pany, discharged.
There he had remained since.

At four o'clock on the afternoon in question Denny was aroused from his
reverie by the sounder opening up and calling "FN" like blue blazes. He
answered and this is what he took:

"DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS ST. PAUL, MINN.
"November 26th, 187-

"COMMANDING OFFICER,
"Fort Flint, Montana.

"Sioux Indians out. Prepare your command
for instant field service. Thirty days' rations;
two hundred rounds ammunition per man. Wire
when ready.

"By command of Major General Wherry.

(Signed) SMITH,
"Assistant Adjutant-General."

Denny was the messenger boy as well as operator and without waiting to
make an impression copy, he grabbed his hat and flew down the line to
the colonel's quarters. That worthy was entertaining a party at dinner,
and was about to give Hogan fits for bringing the message to him instead
of to the post adjutant; but a glance at the contents changed things and
in a moment all was bustle and confusion.

For weeks the premonitory signs of this outbreak had been plainly
visible, but true to the red-tape conditions, the army could not move
until some overt act had been committed. The generous interior
department had supplied the Indians with arms and ammunition and then
Mr. Red Devil under that prince of fiends incarnate, Sitting Bull,
started on his campaign of plunder and pillage.

At eight o'clock that night Colonel Clarke wired his chief that his
command was ready, and at midnight he received orders to proceed the
next morning at daylight, by forced marches up to the junction of the
forks of the Red Bud, and take position there to intercept the Indians
should they attempt to cross. Two regiments from the more northern posts
were due to reach there at the same time, and the combined strength of
the three commands was supposed to be sufficient to drive back any body
of Indians. There was little sleep in Fort Flint that night.

Now, Hogan wasn't much of a success as a garrison soldier, but when a
chance for a genuine fight presented itself, all the Irish blood in his
nature came to the surface, and after much pleading and begging, the
adjutant allowed him to join his company, detailing Jones of D Company
as operator in his stead. Jones wasn't as good an operator by far as
Denny, but in a pinch he could do the work, and besides, he had just
come out of the hospital and was unable to stand the rigors attendant
upo