The Princeton union., 1900-11-08

corner. The Laramie column. So the
news ran, was Fastening down the
Powder river to;strike Red Cloud. rhc
Indians would be severely punished
etc, etc. But old Folsom's face grew
whittier as he read that such orders had
been sentand that the general himself
was now at Laramie directing matters.
'In Gods name, !" urged he, "if you have
any influence with the general, tell him
not to send foot column chasing
horsemen anywhere, and above all not
thing you know Red Cloud and all his
young men will have slipped around
their flank and come galloping back to
the Platte, leaving the old men and
women and wornout ponies to make
tracks for the heap walks to follow"
And Stevens listened dumbly. In
f1uence he had never had. Folsom
might be right, but it was matter
in which he was powerless. When
depot quartermaster. said he, could
dictate the policy that should govern
the command of a colonel of the fight
ing force, there was no use in 'remon-
STRANGE. Noon came and no news
from the Cheyenne sheriff. The COM
manding officer at Russell wired that
he, too, was stripped of his troops,
and had not even cavalry courier
to send after the general with the
startling news that Maj. Burleigh
had vanished with large sums, it was
believed, in his possession. At one
o'clock came tidings Of the fugitive:
He, together with two other men, had
spent the late hours of the night at
the lodgings of one of the party in
Cheyenne, and at dawn had driven
away in a rig" hired at a local
stable, ostensibly to follow the gen.
eral to Laramie. They had kept the
road northwestward on leaving town
were seen passing along the prairie
beyond Fort Russell, but deputies,
sworn in at once and sent in pur-
suit, came back to say the rig had
never gone as far as Lodge Pole. At
six p. IN. came further tidings. Lieut..
Loring, engineer officer of the de-
partment, had reached Cheyenne and
was in consultation with the COM
manding officer at Russell. The rig
had been found at Sloan's ranch, far
up Grow creek, where the party had
taken horses and ridden westward
into the Black Hills. In anticipation
of big reward, the sheriff had dep
uties out in pursuit. From such in.
formation as they could gather it was
learned that the name of one of the
parties gone with Burleigh was New
hall, who claimed to be captain in
the army, "out there looking after in
yestments'-a captain who was too
busy, however, to go and see the few
fellows of his cloth at the new post
and who was not known to them by
sight at all. The engineer, Mr.. Lor-
ing, was making minute inquiries
about this fellow, for the description
given him had excited not a little of
his interest
And so the sun of the second day
went down on Gate City and Emory,
and everybody knew Burleigh was
gone. The widest rumors were
afoat, and while all Fort Emory was
in mourning over the tragedy at
Warrior Gap, everybody in town
seemed more wildly concerned in
Burleigh and the cause of his sud-
den fight. AS yet only certain army
officers and Mr.. Folsom knew of the
startling discovery at the stockade
that the package was a bogus affair
throughout. But all Gate City knew
Burleigh had drawn large sums from
the local bank, many citizens had
heard that John Folsom was several
thousand dollars the poorer for his
sudden going, and all interest was
centered in the coming from Chicago
of an expert summoned by wire, to
open the huge office safe at the quar-
termaster's depot. The keys had
gone with Burleigh. At the last
moment, after: loading up with all
the cash his own private safe con-
tanned, for that was found open and
practically empty in it's corner of
his sitting-room, and when he had
evidently gone to the Office to get the
funds there stored, he was confound-
ed by the sight of the two employees.
He could have ordered them to leave
and then helped himself, but con-
science had made coward of him, even
more than nature. He saw accusers
in every face, and fled. Burleigh had
lost his nerve
Two days went by and excitement
was at it's height. All manner of evil
report of Burleigh was now afoat.
The story cf the bogus package had
been noised abroad through later
messengers and dispatches from the
Gap. Lieut.. Loring had come to Fort
Emory under the instructions of the
department commander, and what
those instructions were no man could
find out from the reticent young Off
Ger. 1T ever a youth seemed capable
OF hearing everything and telling
nothing it was this scientist of dis
tinguished corps that frontiersmen
knew too little of. What puzzled Fol-
som and old Pecksniff was the per-
sistence with which he followed up
his inquiries about Capt. Newhall. He
even sought an interview with Pap