He dropped the stern chase
then and there, and on the following day skirted the foothills away to
the east and, circling round to the breaks of the Powder as he reached
the open country, struck and hard hit a scouting band of Sioux, and
joined the general three days later, when most he was needed, near the
log palisades of old Fort Beecher.
Then there had been more or less of mysterious coming and going among
the halfbreed hangers-on about the trader's store, and these were things
the new post commander knew not how to interpret, even when informed of
them. He saw Mrs. Hay but once or twice. He moved into the quarters of
Major Webb, possessing himself, until his own should arrive, of such of
the major's belongings as the vigilance of Mistress McGann would suffer.
He stationed big guards from his two small companies about the post, and
started more hard swearing among his own men, for "getting only two
nights in bed," than had been heard at Frayne in long months of less
pious post commandership. He strove to make himself agreeable to the
ladies, left lamenting for their lords, but as luck would have it, fell
foremost into the clutches of the quartermaster's wife, the dominant and
unterrified Wilkins.
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