Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 March 1895 — Page 15

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 1895.

15

' ' A. NOVElBy Capt. Cliorles mng, Author ow Tbb Deserter," -a M'ah-Timb Wooikg." etc.

Copyrighted, 1S05, by. CHAPTER I. The enow was mantling: tha -wild traste of barren prairie stretching toward the white peaks of the Big Horn, shrouding ita desolation, hiding its accustomed ugliness and warning scout, soldier or cowboy to look well to his land marks before venturing forth upon Its track less sea, for even the cattle trails were KtflETA rnal Inst tn view Between its banks of glistening white the Platte rolled black and swollen, for a rare thing had happened one so4rare : that old trappers and traders said they never knew the like before since nrst they sighted "Larmie" Peak or forced the passes of the Medicine Bow there had been three days of softly-falling now, and not a whisper ot a Wyoming gale. There had been ' a thaw in the Laramie plains, preceded by a soft south wind In tho park country of Colorado, and whole fleecy . hillsides, said the natives, were slumping off into the upper waters of the river, and that was how the Platte came to be tossing high Its wintry wave under the old stockade at the ferry and sweeping In power, instead of sleeping beneath its icy blanket, around the huge bluff where waved the colors of old Fort Frayne. The roadway, winding from thevriverelde up to the adjutant's office at the southern end of the garrison, was still Unbroken. The guard at the ferry house had been withdrawn, . and as for h& veteran stockade, sole relic of the early days of the overland stage route, it looked now In its silence and desolation, heavily capped as it was with its weight of snow, like some huge, flattened out Charlotte De Russe, at least that was what Ellis Farrar, daughter of the post commander, likened it to as she peeked, from the north window of their cotey quarters on the crest of the bluff. "And .to think of Christmas being almost here and not a chance of getting a wagon through from the railway," she muri mured, "and I so long to make it bright and Joyous for mother. It ' 13 always; . her saddest season." - These low-toned words were addressed" to Captain Leale, of her father's regiment, a strong, soldierly-looking man Vf nearly forty years, who, with field glaijs In hand, had been studying the wintry landscape to ; the north and east. He turned as the young girl spoke, andj lowering his glasses, followed her eyes and looked anxiously across the bright army parlor to where the Are light frotri the blazing logs upon the hearth fell full upon a matronly woman whose luxuriant hair was already turning gray and whose sweet, patient face bore the - unmistakable trace of deep sorrow. She was seated at a desk, an unfinished letter before her, and had paused in the midst of her writing and dropped off Into the dreamland of far away scenes and memories. From a drawer In the desk she had taken what was evidently a portrait, a small photograph, and had been Intently studying it while, the only, other occupants of the. room were busy at the window. "It is you Tcnow Royle's, my brother's picture,', whispered Ellis. "I know it, though I haven't seen it In ever so ong five years. I think." Again the. Captain bowed,' inclining his head in the slow, grave way that was habitual .with him. VI know," he said, briefly, and the gaze he fixed upon his colonel's wife was full of anxiety and sympathy.' "I have often wished that your father's promotion had brought him to any other garrison in the army. You remember he was stationed here when lieutenant colonel, and It was from here that Royle went to West Point." -"' "I remember it but vaguely. That was nine years ago. Captain, and I was but seven. We saw him during, his cadet furlough two years later in 1883 and that was the last. Mother only rarely speaks of him, and father never, unless unless," she added, with tlnia appeal, "he does to you. Does he?" . Captain Leale paused a moment before replying. Only that very morning had his colonel talked . with him, the most trusled of his troop commanders, of Ellis's long-missing brother. Only within an hour had Farrar sought again his advice as to one whom he could not bring himself to name, and -referred to lm in shame and sorrow as "my eldest nd only rarely as "my son." First , orn'of the little flock, the boy had been given his father's name. The only child for several years, petted, spoiled, overindulged by a fond, pure-hearted mother, then reared among the isolated " army garrisons of the far West, the handsome, headstrong, daring fellow had developed into vigorous youth, but all too early had shown a tendency to wild companionship and reckless living. Few men in- the cavalry arm of, the service were held In higher esteem than Col. Royle Farrar, who, entering the service with the first regiment to be sent to the front from New York city in the spring of 1861, had f Ought his way to the command of a brigade in the last campaign, and then been commissioned as a junior major of cavalry at the reorganization of the regular army. The President himself had tendered Farrar, long afterwards, a cadetship for his son, and it was gratefully yet almost fearfully accepted. The mother could not be brought to believe her boy. would not strive to do honor to his name at the Point. The father dreaded that the wayward, reckless fellow, intolerant of restraint or discipline, would merit punishment, and, being , punished, would resent. Royle stood the ordeal only fairly well at first. Demerit in profusion and "light prison" twice had clouded his record before the furlough year, but the mother's eyes rejoiced in the sight of the handsome, stalwart young soldier after his two years of rigorous training, even though the mother heart grieved over the evidences of dissipation and vice which speedily marred the lons-looker-for days of his vacation. . Between him and his father had been more than one stormy scene before Royle returned to the academy interviews from which the senior issued pale, stern, sorrowful; the young man gloomy, sullen and more than half defiant. In hid second class year came tidings of misdemeanor that almost broke the mother's heart. Farrar hastened- from the distant frontier to

