ack from Red Cloud, where he went to look into the situation, and
he has been in the telegraph office much of the afternoon wiring to
Chicago, where General Sheridan is. Colonel Mason told us, as we drove
past camp, that they would probably march at daybreak."

"That means that Sergeant Wells and I go at the same time, then," said
Ralph, with glistening eyes. "Doesn't it seem odd, after I've been
galloping all over this country from here to the Chug for the last three
years, that now father won't let me go it alone. I never yet set eyes on
a war party of Indians, or heard of one south of the Platte."

"All the same they came, Ralph, and it was simply to protect those
settlers that your father's company was there so much. This year they
are worse than ever, and there has been no cavalry to spare. If you were
my boy, I should be worried half to death at the idea of your riding
alone from here to Laramie. What does your mother think of it?"

"It was mother, probably, who made father issue the order. She writes
that, eager as she is to see me, she wouldn't think of letting me come
alone with Sergeant Wells. Pshaw! He and I would be safer than the old
stage-coach any day. That is never 'jumped' south of Laramie, though it
is chased now and then above there. Of course the country's full of
Indians between the Platte and the Black Hills, but we shouldn't be
likely to come across any."

There was a moment's silence. Nestled in Mrs. Henry's arms the weary
little girl was dropping off into placid slumber, and forgetting all her
troubles. Both the ladies were wives of officers of the army, and were
living at Fort Russell, three miles out from Cheyenne, while their
husbands were far to the north with their companies on the Indian
campaign, which was just then opening.

It was an anxious time. Since February all of the cavalry and much of
the infantry stationed in Nebraska and Wyoming had been out in the wild
country above the North Platte River, between the Big Horn Mountains and
the Black Hills. For two years previous great numbers of the young
warriors had been slipping away from the Sioux reservations and joining
the forces of such vicious and intractable chiefs as Sitting Bull, Gall,
and Rain-in-the-face, it could scarcely be doubted, with hostile intent.

Several thousands of the Indians were known to be at large, and
committing depredations and murders in every direction among the
settlers. Now, all pacific means having