The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1895-12-25

ana 70 assure ner that me major was
doing well be 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 uurtured women could
be cared for. He offered her and Miss
Winifred his own warm, snug, though
rudely furnished room at the station,
and ordered his chief CLERK 10 clear out
and sleep in the Office. He told her hoy
impossible it was for him to leave his
most and his duties of Forwarding sup
niles. and explained that there WAS no
officer 10 properly escort them. Bui one
by one she had promptly overthrown his
affections. 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
inst the year after their marriage? Had
She not canped with him on the Yellow
stnne2-uursed 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
,he TO fear for herself OK Winifred in
the midst of the Twelfth?
but the regiment is ordered TO march
tomorrow, said Sterrett. 1T is an open
secret that the Indians have slipped
afnpcr fha fHAx-
enne, and there's the mischief to pay"
"Au the more reason for my being at
nv husbands side" promptly answered
this army heroine. "Dr. Holden viii
have to 90, 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
poweriess. Having first done his best
10 detain them he had then bent all MS
efforts to the duty of transportation, and
now at late hour IL the evening and in
the energetic and familiar language OF
the corral was blaspheming 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 hay
ing been driven before the storm, and
he didn't even know how far they had
got before he lost sight of the ambu-
lance entirely, but was sure that one
and all they had lost the road and now
were adrift on the prairie. This was
bad enough; but at ten o'clock or there
about the corral master came in to say
that the. riderless horse OF the other man
A2d Just arrived at the gate and, barely
able to st3gger, was led inside.
Pete had flask along. said the cor
raj master sententiously. That's what's
the matter with him."
Then Sterrett could stand it no longer.
Soldiers there were none to send-they
were all over the range, at the canton
ment or beyond; civilians We're there in
plenty, dozens of refugees from the
ranches, dozens of railroad men and
train hands. one or two Disguised CORE
spondents who had got the tip as TO
impending movements all too late TO
catch the luckier members of that all
pervading fraternity, but who were quick
10 realize the scoop" they would have
il transmitting to their respective jour
nails full and picturesque details of the
Dakota blizzard. 1t is an III wind that
blows nobody good.
Even though every one told him he
could accomplish nothing whatever be-
fore daylight, Sterrett had a little party
Of stalwart frontiersmen duly equipped
by midnight and ready to start the in
slant the gale should show signs of mod
Grating. Hour after hour it shrieked
and howled, driving the sheets OF snow
before it, sweeping the frozen prairie
clean as a floor, but whirling dense white
clouds into every sheltered gulch and
ravine, settling the drifts in the lee of
every stack and shed and building at the
railway station where, dead" and aban-
doned, lay the engine of the eastbound
train, the passengers huddling for
warmth into a single car and cheerfully
discussing the propriety of using the
other for irewood.
And then, before tlle first faint glimmer
Of dawn, as though spcct with its own vio-
lence, the gale began 20 die. The clouds
scudding southeastwarc drew aside. un-
curtaining the placid heavens. where
the stars were family cleaning and then
twinkling out of sight. Soon in blaze
Of glory and triumph the sun rose slowly
over the far distant bluffs and looked
down upon the scene of wrath and DESC
lation wrought by rude Boreas in the
conquerer's absence; and just then, too,
there hove in sight battered little squad
of troopers on spent and jaded steeds,
and the sergeant in command rode breast
deep into the drift at the south entrance
OF Sterrett's Office and yelled over the in
tervening shield Of snow the stunning
questions:
Ibid the ladies get back all right? We
can't find the ambulance anywhere along
tie Wolf"