ld
send a soul to the rescue of such a concern. There was many a reason why
the town would not. Stone ordered a sergeant with a small party to ride
over, "See if any of our men are there and find out what has taken place
and the extent of the damage," which he hoped was total, "and report on
your return."

It was after twelve when they got back, bringing a grimy fellow-soldier
who had had a narrow escape, the gratifying intelligence that there
wasn't so much as a shingle left unconsumed, and the unwelcome
announcement that the proprietor said he didn't care a damn. He had
leased and was going to open up next week, anyhow, in the old rookeries
at the ford, right under the nose of Uncle Sam, yet without his
jurisdiction. They brought, also, rather a remarkable piece of news--the
wife and daughter of the manager had been rescued from burning alive by
one of the colonel's own men--Private Blenke, of Company "C."

CHAPTER XV

RETRIBUTION

Whoever it was who planned or placed Fort Minneconjou, one blunder at
least could be laid at his door--that it had enabled the enemy to
"locate" almost at the door of the fort. An odd condition of things was
this that resulted from the discovery of precious metals in the
magnificent tract misnamed the Black Hills--black presumably only in the
dead of winter, when their pine-crested peaks and ridges stood boldly
against the dazzling white of the Dakota snows. In '75 the Sioux had
bartered their secret to chance explorers, and Custer came down with his
scouting columns and confirmed the glittering rumor. In '76 the Sioux
squared accounts with Custer afar to the northwest in the affair of the
Little Big Horn, but while they were about it the miner and settler
swarmed in behind and staked out claims and cities from which they could
never be driven, for Crook's starved horses and starving men were
fortunately so numerous they kept the southward tribes of the savage
confederation too busy to bother with settlers. _They_ could be settled
later, after the warriors had dealt by Crook as they did by Custer. When
winter came, however, with Sitting Bull and the Uncapapas thrust beyond
the British line, and Crazy Horse, raving, done to death by the steel of
the guard he so magnificently defied, with Red Cloud disarmed and
deposed, with Dull Knife disabled, with Lame Deer doubled up by the
sturdy Fifth Infantry, and old Two Moons hiding his light in some
obscure refuge of the wilderness, and