The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-03-11

CHAPTER ".
A spell of dull weather had fallen OF
the fort. Except when snowstorm wa
raging tho Wyoming skies were gener
ally clear and cloudless, and they hat
had earlier in the month a snowstorn
fierce enough and long enough to render
further specimens entirely unnecessary
Tho wind had taken freak of blowing
from the south for SO hours, and the
men were scurrying about without over.
ooats-tho men Of Stannard s battalion,
that is, for, true to prediction, Barry
had gone. Buxton and Freeman, Ray.
mond and Turner, Gregg and Wayne,
Truscott and Ray were the eight cap.
tains whose troops were quartsred at
Russell. Buxton was away on leave,
but his troop was in Barry's battalion,
and SO were Freeman's, Raymond's and
Wayne's.
There wasn't woman whose hus.
band had to go who did not think down
in the bottom Of her heart that it ought
to have been tho other battalion, or at
least that if one had to go both should
have gone, and most of them said so.
To Mrs. Barry there were greater trial
and hardship in the separation from her
devoted husband than to the wives Of
many Of his Juniors. But she was ST.
lent. Nathalie Baird alone knew what
it meant to the invalid, and her own
attentions would have been redoubled,
but Mrs. Stannarl had promptly ap-
reared to beg that she might take the
majors place at the afternoon readings,
and Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Anterior, the
colonel's wife, had been almost equally
insistent, and other ladies had called to
know if there wasn't something they
could do-even Mrs. Turner, who never
read anything. And they all had SO
much to say about "dear Mr.. Maynard,
and what a shocking thing it was, and
how dreadful to have to wire to his
home people that he was 60 seriously
wounded. His mother, it appears, was
dead, bis father old and too feeble to
undertake the long journey, but his sis.
ter was already on the way. He still lay
in room at the Inter Ocean in town,
too severely injured and too weak to be
moved. There was fear Of fever, posi-
bly, Of blood poisoning, SO said the serv.,
ants and his friends at the fort could
only submit.
Anterior was an angry man when
told all that had transpired in town. He
came down, said the troopers, like a thou
sand Of brick on the fellows brought back |
by the patrol and had caused rewards
to DO offered for tho two still at large,
ono Of whom at least had been guilty Of
etabbing tho lieutenant. Maynard and
his men, coming from the brightly
lighted saloon into the dark cellar,
could SEQ nothing. The two skulkers,
whose eyes had become accustomed to
the gloom, and who were aided by the
broad streak of light from the trap in
tho saloon floor, had plainly seen the
searchers as they descended, had mado
their bold rush for freedom and easily
escaped. But this they could have done
without bloodshed, and even those who
had been their friends at the fort would
none Of them now.
Tho stabbing Of young Mr.. Maynard
was absolutely without justification
even by men who had prison staring
them in the face. They wero crazed by
protracted drinking was the only ex-
PLANTATION, but it was nothing more than
explanation; it was no excuse. Ever
since the end Of September the previous
year the young officer had been steadily
On duty with his troop. 1t takes much
less than five months for veteran SOL
liers to take tho measure of, Or, as they
express it, "size up" an officer, and
was thoroughly we'll liked by