Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1901-03-14

their Maker at such times, even in SOL
der oath. 1t is awe, not blasphemy.
"By God, lieutenant, that's what we'd
a-been doing but for your order" 1t
was the sergeant who spoke.
And at that very hour there was ex-
element at Fort Emory. At eight
o'clock the colonel was on his piazza
looking with gloomy eyes over the dis
tant rows of empty barracks. The
drum-major with. the band at his heels
came stalking out over the grassy pa
rade, and the post adjutant, grit with
sash and sword belt, stood in front of
his office awaiting the sergeant-major,
who was unaccountably delayed. Re-
duced to shadow the garrison at Fort
Emory might reasonably have been ex-
cused, by this time, from the ceremony
of mounting guard, consisting prac-
tically of ten privates, three of whom
wore the cavalry jacket; but old ''Peck-
sniff was determined to keep up some
show of state. He could have no pa
rade or review, but at least he could re-
quire his guard to be mounted with all
the pomp and ceremony possible. He
would have ordered his officers out in
epaulets and the full dress 'Kossuth"
hat of the period, but epaulets had
been discarded during the war and not
vet resumed on the far frontier. So
the rank and file alone were called
upon to appear in the black-feathered
pddity misguided staff had designed
is the headgear of the army. 'Peck-
,niff's" half dozen doughboys, therefore,
with their attendant sergeants and
rorporals in the old fashioned frock
and felt, and still smaller squad of
troopers in yellow-trimmed jackets
and brass-mounted forage caps, were
drawn up at the edge of the parade
awaiting the further signal of adju-
tant's call, while the adjutant himself
swore savagely and sent the orderly
on the run for the sergeant-major.
When the clock-governed functionary
was missing something indeed must be
going wrong.
Presently the orderly came running
back.
''Sergt. Dineen isn't home, sir, and
his wife says he hasn't been back since
the lieutenant sent him to town with
the last dispatch"
Tell the first sergeant of 3 COM
pany, then, to act as sergeant-major at
once" said the adjutant, and hurried
over to his colonel. "Dineen's not back,
sir" he reported at the gate. Can
opvthinr he wrOnp?"
II ordered him to bring with him the
answer to my dispatch to the general.
who wired to me from the railway de-
pot at Cheyenne. Probably he's been
waiting for that, and the generals
away somewhere. We ought to have
an operator here day and night" said
Pecksniff, petulantly. But the irrita-
ton in his eyes gave way to anxiety
when at that moment the suffers
buggy was seen dashing into the gar
rison at headlong speed, his smart
trotter urged almost to a run. Griggs
refined up with no little hard pulling
at the colonel's gate, and they could
see a dozen yards off that his face was
pale.
''Have you any idea, colonel" he
began the mement the officers reached
him, "where Maj. Burleigh can be?
He left the depot somewhere about
.hree o'clock this morning with. that
Capt. Newhall. He hasn't returned
aud can't be found. Your sergeant
major was waylaid and robbed some
time after midnight, and John Fol-
vom was picked up senseless in the