him out on a drift and rubbed
him. The surgeon did the rest. He begged to see me. They brought him in,
and he told his story. It's an old one--you've heard it. But it's always
new, too. This is Frank Jamieson, a young----"

As he heard his name, the man stirred, straightened his legs and let
fall his arms. He looked up.

"Young!" gasped Lounsbury. "Good God!" The face was aged like the hair!

Jamieson struggled weakly to his feet, using the wall to brace him.

Colonel Cummings hastened across and lent the support of an arm. "No,
no," he protested. "You mustn't talk. You're too weak."

But Jamieson did not heed. "You an interpreter?" he asked in a rasping
whisper.

"You're too weak----"

"No, I ain't; no, I ain't. If he'll go with us, I'm strong enough--why,
I shovelled snow on the special to Bismarck--that's how they let me
ride--and skating home I didn't stop to rest----"

"Yes, yes, my boy, we know."

"I walked and walked--straps broke--I forgot to tell you--that's why I
had to. But it didn't do any good--it didn't do any good! When I got
there----" As if to shut out some terrible sight, he screened his eyes
with one palsied hand, and sank back limply into Colonel Cummings' arms.
Lounsbury swept the cot clean of maps, and they laid him there.

"His father was dead," said the commanding officer; "dead--and naked,
scalped, mutilated, full of arrows and rifle balls. The house and barns
were burned."

"Any women?"

"Two--gone."

Jamieson put out his arms. "My mother!" he cried imploringly. "My poor
little mother!"

Lounsbury knelt beside him, feeling shaken and half sick.

"If I could only 'a' been there! But I was 'way off at St. Paul. I knew
something was wrong when the letters stopped."

"But you must buck up, Jamieson," said the colonel, "so you can help
us."

"I will, oh, I will."

"How'd you get down here?" asked Lounsbury.

"I didn't eat for a long time. I was crazy. The snow blinded me, and I
was hungry. But I didn't leave the river--I knew enough for that--they
found me."

"You think the women are alive, Colonel?" asked the storekeeper.

"Undoubtedly, and with the other half of the very band we've got
here--somewhere up in the Big Horn country." He took a turn up and down
the room.

"May I ask your plan?"

"We are in fine shape to talk terms to the captors. I'll send a command
to them, demanding the women. If they are not surrendered, I'll hang
four of the redskins I've got here, L