The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-10-27

/ battali Ion now fonrscoar'e NIL way
Een route to Still more threat tened
poin and, under the orders flashed
after him by wire and swift courier,
Rhett was coming back to Pawnee,
bringing the sufferers with him The
killed had been buried, temporarily at
least, at the scene Of the savage fight.
There were thirty wounded in his
care, borne mostly on. travels and
drawn by captured Indian ponies.
When he halted at the end of his days
march Painted Lodge Butte bore south
west by west perhaps fifteen miles
away, and the stage-station at the
bridge over the Mini Ska lay probably
five miles from their upstream picket.
A group of officers, chatting in low
tones around the camp fire among the
cottonwoods, dispersed about ten p. M,
and all but the commander of the
guard rolled into their blankets, one or
two of the number enjoying good
night Whit at their brier roots as they
stretched themselves on the sod. Be-
yond the heavy breathing of some
sleeper and occasionally feverish
moan among the wounded, who, with
their attendants, were sheltered in
little hollow out Of reach of possible
shot. the camp was very quiet. The
few horses, the mules and the Indian
ponies were securely hoppled and
guarded where they could Craze at
will on a bench just to the north of
camp. and when the moon came riding
up the eastern sky and family pictur-
ing the bluff bordered valley, the
scene was one of calm and placid re-
pose. Fenton, the officer of the day,
could not held remarking upon it., as he
went trudging out over the grassy slope
for a midnight visit to his pickets.
They had been talking of the strange
and successful scheme by which the
outlaws had lured the paymaster on to
Minden and there robbed him, for the
theory of the civil authorities that
cavalrymen alone were the perpetra-
tors had received something OF a set
back when these gentlemen from Ran
som met the wounded and the guards
from Tintop's command and learned
that the only absentees at the time Of
the robbery were Schultz and
Schramm, who could hardly have eff
fected it by themselves; and what OPP
portunity had they had of learning the
paymaster's movements? True, the
sheriff's people, unable to find out what
had become Of the two, forbidden to
invade the confines of another terri
tory, which they would do if they fol-
lowed the cavalry, afraid to linger in
the valley after the cavalry had gone,
and utterly averse to searching among
the Sioux trails for their prey, had re-
turned to the. railway. Among the
wounded was Lieut.. Edwards, the pay
masters friend, and no one was more
interested about this affair in which
his name had been so recklessly and
effectively misused than Edwards him
seie., The young doctor with. the
wounded told him he mustn't talk SO
much, bi.tI Edwards was bound to find
out all he could, and so it happened
that this very night, catching sight of
the officer Of the day as he started out
on bis rounds, Edwards feebly hailed
him, on the shallow pretense that he
had something to tell.
.'Say, cap, I wanted to ask you if
you knew we were just about opposite
the gap that Thornton and his fellows
took to nursue those road-agents?"
Certainly. They went up right over
yonder," said Fenton, pointing to
where, dim and shadowy, a ravine
seemed to pierce, wedge-like, the bar
rier of the northward range. ''But
what do you mean by lying awake and
asking conundrums when you ought
to be asleep?"
Because I'm id sight more in
terested in old Graves predicament
than I am in our own, though I may
vet have to convince vigilant treas
ury that some other fellow, not I, sent
that dispatch. We were only twenty
miles east of here when that courier
caught us with the news of the thing
and the statement that the gang had
scattered, some coming our way. The
courier himself saw two of them, he said,
as he came across the bridge, far up
across the prairie, riding for Wagon
gap 1OT dill CIey were WO1tA. 4 AOh As,
sueaked over and struck the trail and
said that not two, but six at least: had
gone to the gap. That's how Thornton
came to be sent back with orders to pur-
sue and punish, capture, recover, and all
manner Of things that Tintop knew
perfectly well he couldn't do, yet had
to order him in compliance with his
own instructions. He must have ridden
right across the line of fight of the
Sioux we whipped on Sunday, and If
SO, God help him and his! There's moth
ing left of 'em but wolf-ba;t now"
ooh, you're little used up, Ed
wards. They'll squeeze through all
right, think. Quit your talking and
go to Sleep
81 can't sleep. 'Tisn't that this hole
hurts me so, or that Pm SO thirsty, but
can't get 1atonfounded business
out of my head, and I'm worried about
Thornton"
''Well, shut up" said the captain.
'Listen.'' And he stood holding out q
warning hand.
"What do you hear?" asked Edwards,
presently.
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