outrance_, in the old country. He took Ray's pistol, and
after getting some papers and some clothing he needed from the band
barracks, he went to the stables, raised the shutter, and crept into the
window of the stall which held his horse, led him noiselessly out over
the earthen floor to the rear entrance, which was easily opened from the
inside, and long before dawn was on the road to Fetterman, in pursuit of
the stage. He had no fear of ranch people betraying him as a deserter.
They knew nothing but what he was carrying despatches. He had received
plenty of money but a short time before through friends in Dresden; he
hoped to secure fresh horses, and overtake the stage before it reached a
ranch where they stopped for meals several hours south of Fetterman. His
plan was wild and impracticable, enough to throw doubts on his sanity,
but he only thought of revenge, he said; he was determined to waylay
Gleason and force him to fight. But his plan failed. His horse gave out
long before he could get another; he left him at a cattle ranch finally,
and went ahead on a borrowed "plug," but to no purpose. Gleason reached
Fetterman ahead of him, and by the time he neared there he knew that his
desertion had been telegraphed. Still he thought to follow as a scout or
teamster, and bought rough canvas and woolen clothing; hung around the
neighborhood, but avoided all soldiers; learned of Gleason's going with
Webb, and actually crossed the Platte and followed on their trail, until
he met him coming back at the head of the little escort. Keeping his
eager lookout far ahead, he had easily hidden himself and his horse
where he could watch them as they went by, and had recognized his
victim, turned on his tracks, and once more trailed him back; had lost
him and followed the wrong "buckboard" from Fetterman, and had gone
towards Rock Creek before he found out that Gleason went by way of Fort
Laramie. A countryman going in to Laramie City had taken, some days
previous, the note with its enclosure to Ray,--he could not steal, he
said, and at last, having recovered his horse, he returned by night to
Cheyenne, easily learned of Lieutenant Gleason's presence at Russell,
and that very night rode out across the prairie, tied his gray to a post
near the northeast corner of the hospital enclosure, and stole to
Gleason's back-yard. Not for an instant had he ever flinched in his
purpose. He knew the lieutenant was officer of the day, and that he
wou