The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deserter, by Charles King

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Title: The Deserter

Author: Charles King

Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16557]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE DESERTER,

BY

CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A.,

AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "KITTY'S
CONQUEST," ETC., ETC.

Transcribers note
This e-book of The Deserter is based upon the edition found in The
Deserter, and From the Ranks. Two Novels, by Capt. Charles King.
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1890. From the Ranks is also
available as a Project Gutenberg e-book.

PHILADELPHIA: J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.

1890

Copyright, 1887, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.

THE DESERTER.

PRELUDE.

Far up in the Northwest, along the banks of the broad, winding stream
the Sioux call the Elk, a train of white-topped army-wagons is slowly
crawling eastward. The October sun is hot at noon-day, and the dust from
the loose soil rises like heavy smoke and powders every face and form in
the guarding battalion so that features are wellnigh indistinguishable.
Four companies of stalwart, sinewy infantry, with their brown rifles
slung over the shoulder, are striding along in dispersed order, covering
the exposed southern flank from sudden attack, while farther out along
the ridge-line, and far to the front and rear, cavalry skirmishers and
scouts are riding to and fro, searching every hollow and ravine, peering
cautiously over every "divide," and signalling "halt" or "forward" as
the indications warrant.

And yet not a hostile Indian has been seen; not one, even as distant
vedette, has appeared in range of the binoculars, since the scouts rode
in at daybreak to say that big bands were in the immediate neighborhood.
It has been a long, hard summer's work for the troops, and the Indians
have been, to all commands that boasted strength or swiftness, elusive
as the Irishman's flea of tradition. Only to those whose numbers were
weak or whose movements