Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1900-12-01

of her husbands herdsmen, a man who
had lived long years in Wyoming and
could be unnerved by no false alarm,
and her voice went up in a shrek of
fear as she read the tidings in his al
most CHASTITY face.
"Where is Hal?" she screamed. "Oh,
what has happened?"
"He's SAFE" was the answering call,
as the rider waved a r%eassuring hand,
but at the instant he bent low.
"Thank God, you're here, lieutenant"
he gasped. mount quick. Halls cor
rallied two miles out there under the
butte-Siouxl" And then they saw
that he was swooning, that the blood
was streaming down the left thigh and
leg, and before hand could help him,
he rolled ~senseless, doubled up in the
dust at his horses feet, and the weary
creature never even started.
SADDLE up, pen!" rang the order
r the stream. And then while
strong arms lifted and bore the wound
ed herdsman to the porch, Dean turned
to the wailing mistress, who, white
faced and terror-stricken, was wiring
ing her hands and moaning and rum
ming wildly up and down the walk and
calling for some one to 60 and save
her husband. Dean almost bore her to
. chair and babe her fear nothing. He
and his men would lose not a moment.
On the floor at her feet lay the little
card photograph. and Dean, hardly
thinking what he did, stopped, picked
it up and placed it in the pocket of his
hunting shirt, just as the trumpeter
on his plunging gray reached the gate,
Deans big, handsome charger trotting
swiftly alongside. In an instant the
was in saddle, insanother
second a trooper galloped up with his
belt and carbine. Already the men
were leading into line across the
stream, and, bidding the trumpeter tell
Sergt. Shaughnessy to follow at speed,
the young officer struck spur to his
horse and, carbine in hand, a single
trooper at his heels, away he darted
down the valley. c troop, splashing
through the ford a moment later, took
the direct road past the stockade of
the corral, disappeared from sight a
moment behind that wooden fortifica-
ton and, when next it hove in view, it
galloping front into line far down
the Laramie, then once more vanished
behind it's curtain Of dust.
1.-Two miles out there under the
butte" was the only indication the
young officer had of the e of the
fight, for fight he knew it must be,
and even as he went bounding down
the valley he recalled the story of the
Indian girl, the threats of Burning
Star, the vowed vengeance of her
brothers. Could it be that, taking adj
vantage Of this raid of Red Cloud, far
from all the reservations, far from
possibility of detection by count of pry-
ing agents, the three had induced a
gang of daring, devil-may-care young
warriors to slip away from the Big
Horn with them and, riding stealthily
away from the beaten trails, to ford
the Platte beyond the ken of watch
full eyes at Fetterman and sneak
through the mountain range to the
beautiful, fertile valley beyond, and
there lie in wait for Hal Folsom or for
those he loved? What was to prevent !?
Well they knew the exact location of
his ranch. They had fished and sport
ed all about it in boy ~days-days when
the soldiers and the Sioux were all
good friends, days before the mistaken
policy of a post commander had led
to an attack upon a peaceful band. and
that to the humiliation of the attack
ing party. From that fatal day of the
Grattan massacre ten years before.
there had been no real truce with the
Sioux, and now was opportunity af-
forded for a long-plotted revenge.
Dean wondered Folsom had not looked
for it instead Of sleeping in fancied
security.
A mile nearer the butte and. glanc-
men come bounding in his tracks. A
mile ahead, rising abruptly from the
general level. a little knoll or butte
jutted out beyond the shoulders of
the foothills and stood sentinel with
in three hundred yards Of the stream
On the near-the westward-side. moth
ing could be seen of horse or man.
Something told him he would find the
combatants beyond-that dead or
alive, Eal Folsom would be there
awaiting him. A glance. al the COM
handing heights and the ridge that
connected it with the tumbling, wood
ed hills to the|snorth, convinced him
that at that moment some of the foe
were lurking there, watching the
westward valley. and by this time
they knew full we'll of the coming of
tine cavalry to the rescue. By this
time, more than likely, they were
s%currying of to the mountains again,
returning the way they came, with a
start Of at least two miles.
with or without the coveted
scalps?" he wondered. Thus far he
had been riding straight for the butte.
The road wound around and disap-
peared behind him, but there was no
sense in following the road. pursue
and punish" was the thing to be
done. Surely not more than a dozen
were in the band, else that courier
could never have hoped to get in,
wounded as he was. The Indians were
too few in number to dare follow to
the ranch, guarded as, by almost God
given luck, 1t happened to be through
the unlooked-for presence of the
troops. No, it was a small band,
though q daring one. It's lookout had
surely warned it by this time of his
coming, and by this time, too, all
save one or two who rode the fleetest