News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-08-31

ministered another dose of brandy, but
at sight of Brewster the languid, half
open eyes began to gleam and the mus
cles of the lips to twitch.
''StOop lower, Brewster; he wants to
speak to you" said Holden. And Brews-
ter inclined his ear almost to the black
mustache.
Then with sudden bound he was on
his feet again.
"Whatr' he cried. "God of heaven,
man! do you mean it?" His face was
ashen in an instant, but his eyes never
quit their questioning gaze. Ellis nodded
vehemently, striving again to speak.
doctor, do you hear?" cried Brewster,
in mad dismay. He says Mrs. Berrien
and Winifred are in the ambulance
broken down at Wolf Creek" And
without another word he darted from
the tent.
Ten minutes more, dozen men of the
"black troop" were bracing cinch straps,
buckling throat latches and loading
blankets on their astonished steeds De-
spite the bowling of the gale half the
camp was up and astir, Farquhar among
the first. Brewster had his own horse
saddled and was astride before any one
else was fairly dressed, and by this time
Ellis had recovered sufficiently to speak
and tell his story. The train from the
east came in on time at three, and he
was amazed to see Mrs. Berrien's face.
No one dreamed of her coming, for the
wires were down. The quartermaster
ran to meet her, and the sergeant him
| 70, ~ Ho,- g
her husband. Nothing would answer,
though, but that she must go to him at
| once.
In vain did Major Sterrett plead with
her, saying it took five hours to drive
over to the cantonment by day and he
feared the evening would be dark and
stormy. Go she would, and the quar-
| termaster ordered out his own ambu-
| lance and best four mule team, with his
own driver and compile of armed out
riders. He gave the ladies hot tea,
loaded in lots of blankets and robes, and
| they started about half past three, were
in the teeth of the gale at five o'clock,
| in pitch darkness and off the road at six,
and somewhere about seven the mules
| became unmanageable in the blizzard,
| whirled short around and snapped off
| the pole. By this time, too, one outrider
was lost, the other was frozen half to
death and had been drinking whisky
The driver was so stiff he could hardly
move hand or foot, and he and Ellis had
the utmost difficulty in cutting loose
the mules. There was every prospect
of their capsizing the wagon, and they
had to get the ladies out until the beasts
were free. Then he found they were
close to Wolf creek, more than half
way, and Ellis determined to push on
through the cantonment for help, first
replacing the ladies in the covered
wagon, wrapping them in furs and
blankets and fastening the curtains.
The hurricane increased. He and his
horse We're both blinded, and at last the
poor brute stumbled, fell into a ravine
and could barely struggle to his feet.
Abandoning his horse, Ellis pushed ON
afoot and reached camp he knew not
how. He only remembered hearing
that distant tattoo.
Farquhar never hesitated. Brewster
never asked. Holden made him and
each of his men swallows cup of steam
ing coffee, and the colonel took it as
very man to go.
"You have brandy and blankets in
plenty?" he asked. Holden is loading
more into the ambulance, and it follows
at once. Off with you now"
Impatient even of this brief detention,
Brewster led his little band of troopers
off into the night There was not man
in the Twelfth that wouldn't have faced
worst things than a blizzard for old
Berriens sake, and as for this it was but
bagatelle. "All we've got to do is scud
before the gale, fellers," sung out Muir
ply, joyously, as they went cantering
out of camp, and in second more were
lost to sight and hearing. Then came
the clatter and rattle of the hospital
team, the ambulance, weighted down
with robes and blankets and brace of
heavy troopers, despite which ballast
the light vehicle was well nigh whirled
over by the force of the gale. And then
Farquhar and the doctor had time to
turn to Ellis and to think
''They must have got my dispatch
Tuesday night and left by the earliest
train" said Holden. "How utterly out
rageous proceeding! And yet might
have known it of Mrs. Berrien."
Meantime there had been dismay at
the quartermaster's depot. Sterrett,
noting the increasing severity of the
gale at lightfall, had begun upbraiding
himself for having allowed the ladies to
persist in the rash attempt. He had
done his best to persuade Mrs. Berrien
and to assure her that the major was
doing we'll; he pointed out to her that
they had nothing but rough shelter of
log and turf and canvas at the camp;
that there was absolutely no place
where delicately nurtured women could
be cared for. lie offered her and Miss
Winifred his own warm, snug, though
rudely furnished room at the station,
and ordered his chief clerk to clear out
and sleep in the office. He told her how
impossible it was for him to leave his
post and his duties of forwarding sup
plies, and explained that there was no
officer to properly escort them. But one
by one she had promptly overthrown his
objections. Escort? Here was Sergeant
Ellis What better could sho ask? AS
for lack of accommodation at the camp,
had she not lived all one winter with
her beloved Dick in a Kansas dugout
just the year after their marriage? Had
she not camped with him on the Yellow
Stone?-nursed him in deserted log hut
through the mountain fever in the Big
Horn? Were there not women, school
teachers and the agents and traders
families there at the agency? What had
she to fear for herself or Winifred in
the midst of the Twelfth?
"But the regiment is ordered to march
tomorrow" said Sterrett. "lt is an open
secret that the Indians have slipped
away from the troops along the Chey-
enne, and there's the mischief to pay"
"All the more reason for my being at
my husbands side" promptly answered
this army heroine. "Dr. Holden will
have to go, and Dick will be left prac-
tically alone. Winifred and | start at
once, even if we have to walk"
OF course that ended the matter
Against such determination he was
powerless. Having first done his best
to detain them he had then bent all his
efforts to the duty of transportation, and
now at u late hour in the evening and in
the energetic and familiar language of
the corral was disappearing the fate that
had led him TO yield his better Judgment
to her Importantly. Somewhere about
nine O'Clock one of the outriders had
been dragged off his horse more dead
than alive and told pitiful tale of hav-
ing been driven before the storm, and
he didn't even know how far they had