ther away, over the lowlands and the river bottom and the
rolling prairie stretching to the northern horizon, the cottonwoods
along the stream or in the distant swales made only black blotches
against the vague, colorless surface, and the bold bluffs beyond the
reservation limits south of the flashing waters, the sharp, sawlike edge
of the distant mountain range that barred the way to the west, even the
cleancut outlines of Eagle Butte, the landmark of the northward prairie,
visible for fifty miles by day, were now all veiled in some intangible
filament that screened them from the soldier's searching gaze. Later in
the season, on such a night, their crests would gleam with radiance
almost intolerable, the glistening sheen of their spotless crown of
snow. All over this broad expanse of upland prairie and wooded river bed
and boldly undulating bluff line not so much as a spark of fire peeped
through the wing of night to tell the presence of human wayfarer, white,
halfbreed or Indian, even where the Sioux had swarmed, perhaps two
hundred strong, at sunset of the day gone by.

Close at hand, northernmost of the brown line, was the double set of
quarters occupied by Captains Blake and Ray, the latter, as senior,
having chosen the half nearest the bluff because of the encircling
veranda and the fine, far-extending view. A bright light gleamed now
behind the blinds of the corner room of the second floor, telling that
the captain was up and dressing in answer to the commander's summons,
but all the rest of the dozen houses were black, save where at the
middle of the row a faint glow came from the open doorway at the
commanding officer's. Across the broad level of the parade were the
long, low barracks of the troops, six in number, gable-ending east and
west. Closing the quadrangle on the south were the headquarters
buildings and the assembly room, the offices of the adjutant and
quartermaster, the commissary and quartermaster's storehouses, etc. At
the southwest angle stood the guard-house, where oil lamps, backed by
their reflectors of polished tin, sent brilliant beams of light athwart
the roadway. Beyond these low buildings the black bulk of the Medicine
Bow Mountains, only a dozen miles away, tumbled confusedly against the
sparkling sky. All spoke of peace, security, repose, for even in the
flats under the westward bluff, where lay the wide extended corrals, hay
and wood yards and the stables, not one of the myriad dogs that