Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-03-22
CHAPTER ,IV.-CoNr1NUED.

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 cava1cade 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
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.''
And now the command was barely
crawling. Brooks, heavy, languid with
splitting headache, lay in feverish tor
por in his ambulance, asking only to be
let alone. The engineer, a subaltern as
yet, felt that he had no right attempt
ing to advise men like Burleigh, who
proclaimed himself an old campaigner.
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
fetal. And SO they logged along per-
haps 20 minutes more, and then
there was sudden splutter and plunge
and stumble ahead, sharp pull on the
traces, marvelously quick jerk back
on the reins that threw the wheel team
on 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 a 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
pf Burleigh's obstinacy. It was nearly
be done was to unhitch, unsaddle and
bivouac until the gray light of dawn
came peering over the eastward prai-
RE. which in that high latitude and
sslong-day" month would soon be after
three. Then they could push on to
Reno.
Not until nearly eight o'clock in the
morning, therefore, did they heave in
sight of the low belt of dingy green
that told of the presence of stream
still long miles away; and here, know
ing himself to be out of danger, the
major bade the weary escort march in
at a walk while he hurried on. In Is
minutes the black-hooded wagon was
twist Ng and turning over the powdery
road & good mile ahead, its dust rising
nigh over the sage-covered desert, while
the other two, with the dust-begrimed
troopers, logged sturdily on. Loring,
the young engineer, had waved cor
dial good-by to his old cadet acquaint-
ance. '.See you later, old man." he
cried. Stone, the aid-de-camp, nodded
and said: Take care of yourself" and
Burleigh said nothing at all. He was
wondering what he could do to muzzle
Loring in case that gifted young gradu-
ate were moved to tell what the quar-
termaster actually did when he heard
the rush and firing out ut the front on
the road from Warrior Gap.
But when at last the black wagon
bowled in at the stockaded quadrangle
and discharged its occupants at the
hut of the major commanding, there
were tidings of such import to greet
them that Burieigh turned yellow
white again at thought of the perils
they had escaped