Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1903-09-10
4 Daughter
| Of the Sioux
By GEN. CHARLES KING.
Copyright, 1902, by The Hobart Company
CHAPTER XIV.

Within 48 hours of the coming of
Trooper Kennedy with his rush"
disaptches to Fort Frayne, the actors
in our little drama had become wide
ly separated. Webb and his sturdy
squadron, including Ray and such of
his troop as still had mounts and no
serious wounds, were marching
straight on for the Dry Fork of the
Powder. They were 200 fighting men;
and, although the Sioux had now
three times that many, they had
learned too much of the shooting
powers of these seasoned troopers,
and deemed it wise to avoid close
contact. The Indian fights well, man
for man, when fairly cornered, but
at other times he is no true sports
man. He asks for odds of ten to
one, as when he wiped out Custer on
the Greasy Grass" or Fetteman at
Fort Phil kearney--as when he tackled
the Gray FoN-Generai Crool-on
the Rosebud, and Sibley's little party
among the pines of the Big Horn.
Rays pluclly followers had shot vic
iously and empticd far too many
saddles for Indian equanimity. 1t
might be well in any event to let
Webb's squadron through and wait
for further accession from the agen-
cies at the southeast, or the big, tur
bulent bands of Uncapapas and Min
neconius at Standing Rock, or the
Cheyennes along the Yellowstone.
So back went Lame Wolf and his
braves, bearing Stabber with them,
fitting northward again toward the
glorious country beyond the "Chak-
adLe," and on went Webb, with
Blake, Gregg, Ray and their juniors,
with Tracy to take care of such as
might be wounded on the way; and,
later still, the old post surgeon
reached the Elk with guards and hos
pital attendants, and on the morrow
began his homeward march with the
dead and wounded--a sad and sol
emn little procession. Only 20 miles
he had to go, but it took long hours,
so few were the ambulances, so
rough the crossings of the ravines;
and, not until near nightfall was the
last of the wounded-Lieut. Field
borne in the arms of pitying sol
diers into the old post hospital, too
far gone with fever, exhaustion and
some strong mental excitement to
know or care that his strange plea
had been, perforce disregarded; -
to know or care later that the gencr-
al himself, the commander they
loved and trusted, was bending over
him at dawn the following day. Or
dering forward all available troops
from the line of the railway, ''the
chief" had stopped at Laramie only
long enough for brief conference
with the post commander; then, bid
ding him come on with all his cav
airy, had pushed ahead for Frayne.
1T couldn't be long campaign, per-
haps, with winter close at hand, but
it would be a lively one. Of that the
chief felt well assured.
Now, there was something uncanny
about this outbreak on the part of
the Sioux, and the general was puz-
zled. Up to September the Indians
had been busy with the annual hunt
They were fat, well-fcd, prosperous
had got from the government pretty
much everything that they could
ask with any show of reason and.
so they said, had been promised
more. The rows between the limit
ed few of their young men and some
bullieS among the ''rustiers" had
been no more frequent nor serious
than on previous summers, when
matters had been settled without re
sort to arms; but this year the
very devil seemed to have got into the
situation. Something, or probably
somebody, said the general, had been
stirring the Indians up, exciting
exhorting possibly, and almost the
first thing the general did as he
climbed stiflly out of his stout Con-
cord wagon, in tAe paling starlight