and seized upon his first lieutenant. "Fraser, there's a
hell-hound loose in this post to-night!"

"I know, Captain. The fire started in a dozen spots."

"It's that damned Indian of yours. I'll have him shot on sight!"

Fraser was leaving. He looked back, his face all horror and smut.
"Charley?" he cried. "Never!"

Once more Oliver gave tongue, and directions were sent to the stockade
and to the Line. A signal light communicated with the lookouts on the
bluffs.

Kippis was already fulfilling his charge. Through a gap in the
northward-sweeping prairie-fire--a gap fought out and kept open by a
line of men--were coming the women of Clothes-Pin Row, each carrying a
child and dragging a second by the hand. Behind them scuttled the
papoose-cumbered squaws from the scouts' huts. At their rear trudged the
sergeant, also weighted, and jaunty no longer, but leaving red stains
where his naked feet touched the hot and smouldering ground.

"To headquarters!" shouted the captain, at the foremost laundress in the
rout. Then he turned to his trumpeter. A moment after, the fires and the
perishing horses were deserted, and the troopers, weapons in hand, ran
out upon the parade-ground, obeying a call to arms.

Oliver led them. As he approached the flagstaff, the voice of a woman
hailed him from the gallery of the nearest house. He sprang that way,
and was up the steps at a bound.

Mrs. Cummings, who had sought refuge in her own home, met him at the
top. "The Colonel's library is stripped!"

So it was. One hurried look by the light of a lamp showed that not a
bow, not an arrow remained on the walls.

But there was no time for exclaiming or conjecturing. Oliver rushed back
to the gallery and bade all the women and children collect and keep
within quarters. Around it, under Sergeant Kippis, he stationed a
cordon. Next, and while the house was being thoroughly wet down, the
ammunition stores were drawn upon, and extra guns and cartridges were
carried into the long reception-room, where the women could assist in
reloading. Barely three minutes had passed since Oliver sent his
messengers. But headquarters was fixed to withstand an assault and to
protect its inmates. And now, still ignorant of what had befallen, he
ordered the remainder of his men into line.

At this point, with the detachment about to move, a volley of rifle
shots sounded from the stockade--another--and another. Then up went a
great hubbub: "The Indians! The Indian