and only with difficulty aroused from stupor by a wrathful +sergeant. The cook's story, in brief, was that she was awakened by Mrs. +Blake's voice at her door and, thinking Belle was sick, she jumped up +and found Mrs. Blake in her wrapper, asking was she, Margaret, up stairs +a moment before. Then Mrs. Blake, with her candle, went into the dining +room, and out jumped a man in his stocking feet from the captain's den +across the hall, and knocked over Mrs. Blake and the light, and made for +her, the cook; whereat she screamed and slammed her door in his face, +and that was really all she knew about it. + +But Mrs. Blake knew more. Awakened by some strange consciousness of +stealthy movement about the house, she called Belle by name, thinking +possibly the girl might be ill and seeking medicine. There was sound of +more movement, but no reply. Mrs. Blake's girlhood had been spent on the +frontier. She was a stranger to fear. She arose; struck a light and, +seeing no one in her room or the guest chamber and hallway, hastened to +the third room, and was surprised to find Belle apparently quietly +sleeping. Then she decided to look about the house and, first, went down +and roused the cook. As she was coming out of the dining room, a man +leaped past her in the hall, hurling her to one side and dashing out the +light. Her back was toward him, for he came from Gerald's own premises +known as the den. In that den, directly opposite, was one of her +revolvers, loaded. She found it, even in the darkness and, hurrying +forth again, intending to chase the intruder and alarm the sentry at the +rear, encountered either the same or a second man close to the back +door, a man who sprang past her like a panther and darted down the +steps at the back of the house, followed by two shots from her Smith & +Wesson. One of these men wore a soldier's overcoat, for the cape, ripped +from the collar seam, was left in her hands. Another soldier's overcoat +was later found at the rear fence, but no boots, shoes or tracks +thereof, yet both these men, judging from the sound, had been in +stocking feet, or possibly rubbers, or perhaps--but that last suspicion +she kept to herself, for Mrs. Hay, too, was now among the arrivals in +the house, full of sympathy and genuine distress. The alarm, then, had +gone beyond the guard-house, and the creators thereof beyond the ken of +the guard, for not a sentry had seen or heard anything suspicious until +after the shots; then Number 8, Flint's latest addition, declared that +from his post at Hay's corral he had distinctly heard the swift +hoofbeats of a brace of ponies darting up the level bench to the +westward. Number 5 had turned up safely, and declared that at the moment +the scream was heard he was round by the flagstaff, listening to the +night chorus of a pack of yelping coyotes, afar out to the northwest, +and then he thought he heard scrambling and running down at the foot of +the bluff just as the shots were fired. Investigation on his part was +what took him out of sight for the moment, and later investigation +showed that one marauder, at least, had gone that way, for a capeless +greatcoat was found close down by the shore, where some fugitive had +tossed it in his flight. This overcoat bore, half erased from the soiled +lining, the name of Culligan, Troop "K;" but Culligan had served out +his time and taken his discharge a year before. The other overcoat was +even older, an infantry coat, with shorter cape, bearing a company +number "47," but no name. Both garments savored strongly of the stable. + +Then, before quiet was restored, certain search was made about the +quarters. It was found the intruders had obtained admission through the +basement door at the back, which was never locked, for the sentry on +Number 5 had orders to call Bitzer at 5:30 A. M., to start the fires, +milk the cow, etc.,--Hogan, Ray's factotum, being roused about the same +time. The marauders had gone up the narrow stairway into the kitchen, +first lashing one end of a leather halter-strap about the knob of +Bitzer's door and the other to the base of the big refrigerator,--a +needless precaution, as it took sustained and determined effort, as many +a sentry on Number 5 could testify, to rouse Bitzer from even a nap. + +It was no trick for the prowlers to softly raise the trap door leading +to the kitchen, and, once there, the rest of the house was practically +open. Such a thing as burglary or sneak thieving about the officers' +quarters had been unheard of at Frayne for many a year. One precaution +the visitors had taken, that of unbolting the back door, so that retreat +might not be barred in case they were discovered. Then they had gone +swiftly and noiselessly about their work. + +But what had they taken? The silver was upstairs, intact, under Mrs. +Blake's bed; so was the little safe in which was kept her jewelry and +their valuable papers. Books, bric-a-brac,--everything down +stairs--seemed unmolested. No item was missing from its accustomed +place. Mrs. Blake thought perhaps the intruders had not entered her room +at all. In Gerald's den were "stacks," as he said, of relics, souvenirs, +trophies of chase and war, but no one thing of the intrinsic value of +fifty dollars. What could have been the object of their midnight search? +was the question all Fort Frayne was asking as people dispersed and went +home,--the doctor intimating it was high time that Mrs. Blake was +permitted to seek repose. Not until he had practically cleared the house +of all but her most intimate friends, Mrs. Dade and Mrs. Ray, would +Waller permit himself to ask a question that had been uppermost in his +mind ever since he heard her story. + +"Mrs. Blake, someone has been ransacking Mr. Field's quarters for +letters or papers. Now,--was there anything of that kind left by the +captain that--someone may have needed?" + +Nannie Blake's head was uplifted instantly from Marion's shoulder. She +had been beginning to feel the reaction. For one moment the three women +looked intently into each other's faces. Then up they started and +trooped away into Gerald's den. The doctor followed. The upper drawer of +a big, flat-topped desk stood wide open, and pretty Mrs. Blake opened +her eyes and mouth in emulation as she briefly exclaimed-- + +"It's gone!" + +Then Waller went forthwith to the quarters of the commander and caught +him still in conference with his quartermaster and the guard, four or +five of the latter being grouped without. The major retired to his front +room, where, with Wilkins, he received the doctor. + +"Major Flint," said Waller, "those overcoats belong to Mr. Hay's +stablemen,--Pete and Crapaud. Will you order their immediate arrest?" + +"I would, doctor," was the answer, "but they are not at the corral. We +know how to account for the hoofbeats in the valley. Those scoundrels +have got nearly an hour's start, and we've nobody to send in chase." + +Then it presently appeared that the post commander desired to continue +conference with his staff officer, for he failed to invite the post +surgeon to be seated. Indeed, he looked up into the doctor's kindling +eyes with odd mixture of impatience and embarrassment in his own, and +the veteran practitioner felt the slight, flushed instantly, and, with +much _hauteur_ of manner, took prompt but ceremonious leave. + +And when morning came and Fort Frayne awoke to another busy day, as if +the excitements of the night gone by had not been enough for it, a new +story went buzzing, with the first call for guard mount, about the +garrison; and, bigger even than yesterday, the two details, in soldier +silence, began to gather in front of the infantry quarters. Major Flint +had ordered sentries posted at the trader's home, with directions that +Mrs. Hay was not to be allowed outside her gate, and no one, man or +woman, permitted to approach her from without except by express +permission of the post commander. "General Harney" and "Dan," the two +best horses of the trader's stable, despite the presence of the sentry +at the front, had been abstracted sometime during the earlier hours of +the night, and later traced to the ford at Stabber's old camp, and with +Pete and Crapaud, doubtless, were gone. + +That day the major wired to Omaha that he should be reinforced at once. +One half his little force, he said, was now mounted each day for guard, +and the men couldn't stand it. The general, of course, was in the field, +but his chief of staff remained at headquarters and was empowered to +order troops from post to post within the limits of the department. +Flint hoped two more companies could come at once, and he did not care +what post was denuded in his favor. His, he said, was close to the +Indian lands,--separated from them, in fact, only by a narrow and +fordable river. The Indians were all on the warpath and, aware of his +puny numbers, might be tempted at any moment to quit the mountains and +concentrate on him. Moreover, he was satisfied there had been frequent +communication between their leaders and the household of the post trader +at Fort Frayne. He was sure Mrs. Hay had been giving them valuable +information, and he expected soon to be able to prove very serious +charges against her. Meantime, he had placed her under surveillance. +(_That_ she had been ever since his coming, although she never realized +it.) Fancy the sensation created at Omaha, where the Hays were well +known, when this news was received! Flint did not say "under arrest," +guarded day and night by a brace of sentries who were sorely disgusted +with their duty. He had no doubt his appeals for more troops would be +honored, in view of his strenuous representations, but the day passed +without assurance to that effect and without a wired word to say his +action regarding Mrs. Hay had been approved. It began to worry him. At 3 +P. M. Mrs. Hay sent and begged him to call upon her that she might +assure and convince him of her innocence. But this the major found means +to refuse, promising, however a meeting in the near future, after he had +received tidings from the front, which he was awaiting and expecting +every moment. He had reluctantly given permission to visit her to Mrs. +Dade, Mrs. Ray and two or three other women whose hearts were filled +with sympathy and sorrow, and their heads with bewilderment, over the +amazing order. Indeed, it was due to Mrs. Dade's advice that she so far +triumphed over pride and wrath as to ask to see the major and explain. +She had received tidings from her husband and Nanette. She was perfectly +willing to admit it,--to tell all about it,--and, now that Pete and +Crapaud had turned out to be such unmitigated rascals, to have them +caught and castigated, if caught they could be. But all this involved no +disloyalty. They had always been friendly with the Sioux and the Sioux +with them. Everybody knew it;--no one better than General Crook himself, +and if he approved why should a junior disapprove? Indeed, as she asked +her friends, what junior who had ever known Mr. Hay and her, or the +Indians either, would be apt to disapprove so long as the Indians, when +on the warpath, received no aid or comfort from either her husband or +herself? "And if they had," said she, further, waxing eloquent over her +theme, "could we have _begun_ to give them half the aid or comfort--or a +thousandth part of the supplies and ammunition--they got day after day +through the paid agents of the Interior Department?" + +But these were questions army people could not properly discuss,--their +mission in life being rather to submit to, than suggest, criticism. + +And so another restless day went by and no more news came from either +front or rear--from the range to the north or Rock Springs at the south, +and Flint was just formulating another fervid appeal to that impassive +functionary, the adjutant general at Omaha, when toward evening word +came whistling down the line in the person of Master Sanford Ray, that +two couriers were in sight "scooting" in from Moccasin Ridge, and Flint +and fully half the soldier strength of Fort Frayne gathered on the +northward bluff like the "wan burghers" of ancient Rome, to watch and +speed their coming. Who could tell what the day might yet bring forth? + +It was well nigh dark before the foremost reached the ford--a scout in +worn and tawdry buckskin, wearied and impassive. He gave his despatch to +the care of the first officer to accost him and took the way to the +store, briefly saying in reply to questions, that he was "too dry to +speak the truth." So they flocked, at respectful distance, about the +major as he read the hurried lines. The general bade the post commander +wire the entire message to Washington, and to take all precautions for +the protection of the few settlers about him. The columns under Colonel +Henry and Major Webb had united near the head waters of the Clear Fork +of the Powder; had had a rattling running fight with Lame Wolf's people; +had driven them into the mountains and were following hot on the trail, +but that Stabber's band and certain disaffected Sioux had cut loose from +the main body and gone south. Whistling Elk, a young chief of much +ambition had quarrelled with certain of the Red Cloud element, and +joined Stabber, with his entire band. "Look out for them and watch for +signals any day or night from Eagle Butte." + +Flint read with sinking heart. Indian fighting was something far too +scientific for his martial education and too much for his skeleton +command. In the gathering dusk his face looked white and drawn, and old +Wilkins, breasting his way up the slope, puffed hard, as he begged for +news. There was still another despatch, however, which was evidently +adding to the major's perturbation, for it concerned him personally and +for the moment Wilkins went unheard. + + The general desires that you send the couriers back within + twenty-four hours of their arrival, after you have had time to + scout the line of the Platte say twenty miles each way, giving full + report of every Indian seen or heard of. He enjoins vigilance and + hopes to keep the Sioux so busy that they can send no more in your + direction. Should they do so, however, he will pursue at once. He + trusts that you are doing everything possible to comfort and + reassure Mrs. Hay, and that you can send good news of Lieutenant + Field. + +And this when he had just refused to remove the sentries or to visit +Mrs. Hay:--this when he had just been told by Dr. Waller that Lieutenant +Field was distinctly worse. + +"He is simply fretting his heart out here," were the doctor's words to +him but a short time before, "and, while unable to mount a horse, he is +quite strong enough now to take the trip by ambulance, slowly, that is, +to Rock Springs. I fear his father is failing. I fear Field will fail if +not allowed to go. I recommend a seven days' leave, with permission to +apply to Omaha for thirty--he'll probably need it." + +"I can't permit government teams and ambulances to be used for any such +purpose," said the major, stoutly. "It is distinctly against orders." + +"Then, sir, he can go in my spring wagon and we'll hire mules from Mrs. +Hay," was the doctor's prompt reply. "He can do no good here, major. He +may do much good there." + +But Flint was full of information and official zeal. The matter of +Field's going had been broached before, and, when told of it, the +Wilkins pair had been prompt with their protests. "Of course he'd be +wantin' to get away," said Wilkins, "wid all that money to account for, +let alone these other things." The Irishman was hot against the young +West Pointer who had derided him. He doubtless believed his own words. +He never dreamed how sorely the lad now longed to see his father,--how +deep was his anxiety on that father's account,--how filled with +apprehension on his own, for that rifled desk had brought him reason for +most painful thought. Wilkins and Field had been antagonistic from the +start. Neither could see good in the other and, egged on by his worthy +spouse's exhortations, the quartermaster had seized the opportunity to +fill the post commander's too receptive mind with all his own +suspicions--and this at a crucial time. + +"I can't listen to it, Dr. Waller," said the major, sternly. "Here's a +matter of near a thousand dollars that young man has got to answer for +the moment he is well enough to stir. And if he can't account for +it--you well know what my duty will demand." