Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-10-09


as the round of major. you go; you
know the country better than any man
here
Stanton took four half-breed scouts
with him and started The hour was
noon; their horses the pick of the Fifth
Cavalry.
This outfit of five pointed straight
for the Red Cloud Agency; what a far
mer would call cross lots There was
not the shadow of path or trail. Ii was
as rough a stretch Of country, bar some
regions I'm the Rockies as ever slipped
from The palm of the Infinite
Blu, Stanton and his h3lf-breeds
knew the direction to Red Cloud, and
they kent IL as straight as the flight Of
bullet both in the daylight and IN thd
dark.
Down ahill and up. across hollows
and over divides, they never slackened
or swerved. They never paused for
food for themselves or fodder for their
horses. Lives might be heavily s.aked
on The game. and man and mount must
90 through at any cost
1T may be that somewhere in the
pigeon holes Of his inner consciousness
Stanton had a conviction fled away
tr2t Sberidan's line on the Cheyenne
in,eloti0ns wss correct.
And IL may be for this reason that
he dug the incessant spurs into his
horse all the more deeply and rode all
the more fercely and grimy toward Red
Cloud that day in the Northwest The
cavalry could better spare a horse than
a settler could his scalp
Thus concluded Stanton; and taking
what they call out West a road gait
he never drew bride rein or slackened
stride all of the long one hundred miles
from The War Bonnet to the Agency of
Red Cloud
Strung ont behind him came his
quartet of half-breeds. running mute as
foxes and br.ning their horses forward
as invererately and as rem0rselessIy as
Stanton himself They didn't, being
Indians. care 50 much about q settlers
scalp as did Stanton. But, being In
dams, they cared nothing at an for
horse-fesh; and so came as obdurately
on as their leader.
AN Indian has no more sympathy
for q horse than for the buffalo grass it
Jreads upon and the moment the spur
fails 10 stir the animals tagging ener-
gees they viii stick a knife i'm him as
bracer as readily as they would into
ITS sheath.
stanton left Merritt's camp on The
War Bonnet at noon. Covered with
dus, and foam, reel.ng a bit from very
WEAKNESS Of body. Stanton and his four
scouts came sUrging up to the Red
Cloud Agency at sharp midnight The
last mile of that rough one hundred was
behind them, and they had made the
trip in just twelve hours by the watch.
stanton was too lame and broken TO
even 50 3nt0 the agency, but sunk down
on the steps outside. His horse, with
dropping head and shaking TANKS,
stood where he pulled him up.
How about the Cheyennes?' was
S-anton's question 10 those who came to
him.
They left the reservation eight
hours ago and have started to join the
Sioux was the reply
Send me Fox, the interpreter said
Stanton. and bring me pencil and pa
Der 90 write q dispatch 10 Gen Merritt
"Wben Fox came up Stanton ordered
him 10 take a couple of the agency In
dians with q lead horse apiece. and be
ready 20 start back to Merritt a. once.
Then he wrote his dispatch as he re-
clinod on the doarsteps.
stanton told Cen. Merritt that the
Cheveunes were on the warpa-h; had
started to find the Sioux over what was
known as The Great Northern trail, and
suggested that if Merritt would throw
loose from his wagons and take only the
Fifth Cavalry he could push UP The
War Bonnet and head them off at the
crossing.
Fox and his Indians, with two horses
each. were ready and started with stan
toms dispatch d 1920 o'clock. jus, 20
minutes after stanton came in. With
lead horses they had en- advantage
which Stanton and his four half-breeds
didn't possess. 50 well did they use it
that they rode In on Gen. Merritt. at
1920 o'clock the same morning. They
had put the 100 miles under them in IL
hours. an hour better than stanton.
That's all there is 70 the story. Il
was a simple case Of dispatch bearing;
q case where 200 miles over tracklcss