The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-05
\ HAUNTING PAS

and quiet. No jests were exchanged that
morning. The sun rose high and hot. The
wind blew strongly and fltfully No steady
or rapid firing was distinguishable from any
direction. Reno's division formed sklrmlsh
lines. No. in each set stayed back with the
horses. Ragged voleys were poured down
upon them from rocks and woody
places. Few of the fours lived when the
suns rays slanting that afternoon.
Camp was struck at sundown. No bacon
sputtered in the mess tins, and weary SOL
ders rolled themselves in their blankets
without smoke that night. The Red Cross
men did not Sleep
No one believed the courier who rode into
camp before midnight with the word that
Custer and all his band had been slain that
day by the Sioux, and that their bodies lay
scattered about in the moonlight four miles
away
| Before daybreak Reno's men were on the
march. The silence in front deathly and
omnous. Wary and cautious the ad-
vance. The weird, grooming monotone of the
Indian death song was not heard, nor were
cross trails encountered this day. The turf
was marked with mute indications of hasty
fight. The scouts hugged closely the for
ward fours. The silence frightened them. An
odor was in the air which they alone dis
tinguished. White men cannot use their
noses like animals.
The body of a trooper, gashed, perforated
and dismembered, was strewn across the line
of march. Hard and unsmiling were the
faces of Reno's cavalrymen now. Signals
from high points brought back no answer
from Clusters col ps. The troops paused
again to cover up red stains upon the earth.
The words of the courier were believed par
TALLY now. Great and awful thoughts were
crawling into the soldiers minds. Where was
Yellow Hair, the intrepid, the invincible?
Where were the friends of yesterday?
More blood in the path. Tainted the
air that men breathed and ghastly white
their faces.
A low hill stretched before them. Upon it's
summit shimmered the pitiless heat. Flies
buzzed about the sweating horses, and great
black birds made circling shadows beyond the
hill.
Soldiers tried not to breathe the sickenng
air. yet they advanced. Horror and fascina-
ton enthralled them. Countless red devils
might be marshaling the surrounding hills
yet the most despicable of towards would
have pressed upward that day. Still persons
claim to be above that curiosity which is
morbid. The vanguard rode upon the sum-
NIT of the hill and looked down.
For a moment ali that could be heard was
the droning Of the myriad insect wings Then
to the ears Of the rear troopers was borne
the murmur of curses deep and dreadful
From every bush arrows had whizzed down
upon that plain. From behind every rock and
tree crouching Sioux had glared through
the smoke of powder. Squads of painted,
yelling, exultant fends had ridden down
every paSsable place on the hills-yesterday
And when the braves had left no horse or
horseman standing, young bucks trampled
tethe.iWhite faces into the earth and fired into
the prone bodies. And when their voices were
hoarse and broken and their demon desires
3satiated, the hideous, bubbling squaws more
inhuman than any in venomous hate, had
stripped the suits of army blue from the boys
no longer in Uncle Sans service. Then in
hellsh ecstasy they used their knives.
Meanwhile the braves wrapped up their
dead in blankets and tied them in the branch
es of larger trees. Not until the sunset land
was growing dim did the redmen face toward
Reno's cavalrymen looked down. Great
backbirds rose and lowered over the plain
The sky above the hills dotted with 9TH
ers-coming Dad Evans will never forget
that day.
Not vestige of individuality remained with
the dead upon the plain. There was not
scalp-not a form left intact, save two. So
diabolical was the work that it seemed as if
the devil in a black humor had directed it.
Dad Evans told things that would not do
here.
In the center of the plain they found a
prone body that had not been stripped or
mutilated The broad yellow stripe of a cav
airy officer upon the trousers An officer S
blouse covered the face. The Sioux warriors
had crossed the sleeves a sign that the
body should be spared. The blouse was lifted
and then the the bold, lean face of
their commanding officer. The cheek was
pressed down, and the long, light brown curls
clustered about it, Not hair was touched
not weapon taken.
The Sioux braves feared the living Yellow
Hair. They revered him dead. 1t was a mo-
menr of delicate mystery. Thus it was that
his own men found Custer, the soldier from
Michigan. And not long afterwards a little
Michigan town shrouded in crepe. The
black draperies have been lifted these many
years, but its sable shadow still rests in the
hearts of the people.
| Not a scalp was left save two There was
another.
Don't touch hm." 1t was squaw's voice.