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A SLAP FOR THE MAJOR + + +The columns of Colonel Henry and Major Webb, as said "the Chief," had +united, and here were two men who could be counted on to push the +pursuit "for all they were worth." Hitherto, acting in the open country +and free from encumbrance, the Indians had been hard to reach. Now they +were being driven into their fastnesses among the mountains toward the +distant shelter whither their few wounded had been conveyed, and where +the old men, the women and children were in hiding. Now it meant that, +unless the troops could be confronted and thrown back, another transfer +of tepees and _travois_, ponies and dogs, wounded and aged would have to +be made. Lame Wolf had thought his people safe behind the walls of the +Big Horn and the shifting screen of warriors along the foothills, but +the blue skirmish lines pushed steadily on into the fringing pines, +driving the feathered braves from ridge to ridge, and Lame Wolf had +sense enough to see that here were leaders that "meant business" and +would not be held. Henry had ten veteran troops at his back when he +united with Webb, who led his own and the Beecher squadron, making +eighteen companies, or troops, of Horse, with their pack mules, all out +at the front, while the wagon train and ambulances were thoroughly +guarded by a big battalion of sturdy infantry, nearly all of them good +marksmen, against whose spiteful Springfields the warriors made only one +essay in force, and that was more than enough. The blue coats emptied +many an Indian saddle and strewed the prairie with ponies, and sent +Whistling Elk and his people to the right about in sore dismay, and then +it dawned on Lame Wolf that he must now either mislead the cavalry +leader,--throw him off the track, as it were,--or move the villages, +wounded, prisoners and all across the Big Horn river, where hereditary +foemen, Shoshone and Absaraka, would surely welcome them red-handed. + +It was at this stage of the game he had his final split with Stabber. +Stabber was shrewd, and saw unerringly that with other columns out--from +Custer on the Little Horn and Washakie on the Wind River,--with +reinforcements coming from north and south, the surrounding of the Sioux +in arms would be but a matter of time. He had done much to get Lame Wolf +into the scrape and now was urging hateful measures as, unless they were +prepared for further and heavier losses, the one way out, and that way +was--surrender. + +Now, this is almost the last thing the Indian will do. Not from fear of +consequences at the hands of his captors, for he well knows that, +physically, he is infinitely better off when being coddled by Uncle Sam +than when fighting in the field. It is simply the loss of _prestige_ +among his fellow red men that he hates and dreads. Therefore, nothing +short of starvation or probable annihilation prompts him, as a rule, to +yield himself a prisoner. Stabber urged it rather than risk further +battle and further loss, but Stabber had long been jealous of the +younger chief, envied him his much larger following and his record as a +fighter, and Stabber, presumably, would be only too glad to see him +fallen from his high estate. They could then enjoy the hospitality of a +generous nation (a people of born fools, said the unreasoning and +unregenerate red man) all winter, and, when next they felt sufficiently +slighted to warrant another issue on the warpath, they could take the +field on equal terms. Lame Wolf, therefore, swore he'd fight to the +bitter end. Stabber swore he'd gather all his villagers, now herding +with those of Wolf; and, having segregated his sheep from the more +numerous goats, would personally lead them whither the white man could +not follow. At all events he made this quarrel the pretext for his +withdrawal with full five score fighting men, and Lame Wolf cursed him +roundly as the wretch deserved and, all short-handed now, with hardly +five hundred braves to back him, bent his energies to checking Henry's +column in the heart of the wild hill country. + +And this was the situation when the general's first despatches were sent +in to Frayne,--this the last news to reach the garrison from the distant +front for five long days, and then one morning, when the snow was +sifting softly down, there came tidings that thrilled the little +community, heart and soul--tidings that were heard with mingled tears +and prayers and rejoicings, and that led to many a visit of +congratulation to Mrs. Hay, who, poor woman, dare not say at the moment +that she had known it all as much as twenty-four hours earlier, despite +the fact that Pete and Crapaud were banished from the roll of her +auxiliaries. + +Even as the new couriers came speeding through the veil of falling +flakes, riding jubilantly over the wide-rolling prairie with their news +of victory and battle, the post commander at Fort Frayne was puzzling +over a missive that had come to him, he knew not how, mysterious as the +anarchists' warnings said to find their way to the very bedside of the +guarded Romanoffs. Sentry Number 4 had picked it up on his post an hour +before the dawn--a letter addressed in bold hand to Major Stanley Flint, +commanding Fort Frayne, and, presuming the major himself had dropped it, +he turned it over to the corporal of his relief, and so it found its way +toward reveille into the hands of old McGann, wheezing about his work of +building fires, and Michael laid it on the major's table and thought no +more about it until two hours later, when the major roused and read, and +then a row began that ended only with the other worries of his +incumbency at Frayne. + +Secretly Flint was still doing his best to discover the bearer when came +the bold riders from the north with their thrilling news. Secretly, he +had been over at the guard-house interviewing as best he could, by the +aid of an unwilling clerk who spoke a little Sioux, a young Indian girl +whom Crabb's convalescent squad, four in number, had most unexpectedly +run down when sent scouting five miles up the Platte, and brought, +screaming, scratching and protesting back to Frayne. Her pony had been +killed in the dash to escape, and the two Indians with her seemed to be +young lads not yet well schooled as warriors, for they rode away +pellmell over the prairie, leaving the girl to the mercy of the +soldiers. Flint believed her to be connected in some way with the coming +of the disturbing note, which was why he compelled her detention at the +guard-house. Under Webb's _regime_ she would have been questioned by +Hay, or some one of his household. Under Flint, no one of Hay's family +or retainers could be allowed to see her. He regarded it as most +significant that her shrillest screams and fiercest resistance should +have been reserved until just as her guardians were bearing her past the +trader's house. She had the little light prison room to herself all that +wintry morning, and there, disdainful of bunk or chair, enveloped in her +blanket, she squatted disconsolate, greeting all questioners with +defiant and fearless shruggings and inarticulate protest. Not a syllable +of explanation, not a shred of news could their best endeavors wring +from her. Yet her glittering eyes were surely in search of some one, for +she looked up eagerly every time the door was opened, and Flint was just +beginning to think he would have to send for Mrs. Hay when the couriers +came with their stirring news and he had to drop other affairs in order +to forward this important matter to headquarters. + +Once again, it seems, Trooper Kennedy had been entrusted with +distinguished duty, for it was he who came trotting foremost up the +road, waving his despatch on high. A comrade from Blake's troop, +following through the ford, had turned to the left and led his horse up +the steep to the quarters nearest the flagstaff. This time there was no +big-hearted post commander to bid the Irishman refresh himself _ad +libitum_. Flint was alone at his office at the moment, and knew not this +strange trooper, and looked askance at his heterodox garb and war-worn +guise. Such laxity, said he to himself, was not permitted where _he_ had +hitherto served, which was never on Indian campaign. Kennedy, having +delivered his despatches, stood mutely expectant of question and +struggling with an Irishman's enthusiastic eagerness to tell the details +of heady fight. But Flint had but one method of getting at facts--the +official reports--and Kennedy stood unnoticed until, impatient at last, +he queried:-- + +"Beg pardon, sir, but may we put up our horses?" + +"Who's we?" asked the major, bluntly. "And where are the others?" + +"Trigg, sir--Captain Blake's troop. He went to the captain's quarters +with a package." + +"He should have reported himself first to the post commander," said the +major, who deemed it advisable to make prompt impression on these savage +hunters of savage game. + +"Thim wasn't his ordhers, surr," said Kennedy, with zealous, but +misguided loyalty to his comrades and his regiment. + +"No one has a right, sir, to give orders that are contrary in spirit to +the regulations and customs of the service," answered the commander, +with proper austerity. "Mr. Wilkins," he continued, as the burly +quartermaster came bustling in, "have the other trooper sent to report +at once to me and let this man wait outside till I am ready to see him." + +And so it happened that a dozen members of the garrison gathered, from +the lips of a participant, stirring particulars of a spirited chase and +fight that set soldiers to cheering and women and children to +extravagant scenes of rejoicing before the official head of the garrison +was fairly ready to give out the news. Kennedy had taken satisfaction +for the commander's slights by telling the tidings broadcast to the +crowd that quickly gathered, and, in three minutes, the word was flying +from lip to lip that the troops had run down Lame Wolf's main village +after an all day, all night rush to head them off, and that with very +small loss they had been able to capture many of the families and to +scatter the warriors among the hills. In brief, while Henry, with the +main body, had followed the trail of the fighting band, Webb had been +detached and, with two squadrons, had ridden hard after a Shoshone guide +who led them by a short cut through the range and enabled them to pounce +on the village where were most of Lame Wolf's noncombatants, guarded +only by a small party of warriors, and, while Captains Billings and Ray +with their troops remained in charge of these captives, Webb, with Blake +and the others had pushed on in pursuit of certain braves who had +scampered into the thick of the hills, carrying a few of the wounded and +prisoners with them. Among those captured, or recaptured, were Mr. Hay +and Crapaud. Among those who had been spirited away was Nanette Flower. +This seemed strange and unaccountable. + +And yet Blake had found time to write to his winsome wife,--to send her +an important missive and most important bit of news. It was with these +she came running in to Mrs. Ray before the latter had time to half read +the long letter received from her soldier husband, and we take the facts +in the order of their revelation. + +"Think of it, Maidie!" she cried. "Think of it! Gerald's first words, +almost, are 'Take good care of that pouch and contents,' and now pouch +and contents are gone! Whoever dreamed that they would be of such +consequence? He says the newspaper will explain." + +And presently the two bonny heads were bent over the big sheets of a +dingy, grimy copy of a Philadelphia daily, and there, on an inner page, +heavily marked, appeared a strange item, and this Quaker City journal +had been picked up in an Ogalalla camp. The item read as follows: + + AN UNTAMED SIOUX + + The authorities of the Carlisle School and the police of Harrisburg + are hunting high and low for a young Indian known to the records of + the Academy as Ralph Moreau, but borne on the payrolls of Buffalo + Bill's Wild West aggregation as Eagle Wing--a youth who is credited + with having given the renowned scout-showman more trouble than all + his braves, bronchos and "busters" thereof combined. Being of + superb physique and a daring horseman, Moreau had been forgiven + many a peccadillo, and had followed the fortunes of the show two + consecutive summers until Cody finally had to get rid of him as an + intolerable nuisance. + + It seems that when a lad of eighteen, "Eagle Wing" had been sent to + Carlisle, where he ran the gamut of scrapes of every conceivable + kind. He spoke English picked up about the agencies; had + influential friends and, in some clandestine way, received + occasional supplies of money that enabled him to take French leave + when he felt like it. He was sent back from Carlisle to Dakota as + irreclaimable, and after a year or two on his native heath, + reappeared among the haunts of civilization as one of Buffalo + Bill's warriors. Bill discharged him at Cincinnati and, at the + instance of the Indian Bureau, he was again placed at Carlisle, + only to repeat on a larger scale his earlier exploits and secure a + second transfer to the Plains, where his opportunities for + devilment were limited. Then Cody was induced to take him on again + by profuse promises of good behavior, which were kept until + Pennsylvania soil was reached two weeks ago, when he broke loose + again; was seen in store clothes around West Philadelphia for a few + days, plentifully supplied with money, and next he turned up in the + streets of Carlisle, where he assaulted an attache of the school, + whose life was barely saved by the prompt efforts of other Indian + students. Moreau escaped to Harrisburg, which he proceeded to paint + his favorite color that very night, and wound up the entertainment + by galloping away on the horse of a prominent official, who had + essayed to escort him back to Carlisle. It is believed that he is + now in hiding somewhere about the suburbs, and that an innate + propensity for devilment will speedily betray him to the clutches + of the law. + +A few moments after reading this oddly interesting story the two friends +were in consultation with Mrs. Dade, who, in turn, called in Dr. Waller, +just returning from the hospital and a not too satisfactory visit to Mr. +Field. There had been a slight change for the better in the condition of +General Field that had enabled Dr. Lorain of Fort Russell and a local +physician to arrange for his speedy transfer to Cheyenne. This had in a +measure relieved the anxiety of Waller's patient, but never yet had the +veteran practitioner permitted him to know that he was practically a +prisoner as well as a patient. Waller feared the result on so +high-strung a temperament, and had made young Field believe that, when +strong and well enough to attempt the journey, he should be sent to Rock +Springs. Indeed, Dr. Waller had no intention of submitting to Major +Flint's decision as final. He had written personally to the medical +director of the department, acquainting him with the facts, and, +meanwhile, had withdrawn himself as far as possible, officially and +socially, from the limited circle in which moved his perturbed +commanding officer. + +He was at a distant point of the garrison, therefore, and listening to +the excited and vehement comments of the younger of the three women upon +this strange newspaper story, and its possible connection with matters +at Frayne, at the moment when a dramatic scene was being enacted over +beyond the guard-house. + +Kennedy was still the center of a little group of eager listeners when +Pink Marble, factotum of the trader's store, came hurrying forth from +the adjutant's office, speedily followed by Major Flint. "You may tell +Mrs. Hay that while I cannot permit her to visit the prisoner," he +called after the clerk, "I will send the girl over--under suitable +guard." + +To this Mr. Marble merely shrugged his shoulders and went on. He fancied +Flint no more than did the relics of the original garrison. A little +later Flint personally gave an order to the sergeant of the guard and +then came commotion. + +First there were stifled sounds of scuffle from the interior of the +guard-house; then shrill, wrathful screams; then a woman's voice +unlifted in wild upbraidings in an unknown tongue, at sound of which +Trooper Kennedy dropped his rein and his jaw, stood staring one minute; +then, with the exclamation: "Mother of God, but I know that woman!" +burst his way through the crowd and ran toward the old log blockhouse at +the gate,--the temporary post of the guard. Just as he turned the corner +of the building, almost stumbling against the post commander, there came +bursting forth from the dark interior a young woman of the Sioux, +daring, furious, raging, and, breaking loose from the grasp of the two +luckless soldiers who had her by the arms, away she darted down the +road, still screaming like some infuriated child, and rushed straight +for the open gateway of the Hays. Of course the guard hastened in +pursuit, the major shouting "Stop her! Catch her!" and the men striving +to appear to obey, yet shirking the feat of seizing the fleeing woman. +Fancy, then, the amaze of the swiftly following spectators when the +trader's front door was thrown wide open and Mrs. Hay herself sprang +forth. Another instant and the two women had met at the gate. Another +instant still, and, with one motherly arm twining about the quivering, +panting, pleading girl and straining her to the motherly heart, Mrs. +Hay's right hand and arm flew up in the superb gesture known the wide +frontier over as the Indian signal "Halt!" And halt they did, every +mother's son save Kennedy, who sprang to the side of the girl and faced +the men in blue. And then another woman's voice, rich, deep, ringing, +powerful, fell on the ears of the amazed, swift-gathering throng, with +the marvellous order: "Stand where you are! You shan't touch a hair of +her