Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-02-21

more than to give their horses what
grain they had left in their nose-bags,
and good long drink. 1t was Schultz
and Schramm, simply because they
alone were away from the command.
They had gained on the gang consider
ably, too, through the halt of the for
mer right here, and 1 believe We'll hear
from them YETI
Two hours later, pushing on in grim
determination still on the trail, with
the opening Of the strange, wild, heav-
i1y-timbered rift in the hills named but
the previous summer Slaughter cove,
just to their left, the party rode sud-
denly out from among the pines to
where a bare, treeleSS shoulder of the
mountains lowered between them and
the east. Northward up a steep as
cent among scattered timber went the
trail: and Thornton and Jeffers dis
mounted to lead and rest their pant
ing horses. The others in silence fol-
lowed their example. Slowly they
c1ambered up the winding path, each
moment nearing the crest, and at last
within half dozen yards of the top
letters signalled with his bare brown
hand, tossed his reins to the nearest
trooper, and then, bending low and re-
moving his scouting hat, went crouch
| ing towards little cairn of stone, an
old Indian guide post made to keep the
runners from losing the way in the
! depths of a Dakota winter, when all
the face Of nature was yelled in snow.
| One after another as they closed up on
the leaders the weary men halted, and
some at once threw themselves upon
| the sod; all allowed their horses to
Craze. For a moment LETTERS lay fat,
peering over the crest; then of a sud-
den he seemed to catch sight of some
thing that set him all of a culver. He
shaded his eyes with his hand and
stared, slowly rising to his feet, the
muscles of his lips and jaws twitching
with suppressed excitement. Thorn
ton, busily engaged at the moment in
| opening the case Of his field glass, did
not at first see him. just as he had
drawn out the binocular and wiped the
| object glass with si1ken handker-
chief, one of the troopers muttered:
''Look, lieutenant, he's reckoning"
And in moment, with beating heart,
| the boy had crept to the veterans side.
It was wonderful view that opened
before his eyes. They were halted on
the eastward slope of bold, rock
ribbed, pine-covered range that seemed
to stretch away northward without
pass or break for many a league until
lost in maze of similar black-crested
heights that, perhaps forty miles away,
veered around to the east again, cur
t tanning the intervening slopes and foot
hills and valleys until it was merged in
the general haze of the far eastern
horizon. ALI the rude, rugged chain
L. 4. -
and cedar, glistened here and there
with its outcropping of bowlder and
quartz, or glinted when the searching
sunshine fell on the du1ler hues Oh
gneiss and granite. All the rolling
foot hills, a tumbling sea of spotless
green, shimmered in the unclouded
rays. Far as the eye could reach,
northeast, east, southeastward again, a
glorious stretch of upland prairie, Of
wind-swept, woodless turf, once the
roaming ground of countless thousands
of the wild cattle of the western world
the now annihilated buffalo. Fa1
away to the southeast, dim and indis
tinct, a dark winding fringe told
where the Mini Ska rolled smoothly
through its wide and open valley
Far away to the northeast
among rounded bluffs and palisaded
buttes, q shining blue ribbon turned
and twisted, dove out of sight under
grass-grown walls, only to come CLEAN
ing into view again still farther on, the
Wakpa Wakon-Spirit river curling
through the heart of the reservation
the sacred lands of the Sioux. There
somewhere to the north, sheltered
from the fierce wintry gales by the
grand curtain of bearded mountain tc
its west and north, hidden from sight
by its surrounding citadels Of bluff, lay