v2 the banks of the Hudson, expecting nothing short of dismissal for the boy and Vomlslng the mother to fetch him at ace to her. but the court vn f

jicing, had signed a plea for mercy for cadet who bore so honored a came.

P. Tennyson Seel?.

a plea that his classmates would never have indorsed, and the President remitted the punishment to a term of confinement to barracks and camp. The father wasted no words In reproach. He pointed out to the son that now was his last chance. Royle, Jr.. had sullenly responded that his disgrace was due entirely to spies and tale bearers and showed neither contrition nor promise: "of amend. A year later came the last i straw. Reported for a violation of regu lations in navmg liquor in ms possession, Cadet Farrar wrote a lying explanation to the effect that it was placed in his room by parties unknown to him and for the purpose of bringing him into trouble, but he had been seen "off limits" at a questionable resort in the neighboring village the previous night, had been drinking and card playing there, had lost money and refused to pay, had been seen returning by two lower classmen to whom he offered liquor, then staggered to his quarters only an hour or so before reveille roll call. He was placed in close arrest after being confronted with the array of evidence, and that night deserted and was seen no more. Again the Colonel made his mournful pilgrimage to the Point, and old comrades pityingly, sorrowfully told him the whole story.. He went back to his regiment looking ten years older, took his wi:!e and two younger children. Will and Ellis, to his heart, and from that day never spoke again his first bom's name. It had been for years his custom to sign all official papers in full Royle Farrar but the very sound of the Christian name seemed from that time on to give him distress, and R. Farrar became his signature personal or official. The young man was heard of occasionally, however, borrowing money from officers and friends and- relatives on his father's account. Then he went to sea, then returned to New York and wrote a long letter to his mother telling how he mourned the old days, and was going to lead a new life, and she too gladly sent him all the money she had. Then there was another interval, and, after a year, he again appeared as suppliant for aid. He had been desperately ill, he said, and kind bat poor humble people had cared for him, and they ought to be rewarded. .The mother would have sent again, her last cent to him direct, but Farrar interposed. "His check went to a trusted friend,, with instructions to investigate, and that friend was his old comrade. Major Fenton, and, as he expected, it. proved only, another lie. i Then there came an era of apparent prosperity, and now. the poor mother in Joy 'besought her husband to recognize the son, for he reported himself in good employ, with a' fair salary and brilliant .prospects. .He even sent a draft to repay a small portion of what he termed his father's loan, but this was soon followed by a draft on his father for double the amount, and later another, and then letters of inquiry came from his employer, , and then rueful complaint of how sthat trusting ; person . had been swindled. In her agony of ' grief "and disappointment' the mother's health was giving way, and Farrar concealed from her particulars even worsen-that their wretched son had won the' love of his employer's only daughter, and that she had followed him from her father's house. There had been a secret marriage. There was another Royle. This news had come to the Colonel but a day or two before. It was this that had unsealed his lips and turned him to Captain Leale for counsel and support. "My daughter," wrote the bereaved father, "was the Idol of my heart, the image of the mother who was taken from her long t years ago. Yet she turned from me in the passion of her love for him, and they have gone God alone knows where. If you can find him, say that though he has robbed me poor, I can forgive him all if he will but be good and kind to her. She was delicately nurtured, as carefully educated as your own daughter could be, sir, and she was more to me. for she was my all. I own that, having married him, her duty was with her husband, but why should she