head! She's a chief's daughter. She's my own kin and I'll answer for +her to the general himself. As for you," she added, turning now and +glaring straight at the astounded Flint, all the pent-up sense of wrath, +indignity, shame and wrong overmastering any thought of prudence or of +"the divinity that doth hedge" the commanding officer, "As for you," she +cried, "I pity you when our own get back again! God help you, Stanley +Flint, the moment my husband sets eyes on you. D'you know the message +that came to him this day?" And now the words rang louder and clearer, +as she addressed the throng. "_I_ do, and so do officers and gentlemen +who'd be shamed to have to shake hands with such as he. He's got my +husband's note about him now, and what my husband wrote was this--'I +charge myself with every dollar you charge to Field, and with the +further obligation of thrashing you on sight'--and, mark you, he'll do +it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE SIOUX SURROUNDED + + +In the hush of the wintry night, under a leaden sky, with snowflakes +falling thick and fast and mantling the hills in fleecy white, Webb's +column had halted among the sturdy pines, the men exchanging muttered, +low-toned query and comment, the horses standing with bowed heads, +occasionally pawing the soft coverlet and sniffing curiously at this +filmy barrier to the bunch grass they sought in vain. They had feasted +together, these comrade troopers and chargers, ere the sun went +down,--the men on abundant rations of agency bacon, flour and brown +sugar, found with black tailed deer and mountain sheep in abundance in +the captured village, and eked out by supplies from the pack train,--the +horses on big "blankets" of oats set before them by sympathetic friends +and masters. Then, when the skies were fairly dark, Webb had ordered +little fires lighted all along the bank of the stream, leaving the men +of Ray's and Billings' troops to keep them blazing through the long +night watches to create the impression among the lurking Sioux that the +whole force was still there, guarding the big village it had captured in +the early afternoon, and then, in silence, the troopers had saddled and +jogged away into the heart of the hills, close on the heels of their +guides. + +There had been little time to look over the captures. The main interest +of both officers and men, of course, centred in Mr. Hay, who was found +in one of the tepees, prostrate from illness and half frantic from fever +and strong mental excitement. He had later tidings from Frayne, it +seems, than had his rescuers. He could assure them of the health and +safety of their wives and little ones, but would not tell them what was +amiss in his own household. One significant question he asked: Did any +of them know this new Major Flint? No? Well, God help Flint, if ever he, +Hay, got hold of him. + +"He's delirious," whispered Webb, and rode away in that conviction, +leaving him to Ray and Billings. + +Three miles out, on the tortuous trail of the pursued, the column halted +and dismounted among the pines. Then there was brief conference, and the +word "Mount" was whispered along the Beecher squadron, while Blake's men +stood fast. With a parting clasp of the hand Webb and "Legs" had +returned to the head of their respective commands, "Legs" and his +fellows to follow steadily the Indian trail through the twisting ravines +of the foothills; Webb to make an all-night forced march, in wide +_detour_ and determined effort, to head off the escaping warriors before +they could reach the rocky fastnesses back of Bear Cliff. Webb's chief +scout "Bat," chosen by General Crook himself, had been a captive among +the Sioux through long years of his boyhood, and knew the Big Horn +range as Webb did the banks of the Wabash. "They can stand off a +thousand soldiers," said the guide, "if once they get into the rocks. +They'd have gone there first off only there was no water. Now there's +plenty snow." + +So Blake's instructions were to follow them without pushing, to let them +feel they were being pursued, yet by no means to hasten them, and, if +the general's favorite scout proved to be all he promised as guide and +pathfinder, Webb might reasonably hope by dint of hard night riding, to +be first at the tryst at break of day. Then they would have the +retreating Sioux, hampered by their few wounded and certain prisoners +whom they prized, hemmed between rocky heights on every side, and sturdy +horsemen front and rear. + +It was eight by the watch at the parting of the ways. It was 8:30 when +Blake retook the trail, with Sergeants Schreiber and Winsor, the latter +borrowed from Ray, far in the van. Even had the ground been hard and +stony these keen-eyed soldier scouts could have followed the signs +almost as unerringly as the Indians, for each had had long years of +experience all over the West; but, despite the steadily falling snow, +the traces of hoofs and, for a time, of _travois_ poles could be readily +seen and followed in the dim gray light of the blanketed skies. +Somewhere aloft, above the film of cloud, the silvery moon was shining, +and that was illumination more than enough for men of their years on the +trail. + +For over an hour Blake followed the windings of a ravine that grew +closer and steeper as it burrowed into the hills. Old game trails are as +good as turnpikes in the eyes of the plainsman. It was when the ravine +began to split into branches that the problem might have puzzled them, +had not the white fleece lain two inches deep on the level when "Lo" +made his dash to escape. Now the rough edges of the original impression +were merely rounded over by the new fallen snow. The hollows and ruts +and depressions led on from one deep cleft into another, and by midnight +Blake felt sure the quarry could be but a few miles ahead and Bear Cliff +barely five hours' march away. So, noiselessly, the signal "Halt!" went +rearward down the long, dark, sinuous column of twos, and every man +slipped out of saddle--some of them stamping, so numb were their feet. +With every mile the air had grown keener and colder. They were glad when +the next word whispered was, "Lead on" instead of "Mount." + +By this time they were far up among the pine-fringed heights, with the +broad valley of the Big Horn lying outspread to the west, invisible as +the stars above, and neither by ringing shot nor winged arrow had the +leaders known the faintest check. It seemed as though the Indians, in +their desperate effort to carry off the most important or valued of +their charges, were bending all their energies to expediting the +retreat. Time enough to turn on the pursuers when once the rocks had +closed about them,--when the wounded were safe in the fastnesses, and +the pursuers far from supports. But, at the foot of a steep ascent, the +two leading scouts,--rival sergeants of rival troops but devoted friends +for nearly twenty years,--were seen by the next in column, a single +corporal following them at thirty yards' distance, to halt and begin +poking at some dark object by the wayside. Then they pushed on again. A +dead pony, under a quarter inch coverlet of snow, was what met the eyes +of the silently trudging command as it followed. The high-peaked wooden +saddle tree was still "cinched" to the stiffening carcass. Either the +Indians were pushed for time or overstocked with saddlery. Presently +there came a low whistle from the military "middleman" between the +scouts and a little advance guard. "Run ahead," growled the sergeant +commanding to his boy trumpeter. "Give me your reins." And, leaving his +horse, the youngster stumbled along up the winding trail; got his +message and waited. "Give this to the captain," was the word sent back +by Schreiber, and "this" was a mitten of Indian tanned buckskin, soft +and warm if unsightly, a mitten too small for a warrior's hand, if ever +warrior deigned to wear one,--a mitten the captain examined curiously, +as he ploughed ahead of his main body, and then returned to his +subaltern with a grin on his face: + +"Beauty draws us with a single hair," said he, "and can't shake us even +when she gives us the mitten. Ross," he added, after a moment's thought, +"remember this. With this gang there are two or three sub-chiefs that we +should get, alive or dead, but the chief end of man, so far as 'K' +Troop's concerned, is to capture that girl, unharmed." + +And just at dawn, so gray and wan and pallid it could hardly be told +from the pale moonlight of the earlier hours, the dark, snake-like +column was halted again, nine miles further in among the wooded heights. +With Bear Cliff still out of range and sight, something had stopped the +scouts, and Blake was needed at the front. He found Schreiber crouching +at the foot of a tree, gazing warily forward along a southward-sloping +face of the mountain that was sparsely covered with tall, straight +pines, and that faded into mist a few hundred yards away. The +trail,--the main trail, that is,--seemed to go straight away eastward, +and, for a short distance, downward through a hollow or depression; +while, up the mountain side to the left, the north, following the spur +or shoulder, there were signs as of hoof tracks, half sheeted by the +new-fallen snow, and through this fresh, fleecy mantlet ploughed the +trooper boots in rude, insistent pursuit. The sergeants' horses were +held by a third soldier a few yards back behind the spur, for Winsor was +"side scouting" up the heights. + +The snowfall had ceased for a time. The light was growing broader every +moment, and presently a soft whistle sounded somewhere up the steep, and +Schreiber answered. "He wants us, sir," was all he said, and in five +minutes they had found him, sprawled on his stomach on a projecting +ledge, and pointing southeastward, where, boldly outlined against the +gray of the morning sky, a black and beetling precipice towered from +the mist-wreathed pines at its base. Bear Cliff beyond a doubt! + +"How far, sergeant?" asked the captain, never too reliant on his powers +of judging distance. + +"Five miles, sir, at least; yet some three or four Indians have turned +off here and gone--somewhere up there." And, rolling half over, Winsor +pointed again toward a wooded bluff, perhaps three hundred feet higher +and half a mile away. "That's probably the best lookout this side of the +cliff itself!" he continued, in explanation, as he saw the puzzled look +on the captain's face. "From there, likely, they can see the trail over +the divide--the one Little Bat is leading the major and, if they've made +any time at all, the squadron should be at Bear Cliff now." + +They were crawling to him by this time, Blake and Schreiber, among the +stunted cedars that grew thickly along the rocky ledge. Winsor, flat +again on his stomach, sprawled like a squirrel close to the brink. Every +moment as the skies grew brighter the panorama before them became more +extensive, a glorious sweep of highland scenery, of boldly tossing +ridges east and south and west--the slopes all mantled, the trees all +tipped, with nature's ermine, and studded now with myriad gems, taking +fire at the first touch of the day god's messenger, as the mighty king +himself burst his halo of circling cloud and came peering over the low +curtain far at the eastward horizon. Chill and darkness and shrouding +vapor vanished all in a breath as he rose, dominant over countless +leagues of wild, unbroken, yet magnificent mountain landscape. + +"Worth every hour of watch and mile of climb!" muttered Blake. "But it's +Indians, not scenery, we're after. What are we here for, Winsor?" and +narrowly he eyed Ray's famous right bower. + +"If the major got there first, sir,--and I believe he did,--they have to +send the prisoners and wounded back this way." + +"Then we've got 'em!" broke in Schreiber, low-toned, but exultant. "Look +sir," he added, as he pointed along the range. "They are signalling +now." + +From the wooded height ten hundred yards away, curious little puffs of +smoke, one following another, were sailing straight for the zenith, and +Blake, screwing his field glasses to the focus, swept with them the +mountain side toward the five-mile distant cliff, and presently the +muscles about his mouth began to twitch--sure sign with Blake of +gathering excitement. + +"You're right, sergeant," he presently spoke, repressing the desire to +shout, and striving, lest Winsor should be moved to invidious +comparisons, to seem as _nonchalant_ as Billy Ray himself. "They're +coming back already." Then down the mountain side he dove to plan and +prepare appropriate welcome, leaving Winsor and the glasses to keep +double powered watch on the situation. + +Six-fifty of a glorious, keen November morning, and sixty troopers of +the old regiment were distributed along a spur that crossed, almost at +right angles, the line of the Indian trail. Sixty fur-capped, +rough-coated fellows, with their short brown carbines in hand, crouching +behind rocks and fallen trees, keeping close to cover and warned to +utter silence. Behind them, two hundred yards away, their horses were +huddled under charge of their disgusted guards, envious of their fellows +at the front, and cursing hard their luck in counting off as number +four. Schreiber had just come sliding, stumbling, down from Winsor's +perch to say they could hear faint sound of sharp volleying far out to +the eastward, where the warriors, evidently, were trying to "stand off" +Webb's skirmish line until the _travois_ with the wounded and the escort +of the possible prisoners should succeed in getting back out of harm's +way and taking surer and higher trail into the thick of the wilderness +back of Bear Cliff. "Some of 'em must come in sight here in a minute, +sir," panted the veteran sergeant. "We could see them plainly up +there--a mule litter and four _travois_, and there must be a dozen in +saddle." + +A dozen there were, for along the line of crouching men went sudden +thrill of excitement. Shoulders began to heave; nervous thumbs bore down +on heavy carbine hammers, and there was sound of irrepressible stir and +murmur. Out among the pines, five hundred yards away, two mounted +Indians popped suddenly into view, two others speedily following, their +well-nigh exhausted ponies feebly shaking their shaggy, protesting +heads, as their riders plied the stinging quirt or jabbed with cruel +lance; only in painful jog trot could they zig zag through the trees. +Then came two warriors, leading the pony of a crippled comrade. "Don't +fire--Don't harm them! Fall back from the trail there and let them in. +They'll halt the moment they see our tracks! Get 'em alive, if +possible!" were Blake's rapid orders, for his eyes were eagerly fixed on +other objects beyond these dejected leaders--upon stumbling mules, +lashed fore and aft between long, spliced saplings and bearing thus a +rude litter--Hay's pet wheelers turned to hospital use. An Indian boy, +mounted, led the foremost mule; another watched the second; while, on +each side of the occupant of this Sioux palanquin, jogged a blanketed +rider on jaded pony. Here was a personage of consequence--luckier much +than these others following, dragged along on _travois_ whose trailing +poles came jolting over stone or hummock along the rugged path. It was +on these that Blake's glittering eyes were fastened. "Pounce on the +leaders, you that are nearest!" he ordered, in low, telling tones, the +men at his left; then turned to Schreiber, crouching close beside him, +the fringe of his buckskin hunting shirt quivering over his bounding +heart. "There's the prize I want," he muttered low. "Whatever you do, +let no shot reach that litter. Charge with me the moment the leaders +yell. You men to the right," he added, slightly raising his voice, "be +ready to jump with me. Don't shoot anybody that doesn't show fight. Nab +everything in sight." + +[Illustration: "CHARGE WITH ME THE MOMENT THE LEADERS YELL."] + +"Whoo-oop!" All in a second the mountain woke, the welkin rang, to a +yell of warning from the lips of the leading Sioux. All in a second +they whirled their ponies about and darted back. All in that second +Blake and his nearmost sprang to their feet and flung themselves forward +straight for the startled convoy. In vain the few warriors bravely +rallied about their foremost wounded; the unwieldy litter could not turn +about; the frantic mules, crazed by the instant pandemonium of shouts +and shots,--the onward rush of charging men,--the awful screams of a +brace of squaws, broke from their leading reins; crashed with their +litter against the trees, hurling the luckless occupant to earth. Back +drove the unhit warriors before the dash of the cheering line. Down went +first one pony, then a second, in his bloody tracks. One after another, +litter, _travois_, wounded and prisoner, was clutched and seized by +stalwart hands, and Blake, panting not a little, found himself bending +staring over the prostrate form flung from the splintered wreck of the +litter, a form writhing in pain that forced no sound whatever from +between grimly clinching teeth, yet that baffled effort, almost superb, +to rise and battle still--a form magnificent in its proportions, yet +helpless through