The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-12-01
CHAPTER II.-CoNT1NUEp.

ALL the long summer of the year after
his graduation, from mid-April until
November, he never once slept beneath
a wooden roof, and more often than
not the sky was his only canopy. That
summer, too, Jessie spent at home,
Pappoose with her most of the time,
and one year more would finish them
at the reliable old Ohio school. By
that time Folsom's handsome new
home would be in readiness to receive
his daughter at Gate City. By that
time, too. Marshall might hope to have
leave and come in to Illinois to well
come his sister and gladden. his moth
er's eyes. But until then, the boy had
said to himself, he'd stick to the field,
and the troop that had the toughest
work to do was the one that suited him,
and so it had happened that by the
second spring of his service in the regi-
ment no subaltern was held in higher
esteem by senior officers or regarded
with more envy by the lazy ones among
the juniors than the young graduate,
for those, too, were days in'which grad
yates were few and far between, except
in higher grades. Twice had he ridden
in the dead of winter the devious trail
through the Medicine Bow range to
Frayne. Once already had he been
sent the long march to and from the
Big Horn, and when certain officers
were ordered to the mountains early in
the spring to locate the site of the new
post at Warrior Gap, Brooks troop, as
has been said, went along as escort and
Brooks caught mountain fever in the.
hills, or some such ailment, and made
the home trip in the ambulance, leav-
ing the active command of &c" troop
to his subaltern.
With the selection of the site Dean
had nothing to do. Silently he looked
on as the quartermaster, the engineer
and staff officer from Omaha paced
off certain lines, took shots with their
instruments at neighboring waters OF
the fork. Two companies of infantry,
sent down from further posts along the
northern slopes of the range, had
stacked their arms and pitched their
dog tents" and vigilant vcdettes and
sentries peered over every command
ing height and ridge to secure the in
vaders against surprise. Invaders they
certainly were from the Indian point
Of view, for this was Indian Story
Land, the most priced, the most beauti-
full, the most prolific in fish and game
in all the continent. Never had the red
man clung with such tenacity to any
section of his hunting grounds us did
Ha nr<h
and northeast watershed of the Big
Horn range. Old Indian fighters
among tie men shook their heads
when he qlartermaStcr selected
level bench as the site on which to be-
gin the stocka,lc that was to inclose
the officers quarters and the barracks,
storehouse and magazine, and omin-
ously they glanced ut one another and
then at the pine liirted ridge thai rose,
sharp and sudden, against The sky, not
100 yards away. dominating the site en-
tirely.
81 shouldn't like the job of clearing
away the gang of Indians that might
seize that ridge" said Dean, when later
asked by he engineer what he thought
OF it, and Dean had twice by that time
been called upon to help hustle" In
dams out of threatening positions.
and knew whereof he spoke.
81 shouldn't worry over things
you're never likely to have to do" said
the quartcrmastcr. with sarcastic en-
phasis, and he was IL man who never
vet had had to face Il foemnn in the
field, and Dean s;idInotlling more, but
felt right we'll he had no friend in
Mui. Bureigh.
They left the infantry there to guard
the site and protect HE gang of wood
choppers set to work ut once, then
turned their faces homcward They
had spent four days and nights at the
Gap, and the more the youryster saw
of the rotund quartermaster, the less
he cared. to cultivate him. A portly,
heavily built man was he, some 40
years of age, IL witlowcr, whose chill
slren were at their mothers old home
in the far east, Il business man with
n keen eye for opportunities and in
veHtments. Il fellow who was rcputed
to, have stock in Il dozen mines and
kindred enterprises, n knowing hand
who drove fast horses and owned quite
a stable, Il sharp hand who played
thriving game of poker and had no,
computations rs TO winning. Officers
at Emory were fighting shy of him.
He played too big game for their
small pay and pockets, and the men
with whom he took his pleasure were
big contractors or wcl1-known sports"
and gamblers. who in those. days
thronged the frontier towns and most
men did them homage. But on this
trip Burleigli had no big gamblers
along and missed his evening game,
and. once arrived at, camp along the
Fork, he had cropped i'm some of the
infantry officers. but Brooks and the
engineer declined TO play, and SO had
Dean from the very start.
"Nll true cavalrymcn ought to be
able to take Il hand at poker" sneered
Bur]eigh, ah the first nights camp. for
here was n pigeon really worth the
plucking. thought he. Deans, life in
the field had been so simple and mex
pensive that lie had saved much of his
slender pay; but, what Burleigh did
not know, lie had sent much, of it
home. to, mother and Jess.
81 know several men who would
have. been the better for leaving It
alone" responded Dean, very quietly:
They rubbed each other the wrong