have hidden that marriage from her father? My own fortune is well nigh wrecked, but she has her mother's little portion enough, if he can resist his craving for drink and gambling, to support them in comfort. I pray you help me save my child." All this sad history was now well known to' Malcolm Leale, and his eyes were full of sorrow as he bent them upon the gentle, yearning woman at the desk, lost in her study of her first born's face1. Elli3 in turn stood watching him. She was a girl of sixteen, yet seemed older far, because of the years in which she had been her mother's companion and closest friend. Then as he made no answer to her query and seemed plunged in thought she turned and stepped lightly over to the mother's side. "Day dreaming again, Queen Mother?" she asked in the half playful way that, was habitual with her. "If you don't, go on with your letter to Will it won't be ready for the courier. Captain Leale tells me they are to send one out at noon." "Will they really?" asked Mrs; Farrar, rousing suddenly. "Why, I had given up all hope of hearing from him this week or of getting a letter to him. Who is to go. Captain? The pass must be breast deep in snow." "I think not. Mrs. Farrar. There was very little wind, you know, and the fall seems to have been very uniform. Corp. Rorke and a couple of my men are getting ready now.. The Colonel was only waiting, hoping that there might be st.Ul some news from Red Cloud." "Why, how can it come? The wires are down, the road hidden and the river unfordable,; said Ellis, eagerly. "The last news was bad enough. 1 own I don't want to hear further." Over Leale's face a graver shadow fell. "There ere Indian riders who could easily make the journey," he said. ,"Crow Knife, for Instance, whom the Colonel sent over with the scouts five ;days ago. The, fact that he hasn't returned makes me hopeful that matters are quieting down," but here he turned again to the window to level his glass upon the broad, rolling expanse of white stretching in wave after wave to the bleak horizon. . "God forbid there should be further trouble," said Mrs. Farrar, slowly, llngerlngly replacing the portrait in its drawer. "Surely the general has force enough there now to keep those Indians in check," she ventured, appeallngly. Leale lowered his binocular again. "He has, provided the renegades captured on the Cheyenne are not sent back there. Those people should not be taken to the agency. They are Minneconjous, Uncapapas, Brules, a turbulent, ill conditioned lot, who make trouble wherever the others are peaceably disposed. They should have been disarmed and dismounted and put under guard at Fort Robinson until this question is settled. What I fear is that Red Wolfs band is still out and is defying the agent, and that the revolt will spread to Kill Eagle's village. If they go on the warpath some of our best scouts will be involved. That boy Crw Knife is worth his weight in gold. but his father and mother would follow Kill Eagle." "Do you think do you think that if they should revolt, we. our command, would have to be ordered out?" asked Ellis, anxiously. "It might be." he replied, cautiously, "but I am hoping that no winter campaign is in store for us. Think of a march over such a waste as that," and lie pointed to the snow-clad scene before them. "We couldn't cross the Platte this side of Laramie, either, even if. the stream were ford able. . The runiving ice would cut the horses from under us." Out across the parade, clear, yet soft, as though muffled by the snow, the cavalry trumpet beaan sounding orderly call. . "Rorke and his men will start as soon as they have had dinner, Mrs. Farrar." said Leale, "and I must see the Colonel before they go. 1 will send for your letters." He took up the glasses agar: for cne last survey, Kills narrowly watching hirrtA while her mother went on with her writing. For a moment the

search seemed barren of result as before, but suddenly Leale started, stepped nearer the window and riveted his attention on one spot. Ellis quickly noted It. "You see some one?" she asked. -A brief nod was the only answer. Then, glass in hand, the Captain suddenly turned to a side door,1 let himself out into another room and thence to the outer gallery surrounding the house.

