Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-09-19

and on to the back bone of tie continent.
where the mountain streams. springing
from rocky beds not long pistol shot
apart. flowed rlppling away, the one to
the Missouri and TIE gulf of Mexico.
the other to the Colorado and that OF
California. Frayne was but n huge
stockade in the early days of the civil
| war, but the government found ii i'm
portant from strategical point OF
| view even after the railway spanned
| the Rockies and the elnigrlnt and the
settler 10 longer trudged the weary trail
that. bordering the Sioux country. be-
! came speedily road of fire and blood
| second only III its terrors TO the Smoky
Hill route through bleeding Kansas -
Once it was the boast of the Dakotas.
as it has been for generations of their
enemies. the Absarakas, or Crows, that
they had never shed the blood of a
| white man. Settlers of the old days
used to tell how the Sioux had followed
them for long, long marches, not to
! murder and pillage, but TO restore TO
them items lost olong the trail or ami
mals strayed from their little herds.
But there came an end to all this
when. resisting an unjust demand, the
Sioux being fired upon, retaliated. From
| the day of the Grattan massacre beyond
old Laramie there had been no real
peace with the lords Of the northwest.
They are quiet only when subdued by
| force. They have broken the crust of
their environment time and again and
burst forth ii the seething flame of "a
volcano that is ever bubbling and boil
ing beneath the feet of the fron;iersluan
to this day.
And SO Frayne was maintained as a
military post for years. first as stock
ade. then as subdepot of supplies. gar
risoned by four companies Of infantry
| and four of cavalry, the former to hold
the fort, the latter to sccur the neigh
boring country. Then, Is time wore on
and other posts We're built farther up in
the Big Horn, Frayne's garrison dwin-
| died, but there stood upon its command
ing bluff the low rows CT wooden bar.
| racks, the parallel rows Of double sets
of broad piazzaed quarters where dwelt
the officers, the long, low, log riveted
| walls Of the corrals and cavalry stables
Oh the fat below. Here, oddly enough,
the Twelfth had spent lively year OF
two before it Went 10 Arizona. Here it
| learned the Sioux country and the SiouX
so well that when, few years back,
the ghost dance craze swept ever the
plains ard mountains like the plague,
the old regiment YVES hurried from its
suushiny stations il the south and mus
tered once again, four troops at least
within the very walls that long before
had echoed to Its trumpets. Here we
found them III the midst OF the Christ
mas preparations that were turned sc
| suddenly into summons TO the field, and
! here again, three years later stin, head
quarters and six troops now. the proud
| old regiment is still at Frayne, and
Fenton, vice Earrar, killed i'll action
| with hostile Indians" holds the COM
maGd.
A good soldier is Fenton, a brave fel-
low, tribe rough at times, like the
| simple plains bred dragon he is, but Il
gentleman. with a gentle heart il his
breast for all the stern exterior. WON
en- said of him that all he needed to
make him perfect was polish, and all he
| needed to give him polish was Il wife,
| for 1T 81 the grizzlod colonel was
bachelor But Fenton had had his TO-
nance i'll early youth. He had loved
| with all his big heart, so said tradition,
| u New York belle and beauty whom lie
knew i'll his cadet days, and who. so
| rumor said, preferred another, whom
she married before the war, and many
garrison belle had since set her cap
for Fenton and found him faithful to
his early love. But, though the ladies
| often speculated as to the identity of
the woman who had held the colonel's
heart i'll bondage all these years and
blocked the way for all successors. no
one of their number had ever heard her
name or ever knew the truth. One Off
Ger there was III the Twelfth who, like
Fenton himself was Il confirmed BACH
elor and who was said to be possessed
of the whole story, but there was no use
asking Malcolm Leale to tell anybody's
| secrets, and when Fenton came TO
Frayne, promoted to the command SO
recently held by u man they ali loved
and honored, it was patent to everybody
NAV Nv ~ s'ANAs lIC were
an usarper. Fenton was many long
miles away with another battalion of
the Twelfth the day of tie tragic battle
. OH the Mini Pusa, and it was long
months thereafter before he appeared at
! reSimental headquarters, and then he
brought with him as his housekeeper his
maiden sister Lucretia, and in Lucre
tia Fenton-the dreamiest, dowdiest.
kindliest, quain:est middle aged pratt
tier that ever lived, moved and had her
being i'll the armv-the ladies of the
Twelfth found so much to make merry
over that they well nigh forgot and for
gave the unhatteriEg indifference to
feminine destinations of her brother.
the colonel
When Fenton came, the Farrars,
widowed mother and devoted daughter,
had been gone some weeks. The shock
of her husbands death had we'll nigh
shaken Mrs. Farrar's reason. and for
months her condition was indeed de.
plorable. The next summer the Farrars
spent at West Point. 1t was Wills first
class camp, and Will was cadet captain
of the color company, and q capita,