wounds and weakness. Not the form Blake thought to see, +of shrinking, delicate, dainty woman, but that of the furious warrior +who thrice had dared him on the open field--the red brave well known to +him by sight and deed within the moon now waning, but, only within the +day gone by, revealed to him as the renegade Ralph Moreau,--Eagle Wing +of the Ogalalla Sioux. + +Where then was Nanette? + +"Look out for this man, corporal!" he called, to a shouting young +trooper. "See that no harm comes to him." Then quickly he ran on to the +huddle of _travois_. Something assured him she could not be far away. +The first drag litter held another young warrior, sullen and speechless +like the foremost. The next bore a desperately wounded brave whose +bloodless lips were compressed in agony and dumb as those of the dead. +About these cowered, shivering and whimpering, two or three +terror-stricken squaws, one of them with a round-eyed pappoose staring +at her back. A pony lay struggling in the snow close by. Half a dozen +rough soldier hands were dragging a stricken rider from underneath. Half +a dozen more were striving to control the wild plungings of another +mettlesome little beast, whose rider, sitting firmly astride, lashed +first at his quivering flank and then at the fur gauntleted hands,--even +at the laughing, bearded faces--sure sign of another squaw, and a game +one. Far out to the front the crackle of carbine and rifle told that +Webb was driving the scattered braves before him,--that the comrade +squadron was coming their way,--that Bear Cliff had been sought by the +Sioux in vain,--that Indian wiles and strategy, Indian pluck and staying +power, all had more than met their match. Whatever the fate of Lame +Wolf's fighting force, now pressed by Henry's column, far in the +southward hills, here in sight of the broad Big Horn valley, the white +chief had struck a vital blow. Village, villagers, wounded and prisoners +were all the spoil of the hated soldiery. Here at the scene of Blake's +minor affair there appeared still in saddle just one undaunted, +unconquered amazon whose black eyes flashed through the woolen hood that +hid the rest of her face, whose lips had uttered as yet no sound, but +from whom two soldiers recoiled at the cry of a third. "Look at the hand +of her, fellers! It's whiter than mine!" + +"That's all right, Lanigan," answered the jovial voice of the leader +they loved and laughed with. "Hold that pony steady. Now, by +your-ladyship's leave," and two long, sinewy arms went circling about +the shrinking rider's waist, and a struggling form was lifted +straightway out of saddle and deposited, not too gracefully, on its +moccasined feet. "We will remove this one impediment to your speech," +continued Blake, whereat the muffling worsted was swiftly unwound, "and +then we will listen to our meed of thanks. Ah, no wonder you did not +need a side-saddle that night at Frayne. You ride admirably _a +califourchon_. My compliments, Mademoiselle La Fleur; or should I +say--Madame Moreau." + +For all answer Blake received one quick, stinging slap in the face from +that mittenless little right hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THANKSGIVING AT FRAYNE + + +Thanksgiving Day at Frayne! Much of the garrison was still afield, +bringing back to their lines and, let us hope, to their senses, the +remnant of Stabber's band, chased far into the Sweetwater Hills before +they would stop, while Henry's column kept Lame Wolf in such active +movement the misnamed chieftain richly won his later sobriquet "The +Skipper." The general had come whirling back from Beecher in his Concord +wagon, to meet Mr. Hay as they bore that invalid homeward from the Big +Horn. Between the fever-weakened trader and the famous frontier soldier +there had been brief conference--all that the doctors felt they could +allow--and then the former had been put to bed under the care of his +devoted wife, while the latter, without so much as sight of a pillow, +had set forth again out Sweetwater way to wind up the campaign. This +time he went in saddle, sending his own team over the range of the +Medicine Bow to carry a convalescent subaltern to the side of a stricken +father; the sender ignorant, possibly, of the post commander's +prohibition; ignoring it, if, as probable, it was known to him. The good +old doctor himself had bundled the grateful lad and sent a special +hospital attendant with him. Mrs. Dade and her devoted allies up the row +had filled with goodies a wonderful luncheon basket, while Mrs. Hay had +sent stores of wine for the use of both invalids, and had come down +herself to see the start, for, without a word indicative of reproof, the +general had bidden Flint remove the blockade, simply saying he would +assume all responsibility, both for Mrs. Hay and the young Indian girl, +given refuge under the trader's roof until the coming of her own people +still out with Stabber's band. Flint could not fathom it. He could only +obey. + +And now, with the general gone and Beverly Field away, with Hay home and +secluded, by order, from all questioning or other extraneous worry; with +the wounded soldiers safely trundled into hospital, garrison interest +seemed to centre for the time mainly in that little Ogalalla +maid--Flint's sole Sioux captive--who was housed, said the much +interrogated domestic, in Mrs. Hay's own room instead of Miss Flower's, +while the lady of the house, when she slept at all, occupied a sofa near +her husband's bedside. + +Then came the tidings that Blake, with the prisoners from No Wood Creek +and Bear Cliff was close at hand, and everybody looked with eager eyes +for the coming across the snowy prairie of that homeward bound +convoy--that big village of the Sioux, with its distinguished captives, +wounded and unwounded; one of the former, the young sub-chief Eagle +Wing, alias Moreau;--one of the latter a self-constituted martyr, since +she was under no official restraint,--Nanette Flower, hovering ever +about the litter bearing that sullen and still defiant brave, whose side +she refused to leave. + +Not until they reached Fort Frayne; not until the surgeon, after careful +examination, declared there was no need of taking Moreau into +hospital,--no reason why he should not be confined in the prison room of +the guard-house,--were they able to induce the silent, almost desperate +girl to return to her aunt. Not until Nanette realized that her warrior +was to be housed within wooden walls whence she would be excluded, could +Mrs. Hay, devoted to the last, persuade the girl to reoccupy her old +room and to resume the dress of civilization. Barring that worsted hood, +she was habited like a chieftain's daughter, in gaily beaded and +embroidered garments, when recaptured by Blake's command. Once within +the trader's door, she had shut herself in her old room, the second +floor front, refusing to see anybody from outside the house, unless she +could be permitted to receive visits from the captive Sioux, and this +the major, flintily, forebade. It was nightfall when the litter-bearers +reached the post, Hay's rejoicing mules braying unmelodious ecstasy at +sight of their old stable. It was dark when the wounded chief was borne +into the guard-house, uttering not a sound, and Nanette was led within +the trader's door, yet someone had managed to see her face, for the +story went all over the wondering post that very night,--women flitting +with it from door to door,--that every vestige of her beauty was +gone;--she looked at least a dozen years older. Blake, when questioned, +after the first rapture of the home-coming had subsided, would neither +affirm nor deny. "She would neither speak to me nor harken," said he, +whimsically. "The only thing she showed was teeth and--temper." + +Then presently they sent a lot of the Sioux--Stabber's villagers and +Lame Wolf's combined,--by easy stages down the Platte to Laramie, and +then around by Rawhide and the Niobrara to the old Red Cloud agency, +there to be fed and coddled and cared for, wounded warriors and all, +except a certain few, including this accomplished orator and chieftain, +convalescing under guard at Frayne. About his case there hung details +and complications far too many and intricate to be settled short of a +commission. Already had the tidings of this most important capture +reached the distant East. Already both Indian Bureau and Peace Societies +had begun to wire the general in the field and "work" the President and +the Press at home. Forgotten was the fact that he had been an +intolerable nuisance to Buffalo Bill and others who had undertaken to +educate and civilize him. The Wild West Show was now amazing European +capitals and, therefore, beyond consulting distance. Forgotten were +escapades at Harrisburg, Carlisle and Philadelphia. Suppressed were +circumstances connecting him with graver charges than those of repeated +roistering and aggravated assault. Ignored, or as yet unheard, were the +details of his reappearance on the frontier in time to stir up most of +the war spirit developed that September, and to take a leading part in +the fierce campaign that followed. He was a pupil of the nation, said +the good people of the Indian Friends Societies--a youth of exceptional +intelligence and promise, a son of the Sioux whose influence would be of +priceless value could he be induced to complete his education and accept +the views and projects of his eastern admirers. It would never do to let +his case be settled by soldiers, settlers and cowboys, said +philanthropy. They would hang him, starve him, break his spirit at the +very least. (They were treating him particularly well just now, as he +had sense enough to see.) There must be a deputation,--a committee to go +out at once to the West, with proper credentials, per diem, mileage and +clerks, to see to it that these unfortunate children of the mountain and +prairie were accorded fair treatment and restored to their rights, +especially this brilliant young man Moreau. The general was beyond reach +and reasoning with, but there was Flint, eminent for his piety, and +untrammelled in command; Flint, with aspirations of his own, the very +man to welcome such influence as theirs, and, correspondingly, to give +ear to their propositions. Two days after the safe lodgment of Eagle +Wing behind the bars, the telegrams were coming by dozens, and one week +after that deserved incarceration Fort Frayne heard with mild +bewilderment the major's order for Moreau's transfer to the hospital. By +that time letters, too, were beginning to come, and, two nights after +this removal to the little room but lately occupied by Lieutenant +Field--this very Thanksgiving night, in fact,--the single sentry at the +door stood attention to the commanding officer, who in person ushered +in a womanly form enveloped in hooded cloak, and with bowed head Nanette +Flower passed within the guarded portal, which then closed behind her +and left her alone with her wounded brave. + +Blake and Billings had been sent on to Red Cloud, guarding the +presumably repentant Ogalallas. Webb, Ray, Gregg and Ross were still +afield, in chase of Stabber. Dade, with four companies of infantry, was +in the Big Horn guarding Henry's wagon train. There was no one now at +Frayne in position to ask the new commander questions, for Dr. Waller +had avoided him in every possible way, but Waller had nobly done the +work of his noble profession. Moreau, or Eagle Wing, was mending so very +fast there was no reason whatever why the doctor should object to his +receiving visitors. It was Flint alone who would be held responsible if +anything went wrong. Yet Fort Frayne, to a woman, took fire at the +major's action. Two days previous he might have commanded the support of +Mrs. Wilkins, but Nanette herself had spoiled all chance of that. It +seems the lady had been to call at Mrs. Hay's the previous day--that +Mrs. Hay had begged to be excused,--that Mrs. Wilkins had then +persisted, possibly as a result of recent conference with Flint, and had +bidden the servant say she'd wait until Miss Flower could come down, and +so sailed on into the parlor, intent on seeing all she could of both the +house and its inmates. But not a soul appeared. Mrs. Hay was watching +over her sleeping husband, whose slow recovery Flint was noting with +unimpatient eye. Voices low, yet eager, could be heard aloft in +Nanette's room. The servant, when she came down, had returned without a +word to the inner regions about the kitchen, and Mrs. Wilkins's wait +became a long one. At last the domestic came rustling through the lower +floor again, and Mrs. Wilkins hailed. Both were Irish, but one was the +wife of an officer and long a power, if not indeed a terror, in the +regiment. The other feared the quartermaster's wife as little as Mrs. +Wilkins feared the colonel's, and, when ordered to stand and say why she +brought no answer from Miss Flower, declined to stand, but decidedly +said she brought none because there was none. + +"Did ye tell her I'd wait?" said Mrs. Wilkins. + +"I did," said Miss McGrath, "an' she said 'Let her,' an' so I did." Then +in came Mrs. Hay imploring hush, and, with rage in her Hibernian heart, +the consort of the quartermaster came away. + +There was not one woman in all Fort Frayne, therefore, to approve the +major's action in permitting this wild girl to visit the wilder Indian +patient. Mrs. Hay knew nothing of it because Nanette well understood +that there would be lodged objection that she dare not disregard--her +uncle's will. One other girl there was, that night at Frayne, who marked +her going and sought to follow and was recalled, restrained at the very +threshold by the sound of a beloved voice softly, in the Sioux tongue, +calling her name. One other girl there was who knew not of her going, +who shrank from thought of meeting her at any time,--in any place,--and +yet was destined to an encounter fateful in its results in every way. + +Just as tattoo was sounding on the infantry bugle, Esther Dade sat +reading fairy stories at the children's bedside in the quarters of +Sergeant Foster, of her father's company. There had been Thanksgiving +dinner with Mrs. Ray, an Amazonian feast since all their lords were +still away on service, and Sandy Ray and Billy, Jr., were perhaps too +young to count. Dinner was all over by eight o'clock, and, despite some +merry games, the youngsters' eyes were showing symptoms of the sandman's +coming, when that privileged character, Hogan, Ray's long-tried trooper +now turned _major domo_, appeared at the doorway of the little army +parlor. He had been bearer of a lot of goodies to the children among the +quarters of the married soldiers, and now, would Mrs. Dade please speak +with Mrs. Foster, who had come over with him, and Mrs. Dade departed for +the kitchen forthwith. Presently she returned. "I'm going back awhile +with Mrs. Foster," said she. "She's sitting up to-night with poor Mrs. +Wing, who--" But there was no need of explanation. They all knew. They +had laid so recently their wreaths of evergreen on the grave of the +gallant soldier who fell, fighting at the Elk, and now another helpless +little soul had come to bear the buried name, and all that were left for +mother and babe was woman's boundless charity. It was Thanksgiving +night, and while the wail of the bereaved and stricken went up from more +than one of these humble tenements below the eastward bluff, there were +scores of glad and grateful hearts that lifted praise and thanksgiving +to the throne on high, even though they knew not at the moment but that +they, too, might, even then, be robbed of all that stood between them +and desolation. Once it happened in the story of our hard-fighting, +hard-used little army that a bevy of fair young wives, nearly half a +score in number, in all the bravery of their summer toilets, sat in the +shadow of the flag, all smiles and gladness and applause, joining in the +garrison festivities on the Nation's natal day, never dreaming of the +awful news that should fell them ere the coming of another sun; that one +and all they had been widowed more than a week; that the men they loved, +whose names they bore, lay hacked and mutilated beyond recognition +within sight of those very hills where now the men from Frayne were +facing the same old foe. In the midst of army life we are, indeed, in +death, and the thanksgiving of loving ones about the fireside for +mercies thus far shown, is mingled ever with the dread of what the +morrow may unfold. + +"Let me go, too, mamma," was Esther's prompt appeal, as she heard her +mother's words. "I can put the children to bed while you and Mrs. Foster +are over there." + +And so with Hogan, lantern bearing, mother and daughter had followed the +sergeant's wife across the broad, snow-covered parade; had passed +without comment, though each was thinking of the new inmate, the +brightly-lighted hospital building on the edge of the plateau, and +descended the winding pathway to the humble quarters of the married +soldiers, nestling in the sheltered flats between the garrison proper +and the bold bluffs that again close bordered the rushing stream. And +here at Sergeant Foster's doorway Esther parted from the elders, and