News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-09-07
CHAPTER XIII,

There was silence and anxiety in the
long range of winter camps about the
agency. The Twelfth were gone, no
north, over toward those frowning bad
Lands"-all the more wild and treacher-
GUS now that the snow had filled every
rift and crevice, for the jagged surface
was one mass of pitfalls-other battal-
ions of horse were also gone, and the
vigilant watch over those Indians still
clustering about their old haunts in the
valley was redoubled. The heavier guns
of the field battery commanded the
smoky lodges, the lighter pieces were
away with the cavalry. The infantry,
muffled to their eyebrows, manned the
rifle pits aud guard line and threw their
sheltering wings over the deserted
camps. For good or for i'll, the crisis
was at hand. Whatsoever doubt had
existed as to the almost universal hos
tility of the Sioux was banished by the
events of the preceding week. The at
tempted ambush of Sergeant Ellis, of
upon the scouts and couriers at the Por-
cupine, and, lastly, the affair at the
Wolf, in which Brewster a second time
had gained distinction, all pointed un-
erringly to one conclusions: whatsoever
might be their assurances to officials
high in rank, to agents whose power
would be at end were war to ensue, to
self constituted trainers of public opin-
ion, every soldier on the spot knew, and
well knew, that the Indians would be
peaceable only in presence of formida-
BILE force of bluecoats, but that nothing
but ambush and massacre awaited the
whites who ventured forth unguarded.
Up to this moment, however, of all those
gathered at the scene the only troops
which had had actual collision with the
Sioux were OF Berrien's battalion.
Far away south at the Pawnee old
Kenyon had been doing his utmost to
still the anxious fears among the fami-
lies of the absent soldiers, There had
been lively excitement when the papers
arrived giving sensational details of Ber-
rien's wound and of the affair at the
Porcupine, but it was as nothing to that
which prevailed over the tidings of the
imminent peril in which Mrs. Berrien
and Winifred had been placed. That it
was Just like Mrs. Berrien to insist ON
Joining her wounded husband at once
was conceded by all, but opinions diff
fered as to the propriety of her course in
taking Winifred with her. This the
major decided by prompt assertion that
Miss Berrien doubtless refused to be left
behind. "And, being a very lovely
blending of the characteristics of both
her parents" said he, ''it would have
been decidedly unlike Miss Berrien to
have stayed at home"
And then came the dread news that
great band from the northeast, rein
forced by reckless gang of fanatical
young ghost dancers from the Bad
Lands, had broken away, and that all
the regiments had gone to head them off.
Far, without fight, they could uct go.
The question was which regiment would
be the first to meet them. Then the
next nights mail brought the next days
papers, and the Twelfth. having swung
bose and being absent from the neigh
borhood whence were derived the items
on which correspondents based their re-
ports and editors their comments, shared
the usual fate Of the absentee, and HAY
ing sustained the only casualties and in
ficted the only punishments yet heard
of about the agency, was now coming in
for it's share of the "toujours tort" to
which il waa, Of course, justly entitled,
Kenyon first glarcd at and then exploded
over IL dispatch which read somewhat as
follows:
"All hope Of bloodless solution of the
difficulty is now at an end. Even the