lint,
commanding Fort Frayne, and, presuming the major himself had dropped it,
he turned it over to the corporal of his relief, and so it found its way
toward reveille into the hands of old McGann, wheezing about his work of
building fires, and Michael laid it on the major's table and thought no
more about it until two hours later, when the major roused and read, and
then a row began that ended only with the other worries of his
incumbency at Frayne.

Secretly Flint was still doing his best to discover the bearer when came
the bold riders from the north with their thrilling news. Secretly, he
had been over at the guard-house interviewing as best he could, by the
aid of an unwilling clerk who spoke a little Sioux, a young Indian girl
whom Crabb's convalescent squad, four in number, had most unexpectedly
run down when sent scouting five miles up the Platte, and brought,
screaming, scratching and protesting back to Frayne. Her pony had been
killed in the dash to escape, and the two Indians with her seemed to be
young lads not yet well schooled as warriors, for they rode away
pellmell over the prairie, leaving the girl to the mercy of the
soldiers. Flint believed her to be connected in some way with the coming
of the disturbing note, which was why he compelled her detention at the
guard-house. Under Webb's _regime_ she would have been questioned by
Hay, or some one of his household. Under Flint, no one of Hay's family
or retainers could be allowed to see her. He regarded it as most
significant that her shrillest screams and fiercest resistance should
have been reserved until just as her guardians were bearing her past the
trader's house. She had the little light prison room to herself all that
wintry morning, and there, disdainful of bunk or chair, enveloped in her
blanket, she squatted disconsolate, greeting all questioners with
defiant and fearless shruggings and inarticulate protest. Not a syllable
of explanation, not a shred of news could their best endeavors wring
from her. Yet her glittering eyes were surely in search of some one, for
she looked up eagerly every time the door was opened, and Flint was just
beginning to think he would have to send for Mrs. Hay when the couriers
came with their stirring news and he had to drop other affairs in order
to forward this important matter to headquarters.

Once again, it seems, Trooper Kennedy had been entrusted with
distinguished duty, for it was he who came trotting foremos