was +welcomed by shrieks of joy from three sturdy little cherubs--the +sergeant's olive branches, and here, as the last notes of tattoo went +echoing away under the vast and spangled sky, one by one her charges +closed their drooping lids and dropped to sleep and left their gentle +friend and reader to her own reflections. + +There was a soldier dance that night in one of the vacant messrooms. +Flint's two companies were making the best of their isolation, and +found, as is not utterly uncommon, quite a few maids and matrons among +the households of the absent soldiery quite willing to be consoled and +comforted. There were bright lights, therefore, further along the edge +of the steep, beyond those of the hospital, and the squeak of fiddle and +drone of 'cello, mingled with the plaintive piping of the flute, were +heard at intervals through the silence of the wintry night. No tramp of +sentry broke the hush about the little rift between the heights--the +major holding that none was necessary where there were so many dogs. +Most of the soldiers' families had gone to the dance; all of the younger +children were asleep; even the dogs were still, and so, when at ten +o'clock Esther tiptoed from the children's bedside and stood under the +starlight, the murmur of the Platte was the only sound that reached her +ears until, away over at the southwest gate the night guards began the +long-drawn heralding of the hour. "Ten o'clock and all's well" it went +from post to post along the west and northward front, but when Number +Six, at the quartermaster's storehouse near the southeast corner, should +have taken up the cry where it was dropped by Number Five, afar over +near the flagstaff, there was unaccountable silence. Six did not utter a +sound. + +Looking up from the level of "Sudstown," as it had earlier been named, +Esther could see the black bulk of the storehouse close to the edge of +the plateau. Between its westward gable end and the porch of the +hospital lay some fifty yards of open space, and through this gap now +gleamed a spangled section of the western heavens. Along the bluff, just +under the crest, ran a pathway that circled the southeastward corner and +led away to the trader's store, south of the post. Tradition had it that +the track was worn by night raiders, bearing contraband fluids from +store to barracks in the days before such traffic was killed by that +common sense promoter of temperance, soberness and chastity--the post +exchange. Along that bluff line, from the storehouse toward the +hospital, invisible, doubtless, from either building or from the bluff +itself, but thrown in sharp relief against that rectangular inlet of +starry sky, two black figures, crouching and bearing some long, flat +object between them, swift and noiseless were speeding toward the +hospital. The next instant they were lost in the black background of +that building. Then, as suddenly and a moment later, one of them +reappeared, just for a moment, against the brightly lighted +window,--the southernmost window on the easterward side--the window of +the room that had been Beverly Field's--the window of the room now given +over to Eagle Wing, the Sioux,--the captive for whose safe keeping a +special sentry within the building, and this strangely silent Number Six +without, were jointly responsible. Then that silhouetted figure was +blotted from her sight in general darkness, for the lights within as +suddenly went out. + +And at that very moment a sound smote upon her ear, unaccountable at +that hour and that side of the garrison--hoofbeats swiftly coming down +into the hollow from the eastward bluff,--hoofbeats and low, excited +voices. Foster's little house was southernmost of the settlement. The +ground was open between it and the heights, and despite the low, +cautious tones, Esther heard the foremost rider's muttered, angering +words. "Dam fool! Crazy! Heap crazy! Too much hurry. Ought t' let him +call off first!" Then an answer in guttural Sioux. + +And then in an instant it dawned upon the girl that here was new crime, +new bloodshed, perhaps, and a plot to free a villianous captive. Her +first thought was to scream for aid, but what aid could she summon? Not +a man was within hail except these, the merciless haters of her race and +name. To scream would be to invite their ready knives to her heart--to +the heart of any woman who might rush to her succor. The cry died in her +throat, and, trembling with dread and excitement, she clung to the door +post and crouched and listened, for stifled mutterings could be heard, +a curse or two in vigorous English, a stamping of impatient ponies, a +warning in a woman's tone. Then, thank God! Up at the storehouse corner +a light came dancing into view. In honest soldier tones boomed out the +query "What's the matter, Six?" and then, followed by a scurry of hoofs, +a mad lashing of quirts, a scramble and rush of frightened steeds, and a +cursing of furious tongues, her own brave young voice rang out on the +night. "This way, sergeant! Help--Quick!" + +Black forms of mounts and riders sped desperately away, and then with +all the wiry, sinewy strength of her lithe and slender form, Esther +hurled herself upon another slender figure, speeding after these, afoot. +Desperately she clung to it in spite of savage blows and strainings. And +so they found her, as forth they came,--a rush of shrieking, startled, +candle-bearing women,--of bewildered and unconsciously blasphemous men +of the guard--her arms locked firmly about a girl in semi-savage garb. +The villain of the drama had been whisked away, leaving the woman who +sought to save him to the mercy of the foe. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +BEHIND THE BARS + + +In the whirl and excitement following the startling outcry from the +flats, all Fort Frayne was speedily involved. The guard came rushing +through the night, Corporal Shannon stumbling over a prostrate +form,--the sentry on Number Six, gagged and bound. The steward shouted +from the hospital porch that Eagle Wing, the prisoner patient, had +escaped through the rear window, despite its height above the sloping +ground. A little ladder, borrowed from the quartermaster's corral, was +found a moment later. An Indian pony, saddled Sioux fashion, was caught +running, riderless, toward the trader's back gate, his horsehair bridle +torn half way from his shaggy head. Sergeant Crabb, waiting for no +orders from the major, no sooner heard that Moreau was gone, than he +rushed his stable guard to the saddleroom, and in fifteen minutes had, +not only his own squad, but half a dozen "casual" troopers circling the +post in search of the trail, and in less than half an hour was hot in +chase of two fleeing horsemen, dimly seen ahead through the starlight, +across the snowy wastes. That snowfall was the Sioux's undoing. Without +it the trail would have been invisible at night. With it, the pursued +were well-nigh hopeless from the start. Precious time had been lost in +circling far out south of the post before making for the ford, whither +Crabb's instinct sent him at once, to the end that he and two of his +fellows ploughed through the foaming waters, barely five hundred yards +behind the chase, and, as they rode vehemently onward through the +starlight, straining every nerve, they heard nothing of the happenings +about the Fosters' doorway, where by this time post commander, post +surgeon, post quartermaster and acting post adjutant, post ordnance, +quartermaster and commissary sergeants, many of the post guard and most +of the post laundresses had gathered--some silent, anxious and +bewildered, some excitedly babbling; while, within the sergeant's +domicile, Esther Dade, very pale and somewhat out of breath, was trying +with quiet self possession to answer the myriad questions poured at her, +while Dr. Waller was ministering to the dazed and moaning sentry, and, +in an adjoining tenement, a little group had gathered about an +unconscious form. Someone had sent for Mrs. Hay, who was silently, +tearfully chafing the limp and almost lifeless hands of a girl in Indian +garb. The cloak and skirts of civilization had been found beneath the +window of the deserted room, and were exhibited as a means of bringing +to his senses a much bewildered major, whose first words on entering the +hut gave rise to wonderment in the eyes of most of his hearers, and to +an impulsive reply from the lips of Mrs. Hay. + +"I warned the general that girl would play us some Indian trick, but he +ordered her release," said Flint, and with wrathful emphasis came the +answer. + +"The general warned you _this_ girl would play you a trick, and, thanks +to no one but you, she's done it!" + +Then rising and stepping aside, the long-suffering woman revealed the +pallid, senseless face,--not of the little Indian maid, her shrinking +charge and guest,--but of the niece she loved and had lived and lied for +many and trying years--Nanette La Fleur, a long-lost sister's only +child. + +So Blake knew what he was talking about that keen November morning among +the pines at Bear Cliff. He had unearthed an almost forgotten legend of +old Fort Laramie. + +But the amaze and discomfiture of the temporary post commander turned +this night of thanksgiving, so far as he was concerned, into something +purgatorial. The sight of his sentry, bound, gagged and bleeding,--the +discovery of the ladder and of the escape of the prisoner, for whom he +was accountable, had filled him with dismay, yet for the moment failed +to stagger his indomitable self esteem. There had been a plot, of +course, and the instant impulse of his soul was to fix the blame on +others and to free himself. An Indian trick, of course, and who but the +little Indian maid within the trader's gates could be the instrument! +Through her, of course, the conspirators about the post had been enabled +to act. She was the general's _protegee_, not his, and the general must +shoulder the blame. Even when Flint saw Nanette, self convicted through +her very garb and her presence at the scene of the final struggle,--even +when assured it was she and not the little Ogalalla girl who had been +caught in the act,--that the latter, in fact, had never left the +trader's house, his disproportioned mind refused to grasp the situation. +Nanette, he declared, with pallid face, "must have been made a victim." +"Nothing could have been farther from her thoughts than complicity in +the escape of Eagle Wing." "She had every reason to desire his +restoration to health, strength and to the fostering care of the good +and charitable body of Christian people interested in his behalf." "All +this would be endangered by his attempt to rejoin the warriors on the +warpath." The major ordered the instant arrest of the sentry stationed +at the door of the hospital room--shut out by the major's own act from +all possibility of seeing what was going on within. He ordered under +arrest the corporal of the relief on post for presumable complicity, +and, mindful of a famous case of Ethiopian skill then new in the public +mind, demanded of Dr. Waller that he say in so many words that the gag +and wrist thongs on the prostrate sentry had not been self applied. +Waller impassively pointed to the huge lump at the base of the +sufferer's skull, "Gag and bonds he might have so placed, after much +assiduous practice," said he, "but no man living could hit himself such +a blow at the back of the head." + +"Who could have done it, then?" asked Flint. It was inconceivable to +Waller's mind that any one of the soldiery could have been tempted to +such perfidy for an Indian's sake. There was not at the moment an +Indian scout or soldier at the post, or an Indian warrior, not a +prisoner, unaccounted for. There had been halfbreeds hanging about the +store prior to the final escapade of Pete and Crapaud, but these had +realized their unpopularity after the battle on the Elk, and had +departed for other climes. Crapaud was still under guard. Pete was still +at large, perchance, with Stabber's braves. There was not another man +about the trader's place whom Flint or others could suspect. Yet the +sergeant of the guard, searching cautiously with his lantern about the +post of Number Six, had come upon some suggestive signs. The snow was +trampled and bloody about the place where the soldier fell, and there +were here and there the tracks of moccasined feet,--those of a young +woman or child going at speed toward the hospital, running, probably, +and followed close by a moccasined man. Then those of the man, alone, +went sprinting down the bluff southeastward over the flats some distance +south of the Foster's doorway and up the opposite bluff, to a point +where four ponies, shoeless, had been huddled for as much, perhaps, as +half an hour. Then all four had come scampering down close together into +the space below the hospital, not fifty yards from where the sentry +fell, and the moccasined feet of a man and woman had scurried down the +bluff from the hospital window, to meet them west of Foster's shanty. +Then there had been confusion,--trouble of some kind: One pony, pursued +a short distance, had broken away; the others had gone pounding out +southeastward up the slope and out over the uplands, then down again, in +wide sweep, through the valley of the little rivulet and along the low +bench southwest of the fort, crossing the Rock Springs road and +striking, further on, diagonally, the Rawlins trail, where Crabb and his +fellows had found it and followed. + +But all this took hours of time, and meanwhile, only half revived, +Nanette had been gently, pityingly borne away to a sorrowing woman's +home, for at last it was found, through the thick and lustrous hair, +that she, too, had been struck a harsh and cruel blow; that one reason, +probably, why she had been able to oppose no stouter resistance to so +slender a girl as Esther Dade was that she was already half dazed +through the stroke of some blunt, heavy weapon, wielded probably by him +she was risking all to save. + +Meantime the major had been pursuing his investigations. Schmidt, the +soldier sentry in front of Moreau's door, a simple-hearted Teuton of +irreproachable character, tearfully protested against his incarceration. +He had obeyed his orders to the letter. The major himself had brought +the lady to the hospital and showed her in. The door that had been open, +permitting the sentry constant sight of his prisoner, had been closed by +the commanding officer himself. Therefore, it was not for him, a private +soldier, to presume to reopen it. The major said to the lady he would +return for her soon after ten, and the lady smilingly (Schmidt did not +say how smilingly,--how bewitchingly smilingly, but the major needed no +reminder) thanked him, and said, by that time she would be ready. In a +few minutes she came out, saying, (doubtless with the same bewitching +smile) she would have to run over home for something, and she was gone +nearly half an hour, and all that time the door was open, the prisoner +on the bed in his blankets, the lamp brightly burning. It was near +tattoo when she returned, with some things under her cloak, and she was +breathing quick and seemed hurried and shut the door after thanking him, +and he saw no more of her for fifteen minutes, when the door opened and +out she came, the same cloak around her, yet she looked different, +somehow, and must have tiptoed, for he didn't hear her heels as he had +before. She didn't seem quite so tall, either, and that was all, for he +never knew anything more about it till the steward came running to tell +of the escape. + +So Schmidt could throw but little light upon the situation, save to +Flint himself, who did not then see fit to say to anyone that at no time +was it covenanted that Miss Flower should be allowed to go and come +unattended. In doing so she had deluded someone beside the sentry. + +It was late in the night when Number Six regained his senses and could +tell _his_ tale, which was even more damaging. Quite early in the +evening, so he said,--as early as nine o'clock,--he was under the +hospital corner, listening to the music further up along the bluff. A +lady came from the south of the building as though she were going down +to Sudstown. Mrs. Foster had gone down not long before, and Hogan, with +a lantern, and two officers' ladies. But this one came all alone and +spoke to him pleasant-like and said she was so sorry he couldn't be at +the dance. She'd been seeing the sick and wounded in hospital, she said, +and was going to bring some wine and jellies. If he didn't mind, she'd +take the path around the quartermaster's storehouse outside, as she was +going to Mr. Hay's, and didn't care to go through by the guard-house. So +Six let her go, as he "had no orders agin it" (even though it dawned +upon him that this must be the young lady that had been carried off by +the Sioux). That made him think a bit, he said, and when she came back +with a basket nicely covered with a white napkin, she made him take a +big chicken sandwich. "Sure I didn't know how to refuse the lady, until +she poured me out a big tumbler of wine--wine, she said, she was taking +in to Sergeant Briggs and Corporal Turner that was