Here his view was unobstructed. Two 4 gentlemen were coming up tho pathway from the adjutant's office, and a soldier in immaculate uniform and side arms following a short distance behind indicated that the one In uniform was the post commander the elder one a distinguished looking . man of . nearly sixty, whose pointed mustache and imperial were well nigh as white as the new-fallen snow about him, whose complexion, bronzed by years of exposure to prairie sun and wind, was ruddy brown, almost like Russian leather. Over Leale's face fell the same shadow of anxiety that was noted when he stood gazing in silence upon the sorrowing mother at the desk within. The Colonel was talking in an earnest manner to the man at his side, a civilian so far as his dress would indicate, yet a civilian with the erect carriage and brisk step of a soldier a handsome fellow, too, of perhaps seven and twenty years. Leale turned from them in some impatience. "I'd bet a month's pay, if I ever bet a cent in the world," he muttered to himself, "that old Fenton's nephew had no thought whatever of hunting when he came here in midwinter. The question is, what else has brought him besides what I have already learned, and why he haunts Farrar from morn till night?" At the window the fair, girlish face brightened an instant at sight of the soldier coming, then clouded as quickly as the civilian came in view. "Mr. Ormsby again," murmured Ellis below her breath, and the bow of recognition which she gave him in ' answer to the quick uplifting of his sealskin cap lacked all of the warmth and interest that beamed in Ofmsby's face at sight of her. Seeing Leale," the Colonel pressed on to join him on the northward porch. Catching sight of Ellis, the civilian fell back, entered the gateway and came briskly to the door. An instant later and his step was heard in the hallway. Ellis turned to the window in something not unlike aversion. The mother it was who rose eagerly ; to welcome the coming guest. "Prompt as ever, Mr. Ormsby," she cried, as he entered the parlor, fresh and rosy from the keen outer air. "I wish you might teach my husband to be more punctual at luncheon." "Indeed, I feared I was detaining him, Mrs. Farrar. He's merely stopped one moment to speak with ' Captain Leale. He was showing me over the barracks. You have no idea how vividly interesting all this Is to me. I have shouldered , the musket- with-the Seventh for eight years and have never visited an army post before." .. . "Oh, didn't 'you see your uncle when he was at Riley? He used to write to my husband of you time and again, and or y6ur pride -In your regiment." "No; he was in New York on recruiting service then, a few years ago, you remember, and we used to get him up to the armory or to our camp occasionally." ' : "And he was very, very kind to my poor boy, my Royle," salo. Mrs. Farrar. wistfully, searching the face of her guest, "and when you came to us with letters from our old friend, for we had known him before our marriage," she continued, a faint color rising to her cheek, "it seemed almost like welcoming him. There was nothing too good for Major Fenton that our home afforded after all he tried to do, at least, for for him." The sigh with which she spoke seemed to well up from the depths of the mother's heart. Ellis, with light footsteps, had left the room to greet her father on the piazza without, .and for the first time since his coming, three days previous, just in time to be hemmed in and held at Frayne by the great snowfall. Mrs. Farrar was alone with her guest. "There is something I have longed to ask you, Mr. Ormsby," she went on, "something I must ask you. for a mother's intuition is keen, and I feel sure you have seen- or known my poor boy in the past. Have you heard do you know anything of him now?" "Mrs. Farrar, I give you my word I have not the faintest idea of his whereabouts." "Forgive me If I am intrusive importunate," she persisted. "But Major Fenton he was Major Fenton then, you know, and I think of him with the title he bore when he was so good so friendly when my unhappy boy most needed friends. You were with your uncle often then. Did you not meet did you not know my Royle?" Ormsby's honest eyes betrayed the deep embarrassment under which he labored, and she, . watching every sign with painful intensity, read the truth despite his faltering reply. "Once or twice, Mrs. Farrar, but I knew him onlv very slightly." "Tell me still more, Mr. Ormsby. You have been most considerate to me. You have sought to , spare me, but in my husband's sad face, In his abstracted manner I have read the truth. He has heard news worse news of Royle, and jou have been the bearer. Is it not so?" But Ormsby pulled himself together this time, at least, like a man and braved her. "I assure you it is not so. Mrs. Farrar. From me, at least, the Colonel has heard nothing new, nothing worse. I beg you to dismiss the thought." But he did not say that he had come prepared to tell, aye, instructed to tell, of crowning disgrace come with the written proposition of his employers to relinquish pursuit of Royle Farrar provided the father would make good the sum they had lost through the son's forgery. v "God bless you, Mr. Ormsby, for the load you have lifted from my heart." she cried. "Ever since you came I have dreaded more and more each day that you were the bearer of evil tidings of him who has almost broken his father's heart, and yet cannot, must not, shall not be beyond redemption if a mother's love and prayers are of any avail. Even Ellis has seemed to share my dread. I have read it in her manner, as, perhaps, you have, too. She did not mean to be unkind, inhospitable to our guest, but that sorrow has overshadowed us all. all. Even my bright, brave Will, who is doing all a boy can do to redeem the name at the Point even Will, I say. is sometimes confronted by the record that his erring brother left." The tears were starting from her eyes now, and In uncontrollable emotion she turned away. Then came a loud rap at the front door and a servant hastened to open it. A loud, cheery Irish voice resounded through the hallway an instant later. "Corporal Rorke to report to the Colonel for dispatches," and... glancing thither. Ormsby saw a stout trooper, with broad, jovial, ruddy face, his burly form clad in winter service dress. Mrs. Farrar, striving to hide and to check her tears, had turned into the dining room. Ormsby stepped to thenorth window and glanced out upon the little group upon the porch. Ellis half shiveringly clinging to her father's arm, he intently eyeing Leale; Leale, with leveled glasses, steadily at gaze at some dim. black object far, far across the turbid Platte, far out to the eastward, across those snow-clad slopes. "Can you make out what's coming, Leale?" "I think so, Colonel." "What IS it?" Leale slowly lowered the glass, and. never turning, answered in low but positive tone: "Our marching orders for the agency.", . CHAPTER II. At noon that bright December day the barracks and quarters of Fort Frayne were resounding with song and laughter and all "the good-natured, soldierly noise" with which the garrison was busily preparing for the blithe festivities of Christmas. Two hours later, though the scene was unchanged, the preparations were for war. "Leave the band to guard the post, but take every available trooper," were the injunctions that accompanied the .seneral's Lrief orders to. Colonel Farrar.

