Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-03-07

proper amount of hesitancy as to TAX
ing an officer away from his duties.
gladly assented. So the quartermaster
ordered out his team, and by six o'clock
they were bowling over the magnificent
prairie road, with the sun clambering
higher every minute, and with couple
of buckets of ice, blanket-swathed,
swinging under the rear axle. Two
hours later, rounding a bold shoulder
of bluff among the bends of the Pawnee
gorge, they caught sight of white
wagon covers halted at a little elump
of willows half a mile ahead. ''Hurrahi
Yonder they are at the springs" said
the quartermaSter.
And they found them. Two or three
soldiers were passing cups of the cool,
sparkling water to the fevered hands
under the canvas screens. The young
doctor, dismounted, catching sight of
the coming blackboard, sauntered for
ward to meet it, IN hopes of letters.
One glance at the gray-mustached sol
der by the drivers side was enough.
With extended hand he fastened to
help him alight, as the quartermastcr
refined in his braying mules.
''Col. Thornton. 1 feel certain" said
lance-iolIy as any Mark Tapley you
ever heard of And Thornton, una BILE
at the moment to speak a word,
grasped and shook the doctors hand,
bowed his gray head and passed him by.
There's meeting that would dis
arm the cynicism of a Carlyle" said the
doctor, an instant later, though both
men turned their backs and looked
away, for under the lifted curtain Of
his trundling litter Perry had peeped
and seen his fathers face-the father
whom he had supposed two thousand
| miles away.
Just before noon that day, under the
| doctors careful supervision, the
wounded were being lifted from the
wagons and borne beneath the canvas
| flies stretched for them in the coolest
| and breeziest part of the quarter1nas-
| ter's guarded coral. Perry, boy like,
| had insisted on scrambling out on his
| feet, partly to show how lively he was,
partly that he might be close at hand
| when there was borne with measured
tread and gentle hands the PROSTATE
form of trooper whose flushed face
| and twitching hands and glittering
eyes proved him to be in the clutch of
burning fever. About his litter, anxiety
in every look. lowered the colonel and
his wounded boy, for there lay gallant
Schramm, blind to their solicitude,
deaf to any word of cheer.
81 think we can bring him round in
few days of quiet here said DIR.
French. ''but quiet we must have"
''Well, SIR" said the colonel, decided
", 1--WE don't leave here until you do
There are mother and sisters hunger
ing at home to get at Perry, but
neither my boy nor can turn a back
on a soldier like Schramu. Let ne
know just what he needs, and every
cent we've got is at your service"
st is serious fever, I fea-," said
the doctor, ''but what he needs most
now is absolute .repose. We've got tc
guard him against disturbance of any
kind
'tDo you mean he can't be moved a
all, doctor?" asked a man who, with
one or two other civilians, had entered
the Enclosure despite the efforts of the
corral-master, who, positive at first il
his refusal, had stepped back be
wi1dered at sight of fOrmida BILE pa
per.
Certainly" said DR.. French, short
ly, with the ''who are you" expression
that comes into the faces of the mos
even-tempered of men when disturbed
in the midst of their duties.
''Then we've simply got to camI
here till he can be - me and my
party"
''Yor have? I'd like to know why.
"'Cause I don't mean to lose my Pc
sition through losing him. Here's my
warrant. That mans wanted for th'
Minden robbery"