shot at the Elk, and +she couldn't bear to see me all alone out there in the cold." But Six +said he dasn't take the wine. He got six months "blind" once for a +similar solecism, and, mindful of the major's warning (this was +diplomatic) Six swore he had sworn off, and had to refuse the repeated +requests of the lady. He suspicioned her, he said, because she was so +persistent. Then she laughed and said good-night and went on to the +hospital. What became of the wine she had poured out? (This from the +grim and hitherto silent doctor, seated by the bedside.) She must have +tossed it out or drunk it herself, perhaps, Six didn't know. Certainly +no trace of it could be found in the snow. Then nothing happened for as +much as twenty minutes or so, and he was over toward the south end of +his post, but facing toward the hospital when she came again down the +steps, and this time handed him some cake and told him he was a good +soldier not to drink even wine, and asked him what were the lights away +across the Platte, and he couldn't see any, and was following her +pointing finger and staring, and then all of a sudden he saw a million +lights, dancing, and stars and bombs and that was all he knew till they +began talking to him here in hospital. Something had hit him from +behind, but he couldn't tell what. + +Flint's nerve was failing him, for here was confirmation of the +general's theory, but there was worse to come and more of it. + +Miss McGrath, domestic at the trader's, had told a tale that had reached +the ears of Mistress McGann, and 'twas the latter that bade the major +summon the girl and demand of her what it was she had seen and heard +concerning "Crappo" and the lady occupant of the second floor front at +the trader's home. Then it was that the major heard what others had +earlier conjectured--that there had been clandestine meetings, whispered +conferences and the like, within the first week of the lovely niece's +coming to Fort Frayne. That notes had been fetched and carried by +"Crappo" as well as Pete; that Miss Flower was either a somnambulist or +a good imitation of one, as on two occasions the maid had "peeked" and +seen her down-stairs at the back door in the dead hours of the night, or +the very early morning. That was when she first came. Then, since the +recapture, Miss McGrath felt confident that though never again detected +down stairs, Miss Flower had been out at night, as Miss McGrath believed +her to have been the night, when was it? "when little Kennedy had his +scrap wid the Sioux the boys do be all talkin' about"--the night, in +fact, that Stabber's band slipped away from the Platte, Ray's troop +following at dawn. Questioned as to how it was possible for Miss Flower +to get out without coming down stairs, Miss McGrath said she wasn't good +at monkeyshines herself, but "wimmen that could ride sthraddle-wise" +were capable of climbs more difficult than that which the vine trellis +afforded from the porch floor to the porch roof. Miss McGrath hadn't +been spying, of course, because her room was at the back of the house, +beyond the kitchen, but how did the little heel tracks get on the +veranda roof?--the road dust on the matting under the window? the vine +twigs in that "quare" made skirt never worn by day? That Miss Flower +could and did ride "asthraddle" and ride admirably when found with the +Sioux at Bear Cliff, everybody at Frayne well knew by this time. That +she had so ridden at Fort Frayne was known to no officer or lady of the +garrison then present, but believed by Miss McGrath because of certain +inexpressibles of the same material with the "quare" made skirt; both +found, dusty and somewhat bedraggled, the morning Captain Blake was +having his chase after the Indians, and Miss Flower was so "wild excited +like." All this and more did Miss McGrath reveal before being permitted +to return to the sanctity of her chamber, and Flint felt the ground +sinking beneath his feet. It might even be alleged of him now that he +had connived at the escape of this most dangerous and desperate +character, this Indian leader, of whom example, prompt and sharp, would +certainly have been made, unless the general and the ends of justice +were defeated. But what stung the major most of all was that he had been +fairly victimized, hoodwinked, cajoled, wheedled, flattered into this +wretched predicament, all through the wiles and graces of a woman. No +one knew it, whatever might be suspected, but Nanette had bewitched him +quite as much as missives from the East had persuaded and misled. + +And so it was with hardened and resentful heart that the major sought +her on the morrow. The general and the commands afield would soon be +coming home. Such Indians as they had not "rounded up" and captured were +scattered far and wide. The campaign was over. Now for the disposition +of the prisoners. It was to tell Mrs. Hayand Nanette, especially +Nanette, why the sentries were re-established about their home and that, +though he would not place the trader's niece within a garrison cell, he +should hold her prisoner beneath the trader's roof to await the action +of superior authority on the grievous charges lodged at her door. She +was able to be up, said Miss McGrath,--not only up but down--down in the +breakfast room, looking blither and more like herself than she had been +since she was brought home. + +"Say that Major Flint desires to see her and Mrs. Hay," said Flint, with +majesty of mien, as, followed by two of his officers, he was shown into +the trader's parlor. + +And presently they came--Mrs. Hay pale and sorrowing; Miss Flower, pale, +perhaps, but triumphantly defiant. The one sat and covered her face with +her hands as she listened to the major's few words, cold, stern and +accusing. The other looked squarely at him, with fearless, glittering +eyes:-- + +"You may order what you like so far as I'm concerned," was the utterly +reckless answer of the girl. "I don't care what you do now that I know +he is safe--free--and that you will never lay hands on him again." + +"That's where you are in error, Miss Flower," was the major's calm, +cold-blooded, yet rejoiceful reply. It was for this, indeed, that he had +come. "Ralph Moreau was run down by my men soon after midnight, and he's +now behind the bars." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A SOLDIER ENTANGLED + + +December and bitter cold. The river frozen stiff. The prairie sheeted in +unbroken snow. Great log fires roaring in every open fireplace. Great +throngs of soldiery about the red hot barrack stoves, for all the +columns were again in winter columns, and Flint's two companies had "got +the route" for home. They were to march on the morrow, escorting as far +as Laramie the intractables of Stabber's band, some few of the Indians +to go in irons, among them Ralph Moreau, or Eagle Wing, now a notorious +character. + +The general was there at Frayne, with old "Black Bill," erstwhile chief +inspector of the department, once a subaltern in days long gone by when +Laramie was "Ultima Thule" of the plains forts. The general had heard +Flint's halting explanation of his laxity in Moreau's case, saying +almost as little in reply as his old friend Grant when "interviewed" by +those of whom he disapproved. "Black Bill" it was who waxed explosive +when once he opened on the major, and showed that amazed New Englander +something of the contents of Moreau's Indian kit, including the now +famous hunting pouch, all found with Stabber's village. A precious +scoundrel, as it turned out, was this same Moreau, with more sins to +answer for than many a convicted jail bird, and with not one follower +left to do him reverence except, perhaps, that lonely girl, self +secluded at the Hays. Hay himself, though weak, was beginning to sit up. +Dade, Blake and Ray were all once more housed in garrison. Truscott and +Billings, with their hardy troopers, had taken temporary station at the +post, until the general had decided upon the disposition of the array of +surrendered Indians, nearly three hundred in number, now confined under +strong guard in the quartermaster's corral at the flats, with six "head +devils," including Eagle Wing, in the garrison prison. + +All the officers, with two exceptions, were again for duty at Frayne. +Webb, laid by the heels at Beecher, his feet severely frozen, and +Beverly Field, who, recalled from a brief and solemn visit to a far +southern home, had reached the post at nightfall of the 10th. There had +hardly been allowed him time to uplift a single prayer, to receive a +word of consolation from the lips of friends and kindred who loved the +honored father, borne to his last resting place. "Come as soon as +possible," read the message wired him by Ray, and, though the campaign +was over, it was evident that something was amiss, and, with all his +sorrow fresh upon him, the lad, sore in body and soul, had hastened to +obey. + +And it was Ray who received and welcomed him and took him straightway to +his own cosy quarters, that Mrs. Ray, and then the Blakes, might add +their sympathetic and cordial greeting,--ere it came to telling why it +was that these, his friends despite that trouble that could not be +talked of, were now so earnest in their sympathy,--before telling him +that his good name had become involved, that there were allegations +concerning him which the chief had ordered "pigeon-holed" until he +should come to face them. A pity it is that Bill Hay could not have been +there, too, but his fever had left him far too weak to leave his room. +Only Ray and Blake were present and it was an interview not soon, if +ever, to be forgotten. + +"I'm no hand at breaking things gently, Field," said Ray, when finally +the three were closeted together in the captain's den. "It used to worry +Webb that you were seen so often riding with Miss--Miss Flower up to +Stabber's village, and, in the light of what has since happened, you +will admit that he had reasons. Hear me through," he continued, as +Field, sitting bolt upright in the easy chair, essayed to speak. +"Neither Captain Blake nor I believe one word to your dishonor in the +matter, but it looks as though you had been made a tool of, and you are +by no means the first man. It was to see this fellow, Moreau--Eagle +Wing--whom you recognized at the Elk,--she was there so frequently--was +it not?" + +Into Field's pale face there had come a look of infinite distress. For a +moment he hesitated, and little beads began to start out on his +forehead. + +"Captain Ray," he finally said, "they tell me--I heard it from the +driver on the way up from Rock Springs--that Miss Flower is virtually a +prisoner, that she had been in league with the Sioux, and yet, until I +can see her--can secure my release from a promise, I have to answer you +as I answered you before--I cannot say." + +Blake started impatiently and heaved up from his lounging chair, his +long legs taking him in three strides to the frost-covered window at the +front. Ray sadly shook his dark, curly head. + +"You _are_ to see her, Field. The general--bless him for a +trump!--wouldn't listen to a word against you in your absence; but that +girl has involved everybody--you, her aunt, who has been devotion itself +to her, her uncle, who was almost her slave. She deliberately betrayed +him into the hands of the Sioux. In fact this red robber and villain, +Moreau, is the only creature she hasn't tried to 'work,' and he +abandoned her after she had lied, sneaked and stolen for him." + +"Captain Ray!" The cry came from pallid lips, and the young soldier +started to his feet, appalled at such accusation. + +"Every word of it is true," said Ray. "She joined him after his wounds. +She shared his escape from the village at our approach. She was with him +when Blake nabbed them at Bear Cliff. She was going with him from here. +What manner of girl was that, Field, for you to be mixed up with?" + +"He is her half brother!" protested Field, with kindling eyes. "She told +me--everything--told me of their childhood together, and--" + +"Told you a pack of infernal lies!" burst in Blake, no longer able to +contain himself. "Made you a cat's paw; led you even to taking her by +night to see him when she learned the band were to jump for the +mountains--used you, by God, as he used _her_, and, like the Indian she +is, she'd turn and stab you now, if you stood in her way or his. Why, +Field, that brute's her lover, and she's his--" + +"It's a lie! You shall not say it, sir!" cried Field, beside himself +with wrath and amaze, as he stood quivering from head to foot, still +weak from wounds, fever and distress of mind. But Ray sprang to his +side. "Hush, Blake! Hush, Field! Don't speak. What is it, Hogan?" And +sharply he turned him to the door, never dreaming what had caused the +interruption. + +"The general, sir, to see the captain!" + +And there, in the hallway, throwing off his heavy overcoat and +"arctics," there, with that ever faithful aide in close attendance, was +the chief they loved; dropped in, all unsuspecting, just to say +good-bye. "I knocked twice," began Hogan, but Ray brushed him aside, +for, catching sight of the captain's face, the general was already at +the door. Another moment and he had discovered Field, and with both +hands extended, all kindliness and sympathy, he stepped at once across +the room to greet him. + +"I was so very sorry to hear the news," said he. "I knew your father +well in the old days. How's your wound? What brought you back so soon?" + +And then there was one instant of awkward silence and then--Ray spoke. + +"That was my doing, general. I believed it best that he should be here +to meet you and--every allegation at his expense. Mr. Field, I feel +sure, does not begin to know them yet, especially as to the money." + +"It was all recovered," said the general. "It was found almost +intact--so was much of that that they took from Hay. Even if it hadn't +been, Hay assumed all responsibility for the loss." + +With new bewilderment in his face, the young officer, still white and +trembling, was gazing, half stupefied, from one to the other. + +"What money?" he demanded. "I never heard--" + +"Wait," said the general, with significant glance at Ray, who was about +to speak. "I am to see them--Mrs. Hay and her niece--at nine o'clock. It +is near that now. Webb cannot be with us, but I shall want you, Blake. +Say nothing until then. Sit down, Mr. Field, and tell me about that leg. +Can you walk from here to Hay's, I wonder?" + +Then the ladies, Mrs. Ray and her charming next door neighbor, appeared, +and the general adjourned the conference forthwith, and went with them +to the parlor. + +"Say nothing more," Ray found time to whisper. "You'll understand it all +in twenty minutes." + +And at nine o'clock the little party was on its way through the sharp +and wintry night, the general and Captain Blake, side by side, ahead, +the aide-de-camp and Mr. Field close following. Dr. Waller, who had been +sent for, met them near the office. The sentries at the guard-house +were being changed as the five tramped by along the snapping and +protesting board walk, and a sturdy little chap, in fur cap and +gauntlets, and huge buffalo overcoat, caught sight of them and, facing +outward, slapped his carbine down to the carry--the night signal of +soldier recognition of superior rank as practised at the time. + +"Tables are turned with a vengeance," said the general, with his quiet +smile. "That's little Kennedy, isn't it? I seem to see him everywhere +when we're campaigning. Moreau was going to eat his heart out next time +they met, I believe." + +"So he said," grinned Blake, "before Winsor's bullet fetched him. Pity +it hadn't killed instead of crippling him." + +"He's a bad lot," sighed the general. "Wing won't fly away from Kennedy, +I fancy." + +"Not if there's a shot left in his belt," said Blake. "And Ray is +officer-of-the-day. There'll be no napping on guard this night." + +At the barred aperture that served for window on the southward front, a +dark face peered forth in malignant hate as the speakers strode by. But +it shrank back, when the sentry once more tossed his carbine to the +shoulder, and briskly trudged beneath the bars. Six Indians shared that +prison room, four of their number destined to exile in the distant +East,--to years, perhaps, within the casemates of a seaboard fort--the +last place on earth for a son of the warlike Sioux. + +"They know their fate, I understand," said Blake, as the general moved +on again. + +"Oh, yes. Their agent and others have been here with Indian Bureau +orders, permitting them to see and talk with the prisoners. Their +shackles are to be riveted on to-night. Nearly time now, isn't it?" + +"At tattoo, sir. The whole guard forms then, and the four are to be +moved into the main room for the purpose. I am glad this is the last of +it." + +"Yes, we'll start them with Flint at dawn in the morning. He'll be more +than glad to get away, too. He hasn't been over lucky here, either." + +A strange domestic--(the McGrath having been given warning and removed +to Sudsville) showed them into the trader's roomy parlor, the largest +and most pretentious at the post. Hay had lavished money on his home and +loved it and the woman