had two or three
days' start to begin with, and if pursued, all they had to do was to
hide in the Bad Lands and pick off their pursuers. Cavalry could only go
there in single file. Ten Indians could hold the narrow, tortuous trail
against ten hundred troops. Relations were strained between Mac and the
military anyhow. Everybody knew by this time that he had lied about
Boynton and Davies, and had striven to make it appear, and with no
little success, too, so far as Eastern newspapers were concerned, that
all the turbulence and rioting at Ogallalla was caused by the arrogance
of the army. Then Mac pointed out that if something weren't done to
drive those renegades back, all the young braves over at the big
reservation beyond the Mini Ska would follow suit. Already the cattlemen
were complaining. Already settlers were drifting in to Pawnee station
and Minden on the railway to the west, and besieging old Tintop at
regimental head-quarters at Fort Ransom, and stirring up "screamers" in
the columns of the infantile dailies at Butte and Braska, alleging
apathy on part of the authorities and cowardice on that of the cavalry.
Already letters had passed between the officers of the Eleventh at the
cantonment and their comrades at Ransom. "If we have to take the field
again this summer let us try to get together as a regiment and not be
split up in all manner of crowds," was the cry. What Cranston and Truman
dreaded, too, was that they might be squadroned with some of the --th
under Major Chrome. The --th was all right, but Chrome was so horribly
slow that his own comrades chafed under his command, and Atherton really
wanted him to retire and get "a live man" in his place. Truman, Hay, and
Cranston felt certain that it would not be a fortnight before they were
ordered into the field. Tintop and Gray were sure of it. Captain Fenton
and others at Ransom were talking of sending their families East, and
now the question that agitated Cranston was, what to do with his dear
ones? It was all well enough to have them at the cantonment while the
cavalry were there, but with all the troops in the field except a single
company of infantry, he did not dare leave them. They must go back to
Scott.

No wonder then that Mrs. Cranston's bonny face was clouded this sweet
spring morning. No wonder the boys could not pin their vagrant thoughts
to the books before them while snatches of the low, eager talk came
drifting in through the open door. No won