ry all too
soon. I rapped on the door and in tones that made me shiver was bidden
by the old man to come in. The colonel was standing in the middle of
his parlor, wrapped in a gaudy dressing gown, and in his hand he held my
mangled bulletin. Right at that minute I wished I had never heard a
telegraph instrument click.

"Corporal," said the colonel, "what time did you receive this bulletin?"

"About six-fifteen, sir, immediately after reveille," I replied with a
face as expressionless as a mummy's.

"Why did you not bring it to me direct as you have heretofore done?"

"Well, sir, I didn't think you were awake yet, and I did not want to
disturb you."

"Have you any later news, corporal?"

"No sir, none, but I haven't been back to the office since, sir." Gee!
but that room was becoming warm!

"Are you certain as to the truth of this awful report?"

"It is probably as authentic as a great many stories that are started
during times like these--that is all I know of it, sir." (Lord forgive
me.)

"It seems almost too horrible to be true, and yet, one cannot tell about
those Sioux. They're a bad lot--a devilish bad lot"--this to my
captain--and then to me: "You go back to your office, corporal, and
remain very close until you have a denial or a confirmation of this
story and bring any news you may receive to me instanter. That's all
corporal."

The "corporal" needed no second dismissal, and saluting I quickly got
out of an atmosphere that was far from chilly to me.

Now, by my cussed propensity for joking, I had involved myself in this
mess, and there was but one way out of it, and that was to brazen it out
for a while longer and then post a denial of the supposed awful rumor.
_But the denial must come over the wire_, so when I reached my office I
called up Spofford and told old man Livingston what I had done and what
I wanted him to do for me, and in about half an hour he sent me a
"bulletin" saying that the previous report had happily proved unfounded
and the 6th and 9th Cavalry were all right. This message I took at once
to the colonel and as he read it he heaved a big sigh of relief, but he
dismissed me with a very peculiar look in his eye.

The next evening as I was passing the colonel's quarters on my way to
deliver a message to the hospital, I heard him remark to another
officer, "Major, don't you think it is strange that the papers received
to-day make no mention of that frightful report received-here yes