People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1895-12-12

aAsassaazH4c,
- '-AN< M--N@ If,tfoG
f'HE's OVER AT THE OLD FORT NOW. ="
wasn't well with him at least. ''My
orders are to take charge OF this post
and all government property in view,
he had begun when questioned by the
officer Of the day, and as Ferguson's
horse wasn't government property he
might have wriggled out of his, pre-
Aicament under that head were not
other clauses in his orders which he
5mew as well as did the officer of the
day. One of these read: ALLOW no
ihorse to be taken out of the corral be-
tween tattoo and reveille except in pres
ence of a commissioned officer, the quar-
{termaster sergeant or the corporal of
the guard" and as Fergusons horse
could neither have climbed nor jumped
a nine-foot high adobe wall, the conclu-
sion was irresistible that he had been
ped or ridden out through the gateway,
and it was the sentry's business to see
and stop him. There were still other
orders bearing on the case. The
man Muncey must have crossed the
sentry's post both when he entered
and when he left the corral, and
the sentry's orders forbade his al
lowing any person to pass without the
countersign - the password for the
might, with which only certain few OF
the officers and guard were intrusted.
The post commander had permitted the
refugee prospectors to turn their horses
and mules into the big new corral, a
privilege of which they had eagerly
awaited themselves, but the quarter
master sergeant and his men who slept
ordinarily in tent pitched Just within
the gateway had not slept at all this
might, but in common with those mem
'bers of the garrison who were not act
ually in ranks awaiting orders were out
somewhere along that northward bluff
watching eagerly for further sign from
the front. The plain truth of the mat
ter was that Casey, too, instead OF
watching the corral, kept as much as
possible at the northward end Of his
post, where he could see or hear what
might be going on in that quarter. And
so it happened that the corral was left
practically unguarded, and Muncey had
been able to enter and quit at his OWL
sweet will.
1t wouldn't help Casey to say he
didn't see or didn't hear. Schoolboy
excuses are not accepted in the army
A sentry must see and must hear ever
in nights dark as Erebus and buster,
Eng as boiler shop, which this sum
mer night was not. On the contrary
1T was soft and still and starlit. There
kMas no moon, but the sky was cloud
1ess, and had Casey used even ordinary
vigilance, no one without his knowl
edge could have trespassed on his
guarded land. At twelve-thirty, when
the third relief was started around
Private Meisner took Casey's post The
Halter was in no sense surprised
though woefully disturbed. to find thai
the moment the old relief was inspected
and dismissed at the gusrdhouse, thu
sergeant Of the guard had ordered hi
belt taken off-and that Is the soldier
way Of saying that the ex-sentry was X
be relieved for good as ENTHUSIASTICALLY
his arms and equipments turned ovel
10 his first sergeant and he himsel
turned over to the charge Of his fellow
members of the guard, Q prisoue,
awaiting trial by court-msrtisl for neg
lect of duty as sentry. Everybody fell
sorry for Casey, who had lost goot
reputation, but sorrier for Ferguson
who had lost what was considered O
even greater worth in the old frontie
days-a fine horse. Even as Casey wa
ruefully slipping out of his carhin,
sling and waist belt Ferguson and 9th
ers, with lanterns, were tracing tn.
hoof prints of the beautiful roam. 0u
from the corral gate, around to tn
south wall, they followed them in tn
soft, dusty soil; but they were soon los
along the slope. No one believed for
moment Muncey had ridden eastwar
any distance, however. That was tn
quarter from which the Apaches ha,
come. Westward, along the south fac
of the Socorro, was his probable course
for if Cardoza had slipped throug
from the Springs toward the old post
as now seemed possible, they coul
meet at the fords Of the Sandy, not
mile from where the dim lights wer
twinkling there at old Retributio
earlier in the eyening-not half a mil
from the base of Signal Butte an
barely short rifle shot from old Sergt
Aellg's ranch.
And now the question arose; Wher
were the Apaehes? The miners an
prospectors who had fed from tn
Santa Anita said they fairly swarme
in that valley, fifty miles to the cas-
The dispatches from department hest
quarters represented them as havin
already, at three different point
swo0ped down upon the Prescott roa'
both east and west of the Sandy; Blu
so far as heard from, they had not We
tured into the valley south Of the So