Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-06-21

s1ackened speed, and soon they saw
him slowing down despite the frantic
jabbing of the spurs, and with droop-
ing head and bleeding nostrils giving
up the fight. And then, at sound of
the triumphant ye1ls and jeers of his
pursuers, the poor wretch in saddle
threw one fearful glance behind him,
one despairing look toward the COM
rades and the refuge still quarter of
mile away and with shaking hand
he turned the brown revolver on his
own temple and pulled trigger, and
then went tumbling earthward, a
corpse. There at least was one scalp
the Sioux could covet in vain, for, with
shouts of vengeance, the little squad
of infantry, deaf to all orders or the
clamor of the bugle recall, dashed out
over the level beach firing furiously as
they ran, and, whether from the SUI
perstitious awe with which the In
dams view the suicide, or the dread
of close combat with the gallant
band of blue-coats, the mounted war
riors turned and scurried across the
prairie, and were presently out of
range beyond the ridge again. Then
and not till they had reached and
lifted and borne the ifeless form of
the trooper did the little party con-
descend to answer the repeated sum-
mons from the fort. Then at last they
slowly returned, unrebuked, for no
man had the heart to chide their dar-
ing.
Only once more was there further
sight of the one-sided battle. Half a
mile or more beyond the bare divide
there rose against the southern sky a
bold, oblong height or butte, studded
with powders and stunted pine, and
watchers at the fort became aware as
the sun climbed higher that the smoke
cloud, thinning gradually but percep-
tibly, was slowly drifting thither. The
fire, too, grew faint and scattering.
The war whoops rang and reechoed
among the rocks, but all sounds of
cheering had long since died away. At
last, an hour after the fury of the fight
began, the colonel, gazing in speechless
grief through his ield-glass, muttered
to the officer at his side:
"Some of them are still left. They
butte"
Only few, though. One by one the
dark dots among the powders ceased
to stir and move about. Little by lit
tie the fire slackened, and all but oc-
casional scattered shots died utterly
away. Then other forms, feathered
and bedizened, were seen rushing in
numbers up the distant hillside, and
that meant all was over, and the brutal
knives were busily at work. Little by
little all sound of conflict. all sight of
combatants disappeared entirely, and
the unclouded sunshine streamed down
upon a scene on which the silence of
death indeed had fallen. When at last.
late that afternoon, the watchers re-
ported vast body of Indians drifting
away eastward toward the distan:
Powder river, and venturesome scouts
stole out to reconnoiter, backed ny
skirmish lines from the stricken post,
they found the grassy slopes beyond
that curtaining ridge one broad field of
death, strewn with the stripped and
hacked and mangled forms of those
who had SO gallantly dashed forth to
the aid of comrade soldiery at the
break of day, SO torn and mutilated
and disfigured that only limited few
were identified. Officers and men, one
after another, had died in their tracks,
victims of Red Cloud and the Ogallalla
Sioux.
And all for what? Late that night
the quartermaster in wild agitation
sought his colonels door, package in
his hands. For Gods sake, sir, look at
this!" he cried.
The cords had just been cut, the
seals just broken, the stout paper care
fully opened and the contents of the
precious package exposed to view. 1t
| held no money at all, nothing but layer
on layer of waste and worthless paper.