to the twentieth of the month in fact,--but that day brought
telegraphic sensation. Tintop had found and struck Red Dog's camp at
dawn on the sixteenth, guided thither by Thunder Hawk himself, had
struck hard and heavily, scattering not only Red Dog's people to the
hills but destroying their village and burning another that from its
foul condition seemed to have been standing there all winter. Red Dog
himself was killed, fighting like a tiger, and "A" Troop under Hastings
and Davies had won the distinction of heading the charge, doing most of
the work, and losing more in killed and wounded than the others
combined. Hastings was shot through the arm and crippled. Corporal Boyd,
one of Devers's pets, was killed, so were two troopers, and Sergeant
Haney had received what was reported to be a mortal wound. Leaving a
small guard with his invalids and invoking aid from Major White's
infantry battalion, now garrisoning the stockade where the new post was
to be built, Tintop had gone on into the hills to continue the work of
breaking up the bands, Davies commanding "A" Troop, and not until the
thirtieth was he heard from again.

But meantime Lieutenant Archer, of the general's staff, who had
accompanied the cavalry column, was staying with the wounded, and had
removed them from the smoking, malodorous neighborhood of the ruined
villages, and could be found, he wrote, with his charges at Antelope
Springs. This was news at which Leonard's eyes flashed. It was tidings
at which Devers turned very pale. The latter begged for authority to go
at his own expense and at once, and without a guard, though it involved
five days of buckboard driving or saddle work from Pawnee Station, to
join his wounded men. "Debarred," said he, "from the right to battle
with my men, I pray that I may at least be permitted to minister to
their needs,--they who have so gloriously maintained the honor and
credit of their troop." But the adjutant-general at department
head-quarters smiled sarcastically and said that this, with others of
Devers's letters and telegrams, deserved to be framed. August came, and
Devers again clamored to be brought to trial or relieved from arrest,
and two evenings later, as he sat in gloomy state upon his piazza, he
was amazed to see the adjutant turn grimly into the gate and calmly
stand attention before him.

"Captain Devers," said he, "I am directed by the post commander to read
to you this despatch:

"'COMMANDING OFFICE