San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-11-22

BerT1en ana HIS party are sui OuG VI
sight from camp.
Captain, may / borrow your field
glasses asked Mr.. Brewster, swinging
up to the fire where Hazlett stands. II
have lent mine to the sergeant of the
guard"
did you see where the major WENT"
asks Hazlett by way of reply, as he
hands the desired instrument.
Il last saw him at the point yOnder.
He rode around it with Sergeant Ellis
and a couple of men, and that vedette
must have been calling to him. 1t
seems to me they've been gone some
time: so GOrham says can ride out and
find out what it means"
"Td go with you, Brewster, but my
horse is out at herd. Take the glasses
with you, anyhow" Brewster's big
black is led up at the moment, and the
lieutenant quickly mounts and canters
easily away.
Meantime, old Berrien, who has noted
the signals of the vedette referred to,
has Joined him, with the brief inquiry,
What is it, Scott:"
why, sir, was posted here by the
sergeant, and he had no sooner gone
than | saw what took to be hOrsemen
in the valley several miles out yonder to
the southwest. The major can see the
whole country from butte that lies
perhaps three hundred yards farther out
beyond this ridge. But here comes the
sergeant back, sir"
1t is Ellis, cantering briskly from the
advanced position Scott has designated,
and coming to them now around the
shoulder of the bluff a little to the right.
That Ellis has seen something is evil
dent; his face shOws'it in an instant.
IAN Indian war party, major, per-
haps dozen, rode from behind long
ridge over to the west and down into
the valley of what take to be branch
of the POrcupine. That butte hides a
good deal of the valley: but we can see
it from there. though"
You three men come with me-" says
Berrien quietly. I'VE must look into
this"
Two minutes lOpe brings them to the
butte Ellis has pointed out. Leaving
their horses with the orderly, Berrien,
the sergeant and the sentinel go crouch
ing up the hither slope, throw them
selves ON the ground and crawl to the
summit. As the vedette has said, the
whole country for miles in every direc-
ton can be seen-a country of bold con-
tours, of bare, rounded bluffs and buttes,
of deep, shadOwy ravines and gulches-
a country bare of trees save the ghostly,
leafiess COttOnwOOds perChed by the
banks of many frozen stream. Miles
and miles to the north and northwest
the wild Indian land spreads before their
eyes. Close at hand, tumbling, billowv
and abrupt, the ridges follow or inter
cept one another in rapid succession.
The face of the land is cut up into tor
tuous breaks" the deep, narrow beds
of countless little streams, all winding
tributary to the river that flows placidly
away to the northeast in the broad val
ley from which the column marched at
dawn Beyond that, west of north,
clearly, sharply defined in the distance,
already alternating glaring surface and
ghostly shade under the slanting rays of
the westerlng sun, tumbhng mass of
jagged, fantastic shapes, tangle of
vertical cliffs and scanned and furrowed
walls, labyrinth of gOrges, gullies,
washed out channels, deep, black crew
ices, and broad, yawning, impossible
CULTS, the stored Bad Lands of Dakota,
Stunned by all except the renegade and
outlaw in the past, now habitable only
by the Indian. Beyond these, faint and
dim in the distance, the snow covered
pine crested SUBMITS in the Black Hills
All the rest of the surface, east, west
and south, a frozen sea of gray, glinting
here and there i'll the declining rays; anC
there off to the southwest, perhaps five
miles away, lies the valley into which
the party of dusky warriors has gal
Hoped SO short a time befOre-the VALLEY
beyond which, long, long days marcel
away, stands,the guarded camp of com
rade sOldiery awaiting their return
Berrien studies the scene long and care
fully through his glasses. Intermediate,
ridges are not many, but they are sharl
and clearly defined.
"Who was it reported that the adj
vance saw signal smokes south of US a
noong" he asks.
Corporal Waite, sir; he and two o
the men saw them plainly, and the.
seemed to be answered off here" AM
Ellis points miles away to the west
Rarripn npn6arS q nOman+
"Where away would you locate tn
agency, sergeant, if you were going t
take bee line for it:'
"Out off here, sir"
"And they crossed that line going int
the valley"
"They certainly did, sir, and Lool
major! look youder! Another band