of Dacotas were on their way to the settlements. Captain White
at once mounted half his infantry on horses, and with them and the
cavalry set out in pursuit, leaving the fort in charge of a young
officer with twenty-four men. Just after nightfall there was a sound of
horsemen approaching, and the officer, thinking it was the Captain
returning, ordered the gate of the stockade to be left open. In a moment
the place was full of redskins. The soldiers tried to fight, but it were
no use; all war cut down, only one man making his escape in the
darkness.

"At daybreak, the Captain, with his troops, rode into the fort. Dick,
who had been with him, had, when the party was returning, gone out
scouting on his own account, and had come across the back-track of the
redskins. The moment he had brought in the news the horses were
re-saddled again, and the party started back; but they had gone nearly
sixty miles the day before, and it was not until morning that, utterly
exhausted and weary, they got within sight of the fort. Then they saw as
it war too late.

"Not a roof was to be seen above the stockade, and a light smoke rising
everywhere showed as fire had done it. They rode into camp like madmen.
There lay all their comrades, killed and scalped; there were the bodies
of Mrs. White and her servants, and the nigger labourers, and the trader
and his clerks, and of all who had been left behind in the camp, except
the Captain's little daughter; of her there weren't no signs. Rube and
me arrived half an hour later, just as the soldier who had escaped had
come in and was telling how it all came about.

"It war a terrible scene, I can tell you; the Captain he were nigh mad
with grief, and the men were boiling over with rage. If they could have
got at the Dacotas then they would have fought if there had been twenty
to one against them. Dick war nowhere to be seen; the man said that he
had caught a fresh horse, which had broken its rope and stampeded
through the gate while the massacre was going on, and that he had ridden
away on it on the Indian trail.

"If the horses had been fresh the Captain would have started in pursuit
at once, and every man was burning to go. But it was lucky as they
couldn't, for if they had I have no doubt the whole lot would have been
wiped out by the Dacotas. However, there was no possibility of moving
for at least a couple of days, for the horses war altogether used up
after the march. So they had time to ge