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"Strike when you find and wherever you find Kill Eagle's' band." Tearful eyes along officers' row watching the silent group at headquarters told all too'plainly with what dread the tidings had been received. With the wires down, the railway blockaded, the stage road deep in snow, there was only one means of communication left, and two Indian scouts on their hardy ponies, leaving the field column at dawn the previous day, had made their unerring way through the trackless maze of snowclad ridge, ravine, divide and coulee, through a labyrinth ,-of bad land3, bad enough in midsummer, and across many a frozen creek, until at last they struck the northern shore of the swollen Platte and followed on up stream until opposite old Fort Frayne. - And now, indeed, was the road to the ferry broken and plowed and speedily trodden hard, for hosU of stalwart men had rushed to the river side, and out from its winter hiding; place they dragged one of the huge pontoon boats and launched it in the ice-whirling flood, and the sweeps were manned by brawny arms in blue, and, with boat hooks driving at the ice cakes and the foam flying from the oar blades and from under the blunt and sloping prow, cheered from the southern shore, they fought their way to where, like black, silent statues, the riders waited at the brink, and then Indians and ponies both were bundled aboard and ferried back again, landing two hundred yards down stream; but even before they could breast the bluffs and carry their dispatches to the cavalry chief the news they bore was shouted up the heights: "Red Wolf escaped Kill, Eagle's whole village has jumped for the Bad Lands." And that meant that the Twelfth must drop Its Christmasing and fetch the wanderers home. The old, old story told again, and just as it had been time and time before. Absurdity In the Indian policy; mismanagement of the Indian Bureau; starvation in the Indian villages; murmurings of cilscontent among the old warrors; talk of summary action among the young braves; emissaries from disaffected bands; midnight councils, harangues, dances, threats, an arrest or two, escape and then a general rush to join the hostiles in the field. , Prompt to act on this occasion, as ever before, the moment he was enabled to learn through the chagrined ofticiala of the Indian Bureau of the escape of this turbulent leader and the flight of Kill Eagle's people from the agency, the general commanding in the field dispatched a small force of cavalry to interpose between the latter and the large bands of hostiles already lurking In the Bad Lands, and, giving the commander of this force instructions to turn Kill Eagle westward and by steady pursuit keep him "on the jump" toward his old hunting grounds behind the Black Hills, he sent couriers across country post haste to Frayne with orders for Colonel Farrar to start at once with his entire force four fine troops of the Twelfth Cavalry to cross the Platte at the first possible point and by forced marches throw himself across the Indians' front and strive to hem them in. With the Platte sweeping alonsr as it was, bank full, a crossing might be impossible nearer than the rocky shallows at the Fetterman Bend, but that made no difference; prompt action was the thing. More than half expecting just such a contingency. Farrar had long since completed his preparations. His packers and their lively mules had been kept in trim. Ten days rations were always set aside in readiness to be packed on the apparcios the moment word should come. Boxes of extra ammunition for carbine and revolver were stacked up in the ordnance storeroom ready to be lashed, two to each, on the sturdy little burden-bearers' backs. Double sacks of grain, precious as nowder on a, winter campaign, were banked at the quartermasters corral. Every trooper's winter kit of fur cap, eloves, fur-lined canvas coat, boots, blankets and reinforced breeches had been carefully inspected only a day or two before. Every horse had been as carefully shod. Extra shoes and shoe nails had been stored in each pair of saddle bags. The horses themselves in their warm, thick winter coat and uncropped manes and tails looked

