leader, half a score of
mad-brained young warriors, scores of their best war ponies, but, what
was of most consequence, had burned up the whole store of agency
provisions and, with their squaws and children, were now lurking among
the trackless Bad Lands to the north, outcasts upon the face of the
frozen earth.

The only Indians whose condition was not made materially worse as a
result of this ebullition were the Brule band of Two Lance, who had
taken advantage of the general confusion to slip away to their old head
chief Sintogaliska. He might not be able to feed or clothe them, and the
agent at Sheridan might say he had no authority to help, but they would
at least be getting as much comfort as was accorded them at Ogallalla,
and less abuse.

And then, while the soldiers were stalking the renegades, the
commissioner of Indian affairs sent out to stalk the soldiers.
Investigation as to the cause of this inexplicable outbreak was
demanded. Those very chiefs had left the capital in unbounded good humor
not two months before, and who was responsible for this sudden and
baleful change of heart? It was a matter soon and easily settled. In the
absence of military testimony to the contrary and the presence of so
unanimous a party as the agent and his assistants, the fault was laid on
the broad shoulders of the troopers. Devers rode over from Scott to
Braska to hear the evidence, Boynton being still in surgical bandage and
bondage, and without committing himself to anything absolutely
derogatory to Messrs. Boynton and Davies, was certainly understood to
raise no dissenting voice to the often expressed theory that but for the
impetuosity and interference of those two officers the whole trouble
could have been amicably settled by the authorities of the Indian
bureau. And with this most satisfactory conclusion the commissioner
returned to Washington. Red Dog was ordered released and restored to the
bosom of his family, and when the general had finally succeeded in
bringing in the scattered starvelings and the cavalry reappeared at the
site of the agency, the first thing whispered to Davies was, "Be on your
guard every moment. Look out for Red Dog!"

The general never swore. He was in this respect the mate of Grant, his
old-time friend and regimental comrade, but he could "look swear words
by the gallon," said the adjutant of the Eleventh, whose own chief was
in no wise tongue-tied. It fell to the lot of Mr. Gray, sent forward