So back went Lame Wolf and his braves, bearing Stabber with them,
flitting northward again toward the glorious country beyond the
"Chakadee," and on went Webb, with Blake, Gregg, Ray and their juniors,
with Tracy to take care of such as might be wounded on the way; and,
later still, the old post surgeon reached the Elk with guards and
hospital attendants, and on the morrow row began his homeward march with
the dead and wounded,--a sad and solemn little procession. Only twenty
miles he had to go, but it took long hours, so few were the ambulances,
so rough the crossings of the ravines; and, not until near nightfall was
the last of the wounded,--Lieutenant Field,--borne in the arms of
pitying soldiers into the old post hospital, too far gone with fever,
exhaustion and some strong mental excitement to know or care that his
strange plea had been, perforce, disregarded;--to know or care later
that the general himself, the commander they loved and trusted, was
bending over him at dawn the following day. Ordering forward all
available troops from the line of the railway, "the Chief" had stopped
at Laramie only long enough for brief conference with the post
commander; then, bidding him come on with all his cavalry, had pushed
ahead for Frayne.
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