who had so adorned it. She came in almost +instantly to greet them, looking piteously into the kindly, bearded face +of the general, and civilly, yet absently, welcoming the others. She did +not seem to realize that Field, who stood in silence by the side of +Captain Blake, had been away. She had no thought, apparently, for anyone +but the chief himself,--he who held the destinies of her dear ones in +the hollow of his hand. His first question was for Fawn Eyes, the little +Ogalalla maiden whose history he seemed to know. "She is well and trying +to be content with me," was the reply. "She has been helping poor +Nanette. She does not seem to understand or realize what is coming to +him. Have they--ironed him--yet?" + +[Illustration: "HUSH! SHE'S COMING"--SHE WAS THERE.] + +"I believe not," said the general. "But it has to be done to-night. They +start so early in the morning." + +"And you won't let her see him, general. No good can come from it. She +declares she will go to him in the morning, if you prohibit it +to-night," and the richly jewelled hands of the unhappy woman were +clasped almost in supplication. + +"By morning he will be beyond her reach. The escort starts at six." + +"And--these gentlemen here--" She looked nervously, appealingly about +her. "Must they--all know?" + +"These and the inspector general. He will be here in a moment. But, +indeed, Mrs. Hay, it _is_ all known, practically," said the general, +with sympathy and sorrow in his tone. + +"Not all--not all, general! Even I don't know all--She herself has said +so. Hush! She's coming." + +She was there! They had listened for swish of skirts or fall of slender +feet upon the stairway, but there had not been a sound. They saw the +reason as she halted at the entrance, lifting with one little hand the +costly Navajo blanket that hung as a portiere. In harmony with the +glossy folds of richly dyed wool, she was habited in Indian garb from +head to foot. In two black, lustrous braids, twisted with feather and +quill and ribbon, her wealth of hair hung over her shoulders down the +front of her slender form. A robe of dark blue stuff, rich with broidery +of colored bead and bright-hued plumage, hung, close clinging, and her +feet were shod in soft moccasins, also deftly worked with bead and +quill. But it was her face that chained the gaze of all, and that drew +from the pallid lips of Lieutenant Field a gasp of mingled consternation +and amaze. Without a vestige of color; with black circles under her +glittering eyes; with lines of suffering around the rigid mouth and with +that strange pinched look about the nostrils that tells of anguish, +bodily and mental, Nanette stood at the doorway, looking straight at the +chief. She had no eyes for lesser lights. All her thought, apparently, +was for him,--for him whose power it was, in spite of vehement +opposition, to deal as he saw fit with the prisoner in his hands. Appeal +on part of Friends Societies, Peace and Indian Associations had failed. +The President had referred the matter in its entirety to the general +commanding in the field, and the general had decided. One moment she +studied his face, then came slowly forward. No hand extended. No sign of +salutation,--greeting,--much less of homage. Ignoring all others +present, she addressed herself solely to him. + +"Is it true you have ordered him in irons and to Fort Rochambeau?" she +demanded. + +"It is." + +"Simply because he took part with his people when your soldiers made war +on them?" she asked, her pale lips quivering. + +"You well know how much else there was," answered the general, simply. +"And I have told you he deserves no pity--of yours." + +"Oh, you say he came back here a spy!" she broke forth, impetuously. +"It is not so! He never came near the post,--nearer than Stabber's +village, and there he had a right to be. You say 'twas he who led them +to the warpath,--that he planned the robbery here and took the money. He +never knew they were going, till they were gone. He never stole a penny. +That money was loaned him honestly--and for a purpose--and with the hope +and expectation of rich profit thereby." + +"By you, do you mean?" asked the general, calmly, as before. + +"By me? No! What money had I? He asked it and it was given him--by +Lieutenant Field." + +A gasp that was almost a cry following instantly on this insolent +assertion--a sound of stir and start among the officers at whom she had +not as yet so much as glanced, now caused the girl to turn one swift, +contemptuous look their way, and in that momentary flash her eyes +encountered those of the man she had thus accused. Field stood like one +turned suddenly to stone, gazing at her with wild, incredulous eyes. One +instant she seemed to sway, as though the sight had staggered her, but +the rally was as instantaneous. Before the general could interpose a +word, she plunged on again:-- + +"He, at least, had a heart and conscience. He knew how wrongfully Moreau +had been accused,--that money was actually needed to establish his +claim. It would all have been repaid if your soldiers had not forced +this wicked war, and--" and now in her vehemence her eyes were flashing, +her hand uplifted, when, all on a sudden, the portiere was raised the +second time, and there at the doorway stood the former inspector +general, "Black Bill." At sight of him the mad flow of words met sudden +stop. Down, slowly down, came the clinched, uplifted hand. Her eyes, +glaring as were Field's a moment agone, were fixed in awful fascination +on the grizzled face. Then actually she recoiled as the veteran officer +stepped quietly forward into the room. + +"And what?" said he, with placid interest. "I haven't heard you rave in +many a moon, Nanette. You are your mother over again--without your +mother's excuse for fury." + +But a wondrous silence had fallen on the group. The girl had turned +rigid. For an instant not a move was made, and, in the hush of all but +throbbing hearts, the sound of the trumpets pealing forth the last notes +of tattoo came softly through the outer night. + +Then sudden, close at hand, yet muffled by double door and windows, came +other sounds--sounds of rush and scurry,--excited voices,--cries of +halt! halt!--the ring of a carbine,--a yell of warning--another shot, +and Blake and the aide-de-camp sprang through the hallway to the storm +door without. Mrs. Hay, shuddering with dread, ran to the door of her +husband's chamber beyond the dining room. She was gone but a moment. +When she returned the little Ogalalla maid, trembling and wild-eyed, had +come running down from aloft. The general had followed into the lighted +hallway,--they were all crowding there by this time,--and the voice of +Captain Ray, with just a tremor of excitement about it, was heard at +the storm door on the porch, in explanation to the chief. + +"Moreau, sir! Broke guard and stabbed Kennedy. The second shot dropped +him. He wants Fawn Eyes, his sister." + +A scream of agony rang through the hall, shrill and piercing. Then the +wild cry followed: + +"You shall not hold me! Let me go to him, I say--I am his wife!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE DEATH SONG OF THE SIOUX + + +That was a gruesome night at Frayne. Just at tattoo the door leading to +the little cell room had been thrown open, and the sergeant of the guard +bade the prisoners come forth,--all warriors of the Ogalalla band and +foremost of their number was Eagle Wing, the battle leader. Recaptured +by Crabb and his men after a desperate flight and fight for liberty, he +had apparently been planning ever since a second essay even more +desperate. In sullen silence he had passed his days, showing no sign of +recognition of any face among his guards until the morning Kennedy +appeared--all malice forgotten now that his would-be slayer was a +helpless prisoner, and therefore did the Irishman greet him jovially. +"That man would knife you if he had half a chance," said the sergeant. +"Watch out for him!" + +"You bet I'll watch out," said Kennedy, never dreaming that, despite all +search and vigilance, Moreau had managed to obtain and hide a knife. + +In silence they had shuffled forth into the corridor. The heavy portal +swung behind them, confining the other two. Another door opened into the +guardroom proper, where stood the big, red hot stove and where waited +two blacksmiths with the irons. Once in the guard room every window was +barred, and members of the guard, three deep, blocked in eager curiosity +the doorway leading to the outer air. In the corridor on one side stood +three infantry soldiers, with fixed bayonets. On the other, facing them, +three others of the guard. Between them shuffled the Sioux, "Wing" +leading. One glance at the waiting blacksmiths was enough. With the +spring of a tiger, he hurled himself, head foremost and bending low, +straight at the open doorway, and split his way through the astonished +guards like center rush at foot ball, scattering them right and left; +then darted round the corner of the guard-house, agile as a cat. + +And there was Kennedy confronting him! One furious lunge he made with +gleaming knife, then shot like an arrow, straight for the southward +bluff. It was bad judgment. He trusted to speed, to dim starlight, to +bad aim, perhaps; but the little Irishman dropped on one knee and the +first bullet tore through the muscles of a stalwart arm; the second, +better aimed, pierced the vitals. Then they were on him, men by the +dozen, in another instant, as he staggered and fell there, impotent and +writhing. + +They bore him to the cell again,--the hospital was too far,--and Waller +and his aides came speedily to do all that surgery could accomplish, but +he cursed them back. He raved at Ray, who entered, leading poor, sobbing +little Fawn Eyes, and demanded to be left alone with her. Waller went +out to minister to Kennedy, bleeding fast, and the others looked to Ray +for orders when the door was once more opened and Blake entered with +Nanette. + +"By the general's order," said he, in brief explanation, and in an +instant she was on her knees beside the dying Sioux. There and thus they +left them. Waller said there was nothing to be done. The junior surgeon, +Tracy,--he whom she had so fascinated only those few weeks before,--bent +and whispered: "Call me if you need. I shall remain within hearing." But +there came no call. At taps the door was once more softly opened and +Tracy peered within. Fawn Eyes, rocking to and fro, was sobbing in an +abandonment of grief. Nanette, face downward, lay prone upon a stilled +and lifeless heart. + +Flint and his escort duly went their way, and spread their story as they +camped at Laramie and "the Chug." The general tarried another week at +Frayne. There was still very much to keep him there; so, not until he +and "Black Bill" came down did we at other stations learn the facts. The +general, as usual, had little to say. The colonel talked for both. + +A woful time, it seems, they had had with poor Nanette when at last it +became necessary to take her away from her dead brave. She raged and +raved at even her pleading aunt. Defiant of them all, from the general +down, and reckless of law or fact, she vowed it was all a conspiracy to +murder Moreau in cold blood. They gave him the knife, she declared, +although it later developed that she had tossed it through the open +window. They had given him the chance to escape--the sight of Kennedy, +"who had striven to kill him twice before," and then of the blacksmiths, +with their degrading shackles--all just to tempt him to make a dash for +freedom;--just as they had lured and murdered Crazy Horse--Crazy Horse, +his brave kinsman--not ten years before,--then had placed a dead shot on +the path to life and liberty--a man who killed him in cold blood, as +deliberately planned. These were her accusations, and that story took +strong hold in certain circles in the far East, where "love of truth" +inspired its widespread publication, but not its contradiction when the +facts became known. The same conditions obtain to-day in dealing with +affairs across the sea. + +Nanette said many other things before her final breakdown; and Hay and +his sorrowing wife found their load of care far heaviest, for the strain +of Indian blood, now known to all, had steeled the soul of the girl +against the people at Fort Frayne, men and women both--against none so +vehemently as those who would have shown her sympathy--none so +malignantly as those who had suffered for her sake. + +This was especially true of Field. In the mad hope of "getting justice," +as she termed it, for the dead, she had demanded speech of the general, +and, in presence of "Black Bill" and the surgeon, he had given her a +hearing. It proved fatal to her cause, for in her fury at what she +termed "the triumph of his foes," she lost all sense of right or reason, +and declared that it was Field who had warned Stabber's band and sent +them fleeing to unite with Lame Wolf,--Field who took the trader's +horses and rode by night with Kennedy to warn them it was Webb's +intention to surround the village at dawn and make prisoners of the men. +It was Field, she said, who furnished the money Moreau needed to +establish his claim to a gold mine in the Black Hills, the ownership of +which would make them rich and repay Field a dozen times over. It was +Field who sought to protect her kindred among the Sioux in hopes, she +said it boldly, of winning her. But the general had heard enough. The +door was opened and Ray and Blake were ushered in. The former briefly +told of the finding of her note in Field's room the night the adjutant +was so mysteriously missing. The note itself was held forth by the +inspector general and she was asked if she cared to have it opened and +read aloud. Her answer was that Field was a coward, a dastard to betray +a woman who had trusted him. + +"Oh, he didn't," said Blake, drily. "'Twas just the other way. He +couldn't be induced to open his head, so his friends took a hand. You +got word of the outbreak through your Indian followers. You wrote to +Field and sent the note by Pete, bidding him join you at that godless +hour, telling him that you would provide the horses and that you must +ride to Stabber's camp to see Moreau for the last time, as he was going +at once to the Black Hills. You made Field believe he was your half +brother, instead of what he was. You brought Moreau back to the post and +took something, I can't say what, down to him from Mr. Hay's,--he +waiting for you on the flats below the trader's corral. You should have +worn your moccasins, as well as a divided skirt, that night instead of +French-heeled _bottines_. The rest--others can tell." + +The others were Kennedy and the recaptured, half recalcitrant Pete; the +latter turned state's evidence. Kennedy told how he had wandered down +into the flats after "the few dhrinks" that made him think scornful of +Sioux; of his encounter with Eagle Wing, his rescue by Field and a girl +who spoke Sioux like a native. He thought it was little Fawn Eyes when +he heard her speak, and until he heard this lady; then he understood. He +had been pledged to secrecy by the lieutenant, and never meant to tell a +soul, but when he heard the lie the lady told about the lieutenant, it +ended any promise. + +Then Pete, an abject, whining wretch, was ushered in, and his story, +when dragged out by the roots, was worst of all. Poor Mrs. Hay! She had +to hear it, for they sent for her; somebody had to restrain Nanette. +Pete said he had known Nanette long time, ever since baby. So had +Crapaud. Yes, and they had known Eagle Wing, Moreau, always--knew his +father and mother. Knew Nanette's father and mother. But Black Bill +interposed. No need to go into these particulars, as substantiating Mrs. +Hay and himself, said he. "The lady knows perfectly well that I know all +about her girlhood," so Pete returned to modern history. Eagle Wing, it +seems, came riding often in from Stabber's camp to see Nanette by night, +and "he was in heap trouble, always heap trouble, always want money," +and one night she told Pete he must come with her, must never tell of +it. She had money, she said, her own, in the trader's safe, but the door +was too heavy, she couldn't open it, even though she had the key. She +had opened the store by the back door, then came to him to help her with +the rest. He pulled the safe door open, he said, and then she hunted and +found two big letters, and took them to the house, and next night she +opened the store again, and he pulled open the safe, and she put back +the letters and sent him to Mr. Field's back door with note, and then +over to saddle Harney and Dan, and "bring 'em out back way from stable." +Then later she told him Captain Blake had Eagle Wing's buckskin pouch +and letters, and they must get them or somebody would hang Eagle Wing, +and she kept them going, "all time going," meeting messengers from the +Sioux camps, or carrying letters. She fixed everything for the Sioux to +come and capture Hay and the wagon;--fixed everything, even to nearly +murdering the sentry on Number Six. Pete and Spotted Horse, a young +brave of Stabber's band, had compassed that attempted rescue. She would +have had them kill