o

SUCCESS. BE OBTAINED OF shaggy and far from "swell' from the point of view of the Eastern avenues, but were eminently fit for campaigning among the blizzards of the plains, and as for the men, they were serving under a soldier who didn't believe, in letting troopers grow "soft" and out of condition even in midwinter, and so, no matter what the weather, Farrar had had his people out for exercise every week day of the year, and the exercise during the snowstorm had consisted in breaking roads in long compact column of fours all around the plateau on which stood the great spreading garrison, and the men liked it and throve under it, and came in each day glowing with health, to the enjoyment of their substantial dinner, vowing the Colonel knew no end of tricks worth their studying, even if he wasn't a West Pointer, even if he had gone into the army "from the militia" in the old days of the war. And now that ail their Christmas fun seemed summarily ended and they themselves were to be hurried forth upon a sharp and sudden campaign, they sprang to their preparations with cheery vim. almost with eager rejoicing. For three weeks they had been . excitedly reading and discussing the reports of the doings of their comrade regiment,' the Eleventh, around the agency far to the east, and coveting their prominence and distinction. Already they had enviously heard of one or two sharp affairs 5n which the Eleventh , had rounded up a party of young warriors breaking for the Cheyenne country or had surrounded and disarmed Tall Bull's little band of ugly "bluffers." Even at the expense of Christmas trees, Christmas dance, Christmas dinner, they didn't want to loaf in garrison when other regiments were having stirring service in the field. And so. while women wept, the barracks rang with shout and song and cheery whistle, and the laugh and joke went around as the troopers stowed their treasures in the home chest and packed their bulging saddle bag3. Few of their number had wives or children to leave behind. It was over among the officers' quarters that no laughter rang, and the only smiles were -piteous through their mist of tears. "I could bear it better at any other season, Royle," said the Colonel's wife, as she clung, sobbing, to his neck after he had donned his rough field dress. "It seems as though the worst blow ot my life had come to me at Christmas just this time." He bowed in silence, tenderly kissing her, yet even then checking further reference to that ci'owning sorrow. He could not shut out the recollection of how the news of their boy's disgrace had been received on Christmas morning, and now, with another Christmas so close at hand, he was keeping from her tidings that still more had bowed his head in sorrow uncontrollable that his wretched sdti had robbed, deceived and deserted the sweet woman who had trusted him, leaving her penniless to struggle unaided and unknown. Who can say what would have been his shame had he dreamed that this genial, kindly young New Yorker, this stranger within his gates was the bearer of evidence that still further was the son a felon in the eyes of the law. and that .to all his other crimes Royle Farrar had added that of forgery. At noon on this very day Jack Ormsby was striving to nerve himself to carry out his employer's afr ders and break the tidings, but these few words with the gentle mother and the sight of her pathetic face again unmanned him, and in the midst of his irresolution came these sudden orders for the field, and that put an end to all thought of anything else. "I cannot help it," he was saying to Ellis as the girl, pale and sad. but uncomplaining, was busily packing her father's mess chest. "It would be ridiculous tosay I could be of any use, but all the same I want to go. It's the chance of a lifetime. I have never seen an Indian campaign. I haven't an Idea what an Indian fight is like, but d' you know, I couldn't go back and face our fellows of the Seventh and tell them I saw the Twelfth Cavalry start . on its rusli to head off Kill Eagle's band, and that I didn't go, too." "I should want to go if I were in your place," said she. 'I understand It fully. No doubt Captain Leale can fit you out

