Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-04

tie was indignant enough by this time
| to speak for himself, but the uid-de-
camp saved him the trouble.
81 requested Mr.. Dean to halt a few
moments, Burleigh. 1t is necessary
! should know what band this is, and
how many are out"
We'll, be quick about it," snapped
the quartermaster. 81 want to get to
Reno before midnight. and at this
rate we won't make it in week"
A sergeant who could speak little
Sioux came riding back to the camp.
grin on his sun-blistered face. "Well.
| sergeant, what'd he say?" asked the
| staff officer.
HE said would PLACE go to hell,
sor," was the prompt response.
"Won't he tell who they are?"
He won't, sorr. He says we knoN
widout askin', which is thrue, sorr.
They're Ogallallas to a man, barrin'
the squaws and pappooses, wild ould
Red Cloud himself"
How'd you find out if they wouldn't
talk?" asked the staff officer, impa-
| tiently.
"'Twas the bucks wouldn't talk-ex-
cept in swear wurruds. l wasted no
| time on them, sorr. 1 gave the first
| squaw the last bareback in me saddle
| bags and tould her was it Machpralota
and she said it was, and he Yves wild
| Box Karesha-that's ould Folsola-not
six hour ago, an Folsom's gone back
| to the cantonment."
"Then the quicker we skip the bet
ter were the aid-de-camp's words.
get us to Reno fast as you can. Dean.
Strike for the road again as soon as
were well beyond their buffalo. Now
for it! There's something behind all
this bogus hunt business, and Folsom
knows what it isl
And every mile of the way, until
thick darkness settled down over the
/ prairie, there was something behind
the trooper cavalcade-several some
things-wary red men, young and
wiry, who. never let themselves be
seen, yet followed on over wave after
wave of prairie to look to it that no
man went back from that column to
1 y
little battalion left in charge of the
new post at Warrior Gap.
1t was the dark of the moon, or, as
the Indians say, "the nights the moon
is sleeping in his lodge" and by ten
| p. m. the skies were overcast Only
here and there twinkling star was
visible, and only where some trooper
struck light for his pipe could a
hand be seen in front of the face. The
ambulance mules that had kept their
steady jog during the late afternoon
and the long cleaning that followed
still seemed able to maintain the gait,
and even the big, numbering wagon at
the rear came briskly on under the tug
of its triple span, but in the intense
darkness the guides at the head of the
column kept losing the road, and the
humping of the wagons would reveal
the fact, and halt would be ordered,
men would dismount and go bending
and crouching and feeling their way
over the almost barren surface, hunt
ing among the sage brush for the dou-
| BILE furrow of the trail. Matches in
Vulnerable were consumed, and min
utes of valuable time, and the quarter
master waxed fretful and impatient,
and swore that his mules could find
their way where the troopers couldn't,
and finally, after the trail had been lost
and found half a dozen times, old
Brooks was badgered into telling
Dean to let the ambulance take the
lead. The driver shirled at once.
There's no tellin' where We'll fetch
up" said he. ''Those mules can't see
the trail if a man can't. Take their
harness off and turn 'em loose, an |
! suppose they can find their way to
the post, but sure as you turn them
loose when they've got somethin' on
'em, or behind 'em, and the doggone
cussedness of the creatures will
prompt them to smash things"
But the quartermaster said he'd
tried it with those very mules, between
| Emory and Medicine Bow a dozen
times, and he'd risk it. The driver
| could get off his seat if he wanted to,
and run alongside, but he'd stay where
he was.
LET me out, please" Said the en-
gineer, and jumped to the ground,
and then the cavalcade pushed on
again. The driver, as ordered by an
employer whom he dare not disobey,
let the reins drop on the mules backs,
the troopers falling behind, the
yellow ambulance and the big baggage
wagon bringing up the rear.
Then, with horseman on each side,
the mules were persuaded to push on
4 again, and then when fairly started
Burleigh called to the troopers to fall
back, so that the mules should not, as
he expressed it, ''be Influenced" "Leave
them to themselves and they can get
along all right" said he, but mix
them up with the horses, and they
want them to take all the response
bility.n