name long miles at the rear.

Something was amiss with Burleigh, said his cronies at Gate City. He had
come hurrying back from the hills, had spent a day in his office and not
a cent at the club, had taken the night express unbeknown to anybody but
his chief clerk, and gone hurrying eastward. It was a time when his
services were needed at the depot, too. Supplies, stores, all manner of
material were being freighted from Gate City over the range to the
Platte and beyond, yet he had wired for authority to hasten to Chicago
on urgent personal affairs, got it and disappeared. A young regimental
quartermaster was ordered in from Emory to take charge of shipments and
sign invoices during Burleigh's temporary absence, and the only other
officer whom Burleigh had seen and talked with before his start was the
venerable post commander. One after another the few cavalry troops
(companies) on duty at Emory had been sent afield until now only one was
left, and three days after Burleigh started there came a dispatch from
department headquarters directing the sending of that one to Frayne at
once. Captain Brooks's troop, owing to the continued illness of its
commander, would be temporarily withdrawn and sent back to Emory to
replace it.

Marshall Dean did not know whether to be glad or sorry. Soldier from top
to toe, he was keenly enjoying the command of his troop. He gloried in
mountain scouting, and was in his element when astride a spirited horse.
Then, too, the air was throbbing with rumors of Indian depredations
along the northward trails, and everything pointed to serious outbreak
any moment, and when it came he longed to be on hand to take his share
and win his name, for with such a troop his chances were better for
honors and distinctions than those of any youngster he knew. Therefore
he longed to keep afield. On the other hand the visit paid by Jessie's
school friend, little "Pappoose" Folsom, was to be returned in kind.
John Folsom had begged and their mother had consented that after a week
at home Jess should accompany her beloved friend on a visit to her far
western home. They would be escorted as far as Omaha, and there Folsom
himself would meet them. His handsome house was ready, and, so said
friends who had been invited to the housewarming, particularly well
stocked as to larder and cellar. There was just one thing on which Gate
City gossips were enabled to dilate that was not entirely satisfactory
to Folsom's friends,