The Baltimore County union, the Towson news., 1909-10-16
Skeeter's Charge.
tFrom Munsey's Magazine.

tFrom MunseY's Magazine.l
"Skeeter," they called him. The
roll book and paymaster's records
bore a different name; but no one
cared for that. "Skeeter" was SO
comprehensive. Whisper the name
to stranger, and he would unhesitat-
ingly pick out this lank soldier with
handful of freckles spilled on his
face and shock of red hair rioting
above them.
These were his outward markings.
Inwardly, he was conspicuous for a
spirit of deviltry and a thirst like
unto the deserts sands. His efforts
to extinguish this torment with cheap
whisky kept him in perpetual disre-
pute with the officers, and in their
eyes he possessed but one redeeming
feature-he could make a bugle
speak like a thing of life; and his
bugle was about the only thing he
would not pawn for whisky.
But little cared Skeeter for theil
opinion. He held shoulder straps
in contempt, and bestowed his friend.
ship upon a slouching young Sioux
brave known on the nearby reserva-
tion as Little Fox. and who seemed
consumed by the same raging thirst
for fire water. But Skeeter's deity
was Alice Gilbert, the majors niece,
who had come out from that myster-
ious bourne known on the frontier as
the States" to keep house for her
bachelor brother, owner of the Circle
X ranch, over in Cougar Valley.
She had interceded for him one day
when he was in disgrace for providing
Little Fox with a quantity of fiery
liquor and for having poured double
that amount down his own parched
throat. Once he gave loafer at the
canteen terrible beating because OF
sighting remark made concerning
the girl, and though he was given a
guard house sentence for conduct
unbecoming soldier" he did his
term cheerfully, and steadfastly re-
fused to tell the cause of the brawl.
October came, and there was un-
easiness, ever increasing, in the fort
a small post tucked down among the
foothills of eastern Montana. Rumors
of restlessness among the Sioux were
floating in. White faced ranchers
came hurrying into the fort with the
news; at the midnight hour the
cavalry scouts returning from the
camps thundered at the gates and re-
ported that the reds were beginning
the ghost dance.
From out of the Northwest strange
Indians had come, preaching a doc
trine of frenzy. A new Messiah was
to appear among them; the dust OF
countless thousands of dead Indians
was suddenly to spring to life, the
palefaces would be swept from the
earth, and the buffalo and the hunt
ing grounds would be restored to the
red men. The majors face was
scanned with anxiety. His garrison
of three troops of horse was but a
handful compared to the savage
hordes whose mutterings were con-
stantly in his ears. He pleaded with
his nephew to take refuge in the fort,
but the young man said, Not yet. "
He must look after his cattle. And
Alice? She smiled bravely and de-
clined to leave her brother.
Day and night the ghost dance
went on. The Indians became
bolder and more threatening. Bands
of young braves broke away from the
reservation and took to the Bad
Lands. Ranchers and army officers
frantically bombarded Washington
with kilograms. urging that strong
reinforcements be hurried to the post.
Washington yawned over her tea
tables. and in the rythm of the waltz
the bureau chiefs, who had never
seen the paint on an Indian, frowned
and cursed the "timid weaklings."
Far out on the frontier the officers
gathered at headquarters each night
and. long after taps" had sounded,
watched with gloomy forebodings
the signal fires that blazed from the
SUBMITS of distant buttes.
The sun was hanging, blood red,
low down the western sky, and q
haze drifting down from the forest
fires in the mountains dulled the tints
of the cottonwood leaves kissed by
the breath of October into crimson
and golden glory.
Skeeter was splitting wood under
guard, the while his head achec
terribly from the last carousal. He
whistled at his work, and even jokeo
with his guard, for that was to be his
last day of servitude. The guarc
book said he had two more days tc
serve, but the wiry little trooper hao
different plans.
During this last debauch, he anc
Little Fox had planned a glorious
future. They were to meet that very
night at Big Boulder. They had
radiantly pictured their life among
the crags and streams of the Rockies
hunting, fishing, and trapping, re
turning to settlement at long in
tervals to renew the supply of whisk!
and other necessities. The sentenc,
had been extra severe that time, bu
Skeeter had been too frequently il
the guard house not to know a wa