Waterbury Democrat., 1900-10-24

the Indians say, tnS nlgntS tho moon is sleeping in his lodge" and by ten p. I'll. the skies were overcast. Only here and there twinkling star was visible, and only where some trnoper struck q 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 apd the long gloapingJ th at dfenowed still seemed able to maintain the gait, and even the big, numbering wagon at the rear came briskly on under the tug of it's triple span. but in the intense darkness the guides at the head of the column kept losing the road, and the pumping of the wagons would reveal the fact, and a halt would be ordered, men would dismount and go bending and crouching and feeling their way over the almost barren surface, hunt ing aInong the sage brush for the dou- ble furrow of the trail. Matches in- numerable 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 dozen times, cid Brooks was baGgcretL into telling Dean to let the ambulance take the lead. The driver shirlled at once.
 "There's no tellin' where we'll fetch up,' said he. Those mules can't see the trail if man can't. Take their harness off and turn 'ern loose. an suppose they can find their way to the post, but sure as you turn them loose when they've got somethin' on 'en, or behind 'enl, and the dcggone 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 ne 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 q horseman on each side, the mules were persuaded to push on 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 responsi- bility.''
 And now the command was barely crawling. Brooks. heavy, languid with splitting headache, lay in feverish tor DOT in his ambulance, asking only to be let alone. The engineer, q subaltern as yet, felt that he had no right attempt ing to advise men like Burleigh, who proclaimed himself an old calnpaigner. The aid-de-camp was getting both sleepy and impatient, but he, too, was much the quartermaster's junior in rank. As for Dean, he had no volition whatever. Escort the party" were his orders. and that meant that he must govern the movements of his horses and men by the wishes of the senior staff of f1cial. And so they logged along per haps 20 minutes more, and then there was a sudden splutter and plunge and stumble ahead, sharp pull on the traces, marvclously quick jerk back on the reins that threw the wheel team OH their launches, and thereby saved the outfit" ;" for when men and matches were hurried to the front the lead mules were discovered kicking and splashing in Q mud hole. They were not only off the road by dozen yards, but over bank two feet high.
 And this last pound broke the back of Bur.cigh's obstinacy. It was nearly midnight anyway. The best thing to be done was to unhitch, unstable and bipouac until the gray light of dawn came peering over the eastward prai- rie, which in that high latitude and ''iong-Gay" month would soon be afte. three. Then they could push on to Reno.
 Not until nearly eight o'clock in the morning, therefore, did they hcave in sight of the low belt of dingy green that told of the presence of a stream still long miles away; and here, know ing himself to be cut of danger, the major badc the weary escort march in at q walk while he hurried on. Iii 15 minutes the blacls-hoodcd wagon was twisting and turning over the powdery road roos mile ahead, it's dust rising nigh over t1c sage-covered desert, while the ether two, with the -bcgrimed troopers, jogged sturdily on. Loring, the young engineer had waved 2 cor dial good-by to his old cadet acquaint- ance. .see you later, old man." he cried. Stone. the aid-de-canp, nodded and said: Take care of yourself" and Burleigh said nothing at all. He was wondering what he could do to muzzle Lor7 2, n tast ttffasit ttffasit gi ifted uiiEs is,radu ate were moved to tell what the quar- tern1aster actually did when he heard the rueh and firing cut at the front on the road from Warrior Gap.
 But when at last the black wagon bon}led in at the stocka ded quadrangle and discharged it's occupants at thc hut of the major commanGing.tth were tidingS of such import to greet them that Eurleigh turned yellow white again at thought of the perils thav had 7escaned-