The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-06-04

VA. PEMBINA COUNTY,
2 o'clock the maid was sent TO bring
him into dinner, he having failed to
appear as hung,ily prompt as usual.
In a quarter of an hour she returned,
full of mingled excitement and fright,
and said that, not finding Trottie on
the parade she had gone to hehouses
OF the other officers children, only to
be told that Trottie was not with any
OF them. Nor had he been seen for
some time. Then Mabel, q terrible
certainty stabbing her heart with q
pang that made her fair face look sud-
denly gray and aged, cried, sharply,
'"That Indian woman has taken him!
My baby! my baby!"
In vain Tom Heriot assured her
that their naughty boy, who was q
great pet in the regiment, would sure
ly be found in one of the soldiers
quarters, feasting his eyes and ears
with strange sights and sounds.
"Go and see," she said hoarsely;
"but you will not find him unless you
will find her."
When he came back presently, very
white and quiet, from his useless
search, the alarm had spread, and there
were kind faces and anxious suggestions
and offers of assistance in Mabel's
pretty little drawing-room which sud-
denly looked 80 desolate.
Nobody but Mabel gave the Indian
woman more than a passing thought,
for they were all used to daily visits
from Indians, who had long been per-
fectly peaceful, and were believed quite
incapable of a bolder crime than pet
ty dishonesty. Besides, what motive
could tempt them to steal q child
whose discovery in their hands would
be most certainly severely punished,
while even his undiscovered Possession
could not avail them in any way? It
was not long before a soldier was sent,
after q whispered consultation, to
climb down the bluff at the further end
OF the parade, toward which the moth.
ers in the garrison had been
glancing ehudderingly ever since
the news of Trottie's disappear
ance. In a terribly short time he re-
turned, tine tears filling his kindly
Irish eyes, and in his hand Trottie's
little fez, which he had found halfway
down the bluff, just where rock over
hung the swift Yellowstone. A great
silence fell upon the fort, which had
been SO full of excitement, and the
voices which had spoken of hope and
courage to Mabel were hushed when
Tom Heriot, sinking down besides his
wife's chair, laid his head on her knees
and sobbed.
1twas Mabel who spoke, almost at
once, in a strange strained voice that
was yet instinct with energy, and
something which, if it were not hope,
yet was resolved that it would not be
dcspnir.
''Tom, darling, do not give him up.
Our boy never went near the bluff. He
promised me again this morning that
he would not, and he would no more
break @ promise than-than you
would, Tom. That Indian womanha
him. Find her-find her quickly, dear
cannot wait much longer"
More to soothe her than from
any hope OF finding her belief true,
Tom, with another officer and a few
soldiers, rode to the little Indian
camp about mile from the fort, only
to find that nothing was left of it but
some burned-out fires. Something OF
his wife's strong conviction seemed to
pass into Tom Heriot's heart at
the sight of that suddenly deserted
camp.
eve must make up several parties
and search for them," he said, briefly,
to the officer with him, as they rode
back to the fort, but there was the
light of new hope in his eyes.
There is this much of resemblance
to a family iii such u small and isolated
community as the garrison at Fort
Fletcher, that, however much they
may quarrel among themselves in
prosperity, the touch of q great sor-
row on one Of it's members effaces all
asperities for the time in tho remem-
brance OF how close and entire is their
mutual dependence on each other.
From the colonel down to the latest
arrived recruit there was no heart in
the regiment that did not feel pang
at the thought of the blue fearless
eyes and straight baby figure which,
whether carried away in the rush of
the Yellowstone or across the prairie
to some Indian hiding place, they had
little hope of seeing again. There
was more volunteers than were needed
for the searching parties as soon as
Tom asked for them, and with the last
one to set out Tom went himself, after
q sharp struggle between his restless
desire to do something toward finding
his boy and his sense that he was leay-
ing Mabel to bear the heaviest burden
of suspense alone. 1t was she who
sent him away i'll the end.
Before midnight they were all gone,
and she was left to wear through the
long hours of waiting in the rooms
where all Trottie's life had been spent,
and where every chair and table grew
precious to her in that long watching.
because they seemed to assure her,
with the dumb force of everyday as
sociation with him, that it was i'm
possible he could be really gone for
ever.
All that night and the next day she
lived through her suspense rs women
live through such agonies. Sometimes
on her knees, sometimes pacing up and
down, answering when she was spoken
to, and eating and drinking when told
to do SO by the friends who took it in
turn not to leave her alone. But
whatever she did, her whole heart, her
whole soul, was one wild prayer-such
q prayer as most of us make in our
bitterest needs, and whose pas
sionate rebellion against what may
be His will, the God who made human
love SO strong must surely forgive,
even when he does not heed it.
1t was nearly sunset on the follow
ing day when Mabel rose suddenly
from her knees. "Listcn!" she said,
sharply.
There were hurried steps coming
across the parade, and it flashed
through her heart that no one hurrles
to tell bad news. Thedoor was push.
ed open by soldier, for once too eager
to remember ceremony. "The squaw
has brought him back" he cried.
Yes she had brought him hack. for