ANY of the FOLLOWING DEALERS

Herman Adam, 15 North Illinois street. Geo. Raper, Denison-House Cigar Stand. Wm. Kriel, Grand Hotel Cigar Stand. Grand Hotel Bar, Grand Hotel Cigar Stand. H. W. Lawrence, Spencer House Cigar Stand. Chas. Muellershein, St. Charles Hotel Cigar Stand. Union Station Cigar Stand. 1 t Vj;.:f Fred Brandt, 44 West Washington street. Harry A. Walker, T5 East Court street. Henry Smith, 41 North Illinois street. Sherman Restaurant, 18 South Meridian street. E. E. Sherman, 59 South Illinois street. ; Kerschner Bros.' Restaurant, 62 North Pennsylvania st. Stubbln's Hotel Cigar Stand. Commercial Club Restaurant, Commercial Club Building. Chas. Schad, 344 East Washington street. C. G. Weiss & Son, Massachusetts avenuo. A. Buschmann, 150 College avenue. Otto Schope, 302 South Illinois street. R. P. Blodlau, 102 Indiana avenue. M. C. Staley, 441 Virginia avenue. Chas. Kolling, 205 Prospect street. J. N. Hurty, Ohio and Pennsylvania streets. , Con Keller, 680 South Meridian street. Selman's Pharmacy, 27 Clifford avenue. , r D. P. Stoddard. 51 West Washington street.

with campaign clothing, everything you need " "Then I certainly shall go," said Ormsby. "It'll be something to tell about in I Company for the next ten years." And that was how it happened that five days later, in a blinding snowstorm, there rode with the advance of the Twelfth Cavalry a sergeant of the famous New York Seventh at the very moment when the word came from the scouts that Kill Eagle's village was not two miles ahead. Left to his own devices in the matter of carrying out his orders, Farrar had made . a close and careful calculation. With the Laramie road out of sight in snow it might take three days of hard marching to . reach the ford, with the prospect then of finding themselves almost as far from the Indians as before, for the fords lay some forty miles off to the southeast, while, when last heard from, Kill Eagle was striking across country south of the Cheyenne between the upper Niobrara and the Mini Pusa. In the deep valleys were scattered ranches and countless herds of horned cattle, so he was living high on the country as he fled, his rear well guarded by three score young braves, who hovered Just ahead of the pursuing column, peppering its advance guard with longrange shots from every ridge, and so retarding its movement as to enable their old war chief to move his whole village, teepees, lodge poles, women and children, pony herd, dog herd and all, with calm deliberation. By going southeast Farrar would have taken the flooded Platte alongside on his left hand, only to have to turn an acute angle to the north again, march them over rough and broken country, with old Rawhide Butte, perhaps, as his guide, with every probability of finding himself far behind the chase after reaching the broad, deep-lying valley of the Niobrara. Wiser by far he sent back brief word by courier to Laramie, ordering it forwarded by wire from that point. "We go westward up tho Platte, confident of lower water and a crossing this Bide of the big bend. Thence we will swing around northeastward, and, covering a broad stretch of country, keep sharp lookout for Kill Eagle's band. We should meet him somewhere among the breaks of the Allni Pusa southeast of old Cantonment Reno, and. unless they will surrender, I . shall strike at once and strike hard." And here among the breaks of the Mini Pusa, after four days of severe winter marching, Farrar had thrown his little command, Just as he had planned, square across the path of the foe. Direful were the tales that had reached him from ranchmen and settlers, who. having abandoned their homes, were fleeing for the protection of , the frontier forts far back at the base of the Big Horn. Day after day had the young warriors swooped from the traveling village down upon the valleys on either side, murdering men, women and little children, burning the ranches, driving off such cattle as they fancied and ruthlessly butchering all the rest. And still, one or two days' march behind, the pursuing column plunged heavily through the snow. Farrar was an expert, however, and had shrewdly Judged their route. Farrar was merciful, and even in face of, the atrocities that had been committed and under the warrant of his orders and in the belief that the band was few in numbers he would not strike when the blow might fail on women and children, too, until he had given the red chief a chance of surrender. He had been marching since dawn, and It wa3 now 11 Q'clock. An hour earlier, far at the front along a low. snow-covered ridge that stood out sharply against the black bank of cloud that spread from horizon almost to zenith, the scouts began that fierce, sudden circling of their ponies that denoted "enemy in Kight." With their field glasses the officers at the head of the column could see that one of the number, dismounted, was lying close to the crest, peering cautiously over and signaling excitedly to his fellows, who kept well behind him down the mlope. They, in turn, were signaling to the column, and. leaving Leale in command, with orders to move steadily on, the Colonel put spurs to his horse old Roderick

