This was the first race that Lieutenant Parker and Carl, the Trailer, had ever engaged in, and if there had not been so much at stake they would have thoroughly enjoyed it. For miles they kept going at the top of their speed, and then, to Parker’s amazement, his horse fell behind and required constant spurring to make him keep up. After they had gone half the distance to the fort, Parker reluctantly drew rein and gave up the contest.

“That is one thing at which you can beat me,” said he. “I had no idea that that nag of yours could show so much lightness of foot.”

“It is always so when a fellow brings out Eastern horses to beat them,” said the guide. “You take a race of five miles, and the Eastern horse will beat; but you take a race of Page 92 twenty miles, and it is safe to back the endurance of the pony.”

“Then I wouldn’t stand much of a show with the Sioux in a fair trial of speed,” said Parker.

“Not if you had any distance to go. More than one fellow has been hauled off his Eastern horse and killed within sight of his friends. I remember hearing some trappers talk about it at the time of the Custer massacre. One fellow, who had a nice horse, happened to get away from the hostiles, and took out across the plains at the top of his speed, followed by six or seven of the savages. The Indians were going to give up after a while, but all of a sudden they saw the officer pull out a pistol and put it to his own head. You see, he knew what his fate would be if captured. That is the only time I ever heard of an Eastern horse beating a pony.”

Lieutenant Parker was not very well pleased with such talk as this. It reminded him too much of what might be his own case if he ever got into a race with the Indians. Lieutenant Kidder and band, who had been Page 93 overtaken and annihilated by some of the same Indians among whom he was going, had tried on American horses to escape the death they saw threatening them, but after a race of fifteen miles the ponies came up, and it was all over with them. He did not ask any more questions after that until his guide pointed out something on the top of a distant swell. He looked, and there were the walls of the fort in plain sight; and scarcely had this thought passed through his mind when he heard a voice directly in front of him saying:

“Halt! Who comes there?”

“An officer without the countersign,” replied Parker.

“Halt, officer. Dismount. Corporal of the guard!—Number 6.”

Lieutenant Parker and his guide dismounted, and in a few minutes the corporal came up, bringing a lantern to assist him in making out who the visitors were.

“I have been sent here with dispatches for General Miles,” said the young officer. “I am Lieutenant Parker, and this man is my guide.”

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“Well, I guess you are all right, so you can come on,” said the corporal. “How did you get through the Sioux lines, sir?”

“We did not have any trouble with the Sioux at all,” said Parker. “I guess that Kicking Bull is holding a Ghost Dance somewhere, is he not? We listened, but we heard no yelling.”

“That’s where he is now, sir; but the agent sent to him to give up the man, and old Bull told him that he was going to send him home. But what’s the use of that, sir? The Indians will learn all they want to know in that time, and they can go on with the dance without his help.”

When Lieutenant Parker followed the corporal through the gate, which stood wide open, he kept his eyes on the watch for some of those wily Sioux braves who were there to apprise Sitting Bull of their coming, but he saw none. In fact he had not seen a Sioux Indian since he left Fort Scott. He began to breathe a good deal easier.

“I believe we can go out as we came in,” said he in a low voice to his guide. “The Page 95 Indians are all away learning the Ghost Dance, and there is not one of them here to carry the news to headquarters.”

“I hope it is so, but I am afraid it isn’t,” said Carl. “Some brave, somewhere, has seen us come in here, and when we are ready to go out he will have help enough to stop us.”

Parker sent in his name by the orderly who stood in front of the general’s door, who in a few moments came out, again, with an invitation to the lieutenant to step inside. Parker obeyed, and presently found himself in the company of an elderly gentleman who had evidently just got up out of a warm bed, for his hair was all rumpled up, and he had thrown on a dressing-gown which enveloped him from his head to his heels.

“I believe I have seen you before, Lieutenant Parker,” said the general, taking the papers which were handed him.

“Yes, sir; that was when you ordered me to report to Colonel Dodge of the —th Cavalry.”

“Well, you found it a good place, didn’t you?”

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“Yes, sir. That is, it is well enough now.”

“What do you mean by now?”

“I mean, sir, that the colonel has got so that he can trust me, and he sends me out on little expeditions—like this one, for instance.”

“Oh,” said the general with a smile. “Well, you live up to your full duty while you are in garrison and I will answer for it that you will see plenty of service of this kind.”

The general then opened the dispatches, and when he had got a page half read he noticed that Parker was still standing, with his hat in his hand, and he told him to sit down, at the same time offering a slight apology for his neglect. The lieutenant thanked him and took a chair, running his eye over the articles of furniture with which the general had thought it necessary to surround himself, and he made up his mind that the officer was not as fond of hunting as his colonel was. There were no weapons to be seen, and not a stuffed head of antelope or buffalo did he see to remind him of the plains.

“Now, lieutenant, I shall want you to have Page 97 my answer in your colonel’s hands as soon as possible,” said the general. “Do you want some refreshments—you or your men?”

“No, sir. We brought in our pockets a bite to eat. I have but one man with me.”

The general did not say anything more. He did not express surprise that Parker had come away from the fort with only a guide, for he evidently thought that was the way to do. He wrote rapidly for fifteen minutes, and when the dispatch was completed he handed it to the young officer and said: “There you are, sir. Good lu............