The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-06
Indian Blood.
nrAr cnrAn1rs rr1>-t

The sound of a shot, followed instantly hy the half stified cry of woman, star tied every waking soul on the river side pfsTort Frayne.. It was barely II o'clock. and the lights at the barracks had been put since the sounding of taps at 10. Then a lantern went dancing away from the guardhouse toward the edge of the northern heights. The officer of the day, dropping his pipe and seizing his sword, ran to intercept the light. followed by two The shot and shriek had come almost together from the sentry post at the woodward under the bluffs at the east end of the garrison.
 A few seconds of scurry down the steps and along the shore brought the officers among the wood piles, where, sharp and nervous and after the manner of those thereg' and Sergeant Cassidy answered. Sergeant of the guard and friends. ln- stead of ordering friends" to halt and the sergeant tc advance and a'. be ,:,I recog, a, began an excited exploitation: Sergeant, that shot was fired right there among those bushes. I was up at the other end of the post, but heard the report and bullet whistled right past my head"
 The officers hurried on to where a fringe of brush wood grew close to the tapping tvaters. Cassady's lantern being thrust here and there through the bushes and eyery man searching busily in the dim starlight. Yet not single fact of value. not trace of man or woman had been discovered. when at 11:15 the relief came marching down the winding roadway, and tts corporal was about replacing the old sentry. Then Cassidy sang out: Hold on German on guard, demanded sternly: Kramer, show me your rife"
 The young soldier surrendered his piece and stood, patient. yet trembling. while and peered through the barrel, then dropped 1t, glanced at the officer of the day and shook his head.
 ''No?" queried the captain
 No, sir. clean as a whistle"
 Captain Brent reluctantly admitted to the searRh had revealed nothing.
 The adjutant was pulling off his boots md telling his anxious-eyed wife to g6 back to bed, when she interrupted him.
 -s'But, Frank, Millie isn't home yet, and Eou know Kramer was her shadow last winter" and here the adjutant pulled his heel out of the bootjack with a sudden 5erk and hauled away at the straps. T let Afillie go over to her sister who isn't weli---i
 But Mrs Fosteris words were interrupt ed, and the adjutant sprang to his re- booted feet and then to the door. lit. fle gong bell in the hall had changed sharply. T beg your pardon, sir," said Il voice, that trembled a bit. but is MiIlie homer
 whereupon Mrs. Foster. wringing her hands and bursting into tears, came hur-
  voicev' she cried. T knew 1t! She went to her sister's--to Sergeant Shannon's- soon ss she put the children to sleep"
 ...fsut she left there at taps, ma am, answered Sergeant Cassidy, with a sob fn his massive throat For two years he had worshiped the Fosters pretty nursemaid-Sergeant Shannons youngest 6aughter-and now he faced about and ran across the parads to the guardhouse. Eos ter grabbed his cap and tore away in pur- suit. reaching the wooden citadel none too soon. Cassidy had Private Kramer fiat on the porch. throttling him speech less, even while demanding that he speak and say what he had done to Miihe Shannon.
 the garrison dragging the Platte or searching along the banks for the body oi the missing and probably murdered girl and things looked black for Adolph kra' aner. -s
 An educated man was Kramer, one who spoke his native tongue as 1t is heard 1T '5Ianover and French as 1t is heard 1T Paris. and English as 1t isn't often atI neaft poetry and played the piano with skil and expression. He had enlisted because he found himself in America. destitute and the recruiting office seemed the only refuge. The Bentons and Fosters both employed him to give music lessons to the children. and in Lnis way he met Mil just to tease Cassidy, madly in love with her, and 1t wasn't long before the blue eyed Hanoverian was as much an adorel as the burly Irishman. An honest and capable man was Cassidy, full twice her age, with several hundreds, in bank a! Cheyenne, and invested in 4-20s. Olc shannon, the ordnance sergeant, favoreo the suit of his countryman and owed hin mouths to feed. and thirsty one of hi: own, but Millies pretty head seemed turned by so much adulation, especially when 1t was evident to everybody Una Belle Finley. only child of the post trad CT, was bent on winning the young Ger man. Indian blood flowed in the vein' of that handsome, biack-haired girl, fol hsr maternal grandfatner was famou chief of the Ogallalla Sioux, and no tov' was lost between her and Shannon's blue eyed daughter. Kramers devohons therefore, were an added fea5ner his m iua tn' making until in April it became too i'm portunate, besides which. big Jim Gas siiy, In his wrath. had been holding aloor and finally there was a fareup, and Kra mer was sent to the right about.
 He took it sorely to heart, and hi breeding changed to fierce and htful out breaks of childish temper. He refused longer to give music lessons. He wrot imploring letters to Millie. He scorne' all efforts of Belle Finley to console him and there were men now who warned hin to be on his guard against the tealou fury of that Indian-blooded girl.
 Then one June morning he marched O guard, and when trlVate ClaIcy 6roWle st being assigned to sentry post at tn woodward under the bluff. Kramer eae erly asked to exchange with nlm-Nun Der Two for Number Four. That aftei noon MlIlie found a missive squeezed in crevice at the rear gate, and Mrs. FoSt' saw her reading 1t. and that evening, a ter but @ brief visit to her Invalid siste Afllie had slipped away, saying she ws going home. That was the last seen heard of her.
 AS for Belle Finley. she was stoical silent. Both her father and mother d. clared her to have been at home and bed from 10 o'clock until reused by u excitement at midnight. Not a trace the missing girl was found until hou after reyeille when in pulling down or of the woodpiles on the post Of Numb Four the searching party came upon cavalry carbine, calibre 45, lying amor 1he sticks, an empty cartridge shell st In the breech, and then Little Bat, u Sioux half-breed scout, without wor held forth to Captain Brent sharp ar 1aTged stake with something white ar 5ifrnsy caught in splinter of the woo "a, fragment, at sight of which Cassie turned sick with dread, and Mrs Post again burst into tears.
 That night there was move amor the men that boded i'll for Kramer. r had been confined in a cell room of tl ruardhouse. It was resolved that thu would have him out and the truth WI him.
 The men had made up their minds Inc 1t all happened. Kramer had deliberate planned Millies death because she tir of him and had recalled Cassidy. ] had stolen the carbine and secreted it the riverside, had exchanged good DO for the remote and lonely one under t
 wNff anf h