The "ROBERT MANTELL" is the peerless TEN cent agar of .. the Nineteenth Century. PERFECT IN APPEARANCE, PERFECT IN QUALITY, PERFECT AND GENUINE Through and Through. Wherever introduced it has met with a marvelous sale. spared no effort been CROWNED and, followed by his adjutant and an orderly or two, cantered on out. to the front. Ormsby, riding at the moment with Leale at the head of the first troop, felt a thrill of excitement as th Captain coolly interpreted the meaning of the rapid1 movements of the scouts. Eagerly, too. the men seemed to rouse from the "almost slumbrous condition ot the command after Its hours of plodding, and a murmur ran back from troop to troop, "Indians ahead! Now for it, fellows!" And then all eyes were strained on that low ridge against the sky line, and unconsciously the horses seemed to close up toward the head of the column, answering, perhaps, some involuntary pressure of the knees, for suddenly, while the leading troop continued its placid gait the swift, steady four-mil walk those at the rear of the column broke into a Jog trot and never resumed the walk . again until the cautioning voice and hand of the captain seemed to restrain them. And then they could -see that Colonel Farrar, reaching the ridge, had himself dismounted and was lying on the snow and peering over as Little Bat had done before him. Still no word came to accelerate the march, and at the same steady walk the long column, moving by fours here, for th prairie was wide and open and comparatively level, pushed on for. the distant ridge, and when at last they came within hailing distance of the group at the front the adjutant slowly raised his hand and gave the signal, "Halt." and in an Instant the snakelike column stood in its tracks and the men swung out of saddle and , began dancing and thrashing their arms in the effort to start the sluggish blood. (To be continued.) - EXPECTANT r. r.lOTHERO. That our wonderful rwnedr " MOTHTRS FRIEND," which ntkM child-birth etajr mar be within the reee h of mil we have redneed the f ric to m lellsr per bottle, bewar ot reoda, eouuterfelu and eabetltatM. TAKE NOTHINO BUT . . . . . MOTHERS FRIEND. ... solo by aw DBtreeum ... tTWrltt for book "TO MOTHERS" mailed free. THE nBAIriEMKMilIAT01tCt, Solo Proprietor, Atlanta, tit. HAMBURG-AMERICAN LIKE THE ONLY LINE XlZZn theErK.t with Twin-Screw Steamers HEW YORK, SOUTHAMPTON (London, Paris) H AM BUR3 Holding the record for fastest time on thl rooto. SPRtTO SAILINGS. EXPRESS BTEAMEKS F.BUinarck.Ap.11.11 am Columbia, May 23. 11 am Columbia. April '.'", 11 am Bismarck, May SO, 1 lam Nonnannta. May . 11am. Norma nnia. Juno . 11 aia A. Victoria. May 10, 8 am A. Miliaria, Junn 8, am ni rablu, i0 ami upwartl.i 2l cabin, $45 and f AO. BenidtM OIK KCT HAMBl'HU BfcKVRT. b; Twiu Screw Mall 8. 8. from New York satur.iaje. lt (.!! n.f-lV Intonuetiiate, 9i7.: SUwMKe, fid. HAMIllRG-AMKniCAN LIXE. UT HroaUwy. New Votk. FRENZEli BKUS., A. METZOEIt, Agftucy. In. dUuaixill. STL'liENTS ASSISTED TO POSITIONS. BRYANT 4 BTIIATTON Indianapolis V USINESS UtIIVERSIT u Wtien Biitlrttntf. Now in the time t entrr. T mid v,ht s. hooi. t'lurat IVuinau lu State. Writ for aiiciiiiPtia. tU F. BROWN, SupU K. J. HEED, Proprietor. ( , 1 mmmf!mmmmmm Have your Elevators Examined Free of Charge. Repairs at federate Prices. N. J. REEDY ELEVATOR CO., ; i IN U ALLS BLOCK, INPlANAJOJJUt