ond
floor. He was officer of the day, and that accounted for it. The other
beamed from the corner window at the south, and a tall, graceful,
womanly form, wrapped in a heavy shawl, was leaning against the wooden
pillar on the veranda. A beautiful face was upturned to the few stars
that peeped through the rifts of clouds that angrily swept the heavens.
Then, as one jewelled hand clasped the railing, the other encircled the
cold, white, wooden post, and in another moment the shapely head was
bowed upon it, and great sobs shook the slender figure. There was the
sudden rattle of an infantry sword at the other end of the piazza, and
Mr. Hatton, striding forth from the hall-way, was startled to see a
dim, feminine form spring from the shadows at the southern side and
rush with sweeping skirts into the shelter of the Forrests' hall-way.

"I thought I heard some one crying out here," he muttered, "and
supposed it was Mrs. Forrest. She's always in tears now that the
captain is up in the Indian country. But who would have thought of Miss
Forrest?"

VI.

An anxious day was that that followed the departure of Captain Terry
and his "grays" on their midnight ride down the Platte. The river was
so high and swollen that it was certain that the Indians could have
forded it only among the rocks and shoals up at Bull Bend, a day's
march to the north-west, and that in getting back with their plunder to
the shelter of their reservation there was only one point below Laramie
where they could recross without having to swim, and that was full
twenty-five miles down stream. As particulars began to come in of the
fight with Blunt's little detachment the previous day, the major waxed
more and more wrathful. It would seem that there were at least fifty
well-armed and perfectly-mounted warriors in the party, many of them
having extra ponies with them, either to carry the spoil or to serve as
change-mounts when their own chargers tired. It was next to impossible
that such a force should get away from the reservation without it being
a matter of common talk among the old men and squaws, and so coming to
the ears of the agent, whose duty it was to notify the military
authorities at once. But in this case no warning whatever had been
given. The settlers in the Chugwater Valley had no signal of their
coming, and two hapless "freighters," toiling up with ranch supplies
from Cheyenne, were pounced upon in plain view of Hunton's, murdered
and s