The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1903-10-07

Raising his hand in mechanical
salute, Field faced about, cast one
look at Blake, standing uncomfort-
ably at the window, and then strobe
angering away to his quarters,
smarting under sense of unmerited
rebuke, yet realizing that, as matters
looked, no one was more to blame
than himself.
just as the first faint flush of COM
ing day was mantling the pallid east
ern sky, and while the stars still
sparkled aloft and the big, bright
moon was sinking to the snow-tipped
peaks far away to the occident, in
shadowy column troop of so horse
filed slowly from The Sorrels' big
corral and headed straight for the
Platte. Swift and unfordable in front
of Frayne in the earlier summer, the
river now went murmuring sleepily
over its stony bed, and Ray led boldly
down the bank and plunged girth
deep into the foaming waters. Five
minutes more and every man had
lined up safely on the northward
bank. In low tone the order was
given, starting as Ray did, in solid
column of tours. In dead silence the
little command moved slowly away,
followed by the eyes of half the gar
rison on the bluff. Many of these
were women and children, who gazed
through a mist of tears. Ray turned
in saddle as the last of his men went
by; looked long at the dim light in
the upper window of his home, where,
clasping her children to her heart, his
devoted wife knelt watching them,
her fond lips moving in ceaseless
prayer. Dimly she could see the tired
leader, her soldier husband, sitting
in saddle at the bank. Bravely she
answered the f1utter of his handller-
chief in farewell. Then all was swal-
| lowed up i'll the shadows of the dis
tant prairie, and from the nursery
adjoining her room there rose a
querulous wall that told that her ba-
Ivy daughter was waking, Indifferent
to the need that sent the soldier
father to the aid of distant COM
rades, threatened by merciless foe,
and conscious only of her infantile
demands and expectations. Not yet
ten years wed, that brave, devoted
wife and mother had known but two
summers that had not torn her hus-
hand from her side on just such quest
and duty, for these were the days of
the building up of the west, resisted
to the bitter end by the red wards
of the nation.
The sun was just pcering over the
rough, jagged outline of the east
ward buttes, when quick yet muf-
fled step was heard on the majors
veranda and a picturesque figure
stood waiting at the door. Scout, of
course, a stranger would have said
at a glance, for from head to foot the
without sign of soldier garb of any
kind, but in that strange garb there
stood revealed one of the famous SER
geants of famous regiment, the vet
eran of a quarter of century of
service with the standard, wounded
time and again, bearing the scars OF
Stuart's sabre and of Southern lead
of Indian arrow and bullet both;
proud possessor of the medal Of
honor that many senior sought il
vain; proud as the Lucifer from
whom he took his Christian name
brave, cool, resolute and ever re.
liable-Schreiber first sergeant OF
old * troop for many year, faced
his post commander with brief and
characteristic report:
Sir Chief Stabber, with over &c
warriors, left camp about three
O'Clock, heading for Eagle Butte"
ITO Be Continued.l