the sentry, if need be, and the reason they didn't +get Wing away was that she couldn't wait until the sentries had called +off. They might even then have succeeded, only her pony broke away, and +she clung to Eagle Wing's until he--he had to hit her to make her let +go. + +The wild girl, in a fury declared it false from end to end. The poor +woman, weeping by her side, bowed her head and declared it doubtless +true. + +Her story,--Mrs. Hay's,--was saddest of all. Her own father died when +she was very, very young. He was a French Canadian trader and traveller +who had left them fairly well to do. Next to her Indian mother, Mrs. Hay +had loved no soul on earth as she had her pretty baby sister. The girls +grew up together. The younger, petted and spoiled, fell in love with a +handsome, reckless young French half breed, Jean La Fleur; against all +warnings, became his wife, and was soon bullied, beaten and deserted. +She lived but a little while, leaving to her more prosperous and +level-headed sister, now wedded to Mr. Hay, their baby daughter, also +named Nanette, and by her the worthy couple had done their very best. +Perhaps it would have been wiser had they sent the child away from all +association with the Sioux, but she had lived eight years on the Laramie +in daily contact with them, sharing the Indian sports and games, loving +their free life, and rebelling furiously when finally taken East. "She" +was the real reason why her aunt spent so many months of each succeeding +year away from her husband and the frontier. One of the girl's playmates +was a magnificent young savage, a son of Crow Killer, the famous chief. +The father was killed the day of Crazy Horse's fierce assault on the +starving force of General Crook at Slim Buttes in '76, and good, kind +missionary people speedily saw promise in the lad, put him at school and +strove to educate him. The rest they knew. Sometimes at eastern schools, +sometimes with Buffalo Bill, but generally out of money and into +mischief, Eagle Wing went from one year to another, and Nanette, +foolishly permitted to meet him again in the East, had become +infatuated. All that art and education, wealth, travel and luxury +combined could do, was done to wean her from her passionate adoration of +this superb young savage. There is no fiercer, more intense, devotion +than that the Sioux girl gives the warrior who wins her love. She +becomes his abject slave. She will labor, lie, steal, sin, suffer, die, +_gladly_ die for him, if only she believes herself loved in turn, and +this did Nanette more than believe, and believing, slaved and studied +between his irregular appearances that she might wheedle more money from +her aunt to lavish on her brave. When discovered meeting him in secret +and by night, she was locked in her third story room and thought secure, +until the day revealed her gone by way of the lightning rod. They had to +resort to more stringent measures, but time and again she met him, +undetected until too late, and when at last her education was declared +complete, she had amazed her aunt by expressing willingness to go to +Frayne, when the good woman thought the objectionable kinsman abroad +with Buffalo Bill. Until too late, Mrs. Hay knew nothing of his having +been discharged and of his preceding them to the West. Then Nanette +begged her for more money, because he was in dreadful trouble;--had +stabbed a police officer at Omaha, whose people, so Moreau said, agreed +not to prosecute him if one thousand dollars could be paid at once. +Hay's patience had been exhausted. He had firmly refused to contribute +another cent to settle Moreau's scrapes, even though he was a distant +kinsman of his wife, and they both were fond of his little sister Fawn +Eyes. It had never occurred to Mrs. Hay that Nan could steal from or +plot against her benefactors, but that was before she dreamed that +Nanette had become the Indian's wife. After that, anything might happen. +"If she could do _that_ for love of Moreau," said she, "there was +nothing she could not do." + +And it would seem there was little short of deliberate murder she had +not done for her Sioux lover, who had rewarded her utter self-sacrifice +by a savage blow with a revolver butt. "Poor Nanette!" sobbed Mrs. Hay, +and "Poor Nanette!" said all Fort Frayne, their distrust of her buried +and forgotten as she lay, refusing herself to everyone; starving herself +in dull, desperate misery in her lonely room. Even grim old "Black +Bill," whom she had recognized at once,--Bill, who had been the first to +confirm Blake's suspicions as to her identity,--had pity and compassion +for her. "It's the way of the blood," said Blake. "She is + + "'Bred out of that bloody strain + That haunted us in our familiar paths.'" + +"She could do no different," said the general, "having fixed her love on +him. It's the strain of the Sioux. _We_ call her conduct criminal:--they +call it sublime." + +And one night, while decision in Nanette's case was still pending, and, +still self-secluded, she hid within the trader's home, refusing speech +with anyone but little Fawn Eyes, a sleighing party set out from Frayne +for a spin by moonlight along the frozen Platte. Wagon bodies had been +set on runners, and piled with hay. The young people from officers' row, +with the proper allowance of matrons and elders, were stowed therein, +and tucked in robes and furs, Esther Dade among them, gentle and +responsive as ever, yet still very silent. Field, in his deep mourning, +went nowhere. He seemed humiliated beyond words by his connection with +this most painful affair. Even the general failed to cheer and reassure +him. He blamed himself for everything and shrank even from his friends. +They saw the dim glow of the student lamp in his quarters, as they +jingled cheerily away. They were coming homeward, toward ten o'clock. +The moon was shining brilliantly along the bold heights of the southern +bank, and, insensibly, chat and laughter gradually ceased as they came +again in sight of the twinkling lights of Frayne, and glanced aloft at a +new-made scaffolding, standing black against the sky at the crest of +Fetterman Bluff. "Eagle Wing roosts high," said a thoughtless youngster. +"The general let them have their way to the last. What's that?" he +added, with sudden stop. + +The sleigh had as suddenly been reined in. The driver, an Irish trooper, +crossed himself, for, on the hush of the breathless winter night, there +rose and fell--shrill, quavering, now high, now low, in mournful minor, +a weird, desolate, despairing chant, the voice of a heart-broken woman, +and one and all they knew at once it was Nanette, after the manner of +her mother's people, alone on the lofty height, alone in the wintry +wilderness, sobbing out her grief song to the sleeping winds, mourning +to the last her lost, her passionately loved brave. + +Then, all on a sudden, it ceased. A black form started from under the +scaffolding to the edge of the bluff. Then again, weird, wild, uncanny, +a barbaric, almost savage strain burst from the lips of the girl. +"Mother of Heavin!" cried the driver. "Can no one shtop that awful keen. +It's her death song she's singin'!" + +Two young officers sprang from the sleigh, but at the instant another +cry arose. Another form, this one of horse and rider, appeared at the +crest, silhouetted with the girl's against the stars. They saw the rider +leap from saddle, almost within arms' length of the singer; saw her +quickly turn, as though, for the first time, aware of an intruder. Then +the wailing song went out in sudden scream of mingled wrath, hatred and +despair, and, like the Sioux that she was at heart, the girl made one +mad rush to reach the point of bluff where was a sheer descent of over +eighty feet. A shriek of dread went up from the crowded sleigh; a cry of +rejoicing, as the intruder sprang and clasped her, preventing her +reaching the precipice. But almost instantly followed a moan of anguish, +for slipping at the crest, together, firmly linked, they came rolling, +sliding, shooting down the steep incline of the frozen bluff, and +brought up with stunning force among the ice blocks, logs and driftwood +at the base. + +They bore them swiftly homeward,--Field senseless and sorely +shaken,--Nanette's fierce spirit slowly drifting away from the bruised +and broken tenement held there, so pityingly, in the arms of Esther +Dade. Before the Christmas fires were lighted in the snowbound, frontier +fort, they had laid all that was mortal of the brave, deluded girl in +the little cemetery of Fort Frayne, her solemn story closed, on earth, +forever. + + + + +L'ENVOI + + +Nearly two years later, with the old regiment still serving along the +storied Platte, they were talking of her one moonlit evening at the +flagstaff. The band, by this time a fixture at Frayne, had been playing +delightfully, and some of the girls and young gallants had been waltzing +on the Rays' veranda. A few new faces were there. Two faces, well known, +were missing,--those of Esther Dade and Beverly Field. The latter had +never been the same man since the tragic events that followed so closely +on the heels of the Lame Wolf campaign. Wounds had slowly healed. +Injuries, physical, were well nigh forgotten; but, mentally, he had been +long a sufferer. For months after the death of Nanette, even when +sufficiently restored to be on duty, he held shrinkingly aloof from post +society. Even Webb, Blake and Ray were powerless to pull him out of his +despond. He seemed to feel,--indeed he said so, that his brief +entanglement with that strange, fascinating girl had clouded his soldier +name for all time. To these stanch friends and advisers he frankly told +the whole story, and they, in turn, had told it to the general, to the +colonel commanding the regiment and to those whose opinions they most +valued; but Field could speak of it to none others. Frankly he admitted +that from the moment he met the girl he fell under the influence of a +powerful fascination. Within twenty-four hours of his return from the +Laramie trip they were riding together, and during that ride she asked +to be taken to Stabber's village, and there had talked long with that +magnificent young Sioux. Later, Field surprised her in tears, and then +she told him a pitiful tale. Eagle Wing had been educated, she said, by +her aunt and uncle,--was indeed their nephew and her own cousin. He had +been wild and had given them much trouble, and her aunt was in bitter +distress over his waywardness. It was to plead with him that she, +Nanette, had gone. "Moreau" had been taught mining and mineralogy, it +seems, and declared that he had "located" a most promising mine in the +Black Hills. He could buy off every claim if he had a thousand dollars, +and the mine might be worth millions. Hay pooh-poohed the story. Mrs. +Hay could not persuade him. Then "Moreau" became threatening. He would +join the hostiles, he swore, if his aunt would not help him. Indeed, and +here Field's young face burned with shame, Nanette told him that she +understood that he, Field, was an only son who might inherit wealth in +days to come, and could draw upon his father now for any reasonable sum; +and, within the week of his meeting her, he was on the point of offering +everything she needed, but that he disbelieved the Indian's story. Then, +one night, there came a note begging him to meet her at once. She had a +dreadful message, she said, from "Moreau." The fellow had frequently +been prowling about the trader's during the dark hours, and now she was +afraid of him, yet must see him, and see him at once, even if she had to +ride to Stabber's camp. Field's eyes were blinded and he went. Hay's +horses were ready beyond the corral, and she rode astride on one of +Hay's own saddles. They found "Moreau" awaiting them at the ford, and +there was a scene Field could not understand, for they spoke in the +Sioux language. That night it was that, all in tears at the Indian's +obduracy, she owned that he was her own brother, not merely a cousin, +and together they had all gone back toward Frayne. "Moreau" was to wait +on the flats until she could return to the house. She had been striving +to get him to make certain promises, she said, contingent on her giving +him something from her own means. Field said he remonstrated with her to +the utmost, but she told him no woman with Sioux blood in her veins ever +deserted a brother--or lover. And so she had returned with a packet, +presumably of money, and there they found the Indian clinched with +Kennedy. Kennedy was rescued in the nick of time, and pledged to +silence. The Indian rode away triumphant. Nanette climbed back to her +window, exhausted, apparently, by her exertions, and Field started for +his quarters, only to find the entire garrison astir. The rest they +knew. + +Asked how she came to know of the money in the trader's safe, he said no +secret had been made of it by either Hay or him. She had asked him +laughingly about his quarrel with Wilkins, and seemed deeply interested +in all the details of subaltern life. Either Hay or he, fortunately, +could have made good the missing sum, even had most of it not been found +amongst Stabber's plunder. Field had never seen her again until the +night the general took him to confront her at the Hays', and, all too +late, had realized how completely she had lured and used him. In pride, +honor, self-respect, he had been sorely wounded, and, even when assured +that the general attached no blame to him, and that his name was no +longer involved, he would have resigned his commission and quit the +service had it not been for these soldiers three, Webb, Blake and Ray. +They made him see that, all the more because his father's death had left +him independent--sole master of quite a valuable property--he must stick +to the sword and live down the possible stain. + +And stay he did, refusing even a chance to go abroad the following +spring, and devoting himself assiduously to his duties, although he +shrank from society. They made him sometimes spend a quiet evening at +Ray's or Blake's, where twice Miss Dade was found. But that young lady +was quick to see that her hostess had been scheming, as loving women +will. And then, when he went hoping to see her, yet half afraid, she +came no more. They could not coax her. The early spring had taken him +forth on long campaign. The ensuing fall had taken her to the far +distant East, for gallant old Dade was breaking down. The doctors sent +him on prolonged sick leave. Then was Fort Frayne indeed a desolate post +to Beverly Field, and when midwinter came, and with it the news that +Dade had but little while to live, he took counsel with Ray, and a +month's leave, not much of which was spent in the South. The old +regiment was represented at the sad and solemn little ceremony when the +devoted husband, father and fellow soldier was laid at rest. + +Nor was Field a happier man when he rejoined from leave, and they all +thought they knew why. Letters came, black-bordered, with Esther's +superscription, sometimes, but only for Mrs. Blake or Mrs. Ray. There +was never one for Field. And so a second summer came and went and a +second September was ushered in, and in the flood of the full moonlight +there was again music and dancing at Fort Frayne, but not for Field, not +for Esther Dade. They were all talking of Nanette, Daughter of the +Dakotas, and Esther, Daughter of the Regiment, as they called her in her +father's Corps, and the mail came late from Laramie, and letters were +handed round as tattoo sounded, and Mrs. Blake, eagerly scanning a +black-bordered page, was seen suddenly to run in doors, her eyes +brimming over with tears. + +Later that night Hogan tapped at Field's front door and asked would the +lieutenant step over to Mrs. Ray's a minute, and he went. + +"Read that," said Mrs. Ray, pointing to a paragraph on the third page of +the black-bordered missive that had been too much for Mrs. Blake. And he +read: + + "Through it all Esther has been my sweetest comfort, but now I must + lose her, too. Our means are so straitened that she has _made_ me + see the necessity. Hard as it is, I must yield to her for the help + that it may bring. She has been studying a year and is to join the + staff of trained nurses at St. Luke's the first of October." + +For a moment there was silence in the little army parlor. Field's hands +were trembling, his face was filled with trouble. She knew he would +speak his heart to her at last, and speak he did:-- + +"All these months that she has been studying I've been begging and +pleading, Mrs. Ray. _You_ know what I went for last winter,--all to no +purpose. I'm going again now, if I have to stay a patient at St. Luke's +to coax her out of it." + +But not until Christmas came the welcome "wire:" + + Patient discharged. Nurse finally accepts new engagement. + +FINIS + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Daughter of the Sioux, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX *** + +***** This file should be named 19023.txt or 19023.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/2/19023/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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