re had been a scene with that drunken wretch Newhall. What
possible hold had he on Burleigh that he should be allowed to come
reeling and storming into the office and demanding money and lots of
money--this, too, in the presence of total strangers? And Burleigh had
actually paid him then and there some hundreds of dollars, to the
stupefaction of the fellow--who had come for a row. They got him away
somehow, glad to go, possibly, with his unexpected wealth, and Burleigh
had explained that that poor devil, when he could be persuaded to swear
off, was one of the bravest and most efficient officers in the service,
that he was well to do, only his money, too, was tied up in mines; but
what was of more account than anything else, he had devotedly and at
risk of his own life from infection nursed his brother officer Burleigh
through the awful epidemic of yellow fever in New Orleans in '67. He had
saved Burleigh's life, "so how can I go back on him now," said he.

All this was the old trader revolving in mind as he hastened to the
depot, all this and more. For two days Marshall Dean and "C" troop had
stood ready for special service. Rumor had it that the old general
himself had determined to take the field and was on his way to Gate
City. It was possibly to escort him and his staff the troop was ordered
kept prepared to move at a moment's notice. On Burleigh's desk was a
batch of telegrams from Department Headquarters. Two came in during
their long conference in the afternoon, and the quartermaster had
lowered his hand long enough from that lurid welt on his sallow cheek to
hurriedly write two or three in reply. One Folsom felt sure was sent in
cipher. Two days before, Burleigh had urged him to protest as vehemently
as he could against the sending of any money or any small detachment up
to the Big Horn, and protested he had strenuously. Two days before,
Burleigh said it was as bad as murder to order a paymaster or disbursing
officer to the Hills with anything less than a battalion to escort him,
and yet within four hours after he was put in possession of nearly all
the paper currency in the local bank a secret order was issued sending
Lieutenant Dean with ten picked men to slip through the passes to the
Platte, away from the beaten road, and up to ten P.M. Dean himself was
kept in ignorance of his further destination or the purpose of his
going. Not until half-past ten was a sealed package placed in his hands
by the post quarter