the full permission of the
superintendent, had gone to see the Secretary of War and get immediate
orders to join his regiment. The --th was to take the field at once,
said the colonel, and Truscott felt that it was his duty to go. Things
looked very much as though there would be a stubborn and protracted
Indian war, and undoubtedly the captain was right in his view of the
matter. In this opinion there was general acquiescence among the staff
and artillery officers present,--it is always safe to adhere to general
principles which are not apt to be personal in their application, and
the staff and artillery rarely were called upon to take part in such
hostilities,--and Mr. Ferris being a cavalryman of spirit was quite
disposed to think it the proper thing for him, too, to ask for orders,
although the possibility of his regiment's being involved was indeed
remote. One or two officers, however, maintained that the principle was
bad as a precedent; that hereafter officers might feel it a reflection
upon them if they did not immediately ask to be sent to their commands
on the first rumor of hostilities, no matter how important might be the
duties upon which they were detached. On this view of the case very
little was said, but one or two gentlemen whose regiments were known to
be marching on the Yellowstone country looked gratefully at the
originator and nodded their heads appreciatively. It was mid June now,
and except the fight with Crazy Horse's band on Patrick's Day and an
unimportant brush with the Sioux on the head-waters of the Tongue River,
nothing that could be called "hostilities" had really taken place. "The
Indians will be surrounded and will surrender without a blow," said
those who sought for reason to evade going; but no man who knew anything
of Indian character or Indian methods believed that for an instant.
Every experienced officer knew, and knew well, that a mortal struggle
must come and come soon, and come it did.

But Jack Truscott needed no such spur to urge him on the path of duty.
What it cost to cut loose from all that was so beautiful to him in his
happy home no one ever knew. What it cost his brave young wife to let
him go was never told. Barely half a year had they rejoiced together in
their love-lit surroundings, the most envied couple at the Point,--and
there is vast comfort in being envied,--and Grace Truscott had never for
an instant dreamed that so rude an interruption could come; but come it