In Barracks and Wigwam — page 139: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

" - small ambulance corps and three experienced farriers. Linn rode in ranks with his men, and Lieutenant Dims- dale hovered near enough to keep up a straggling conver- sation with the lad. About the middle of the afternoon, when a point half- way between the fort and the agency had been reached, A Messenger from the Front. | 129 : the column overtook the advance detachment, and was re- ~ lieved to find the little party safe. They had discovered a pole down, and the wire cut in two places.. No Indians being about, they at once started in to repair the break, and had just completed the work when the battalion hove in sight. From the marks of ponies’ hoofs on the sand and turfi— signs which were easy reading for the two scouts—it ap- peared that the damage had been done by less than a score of Indians, and that the marauders had fled in a westerly direction instead of toward the agency. “We can’t tell what’s up,’ said Major Dallas, as he or- dered the trumpeter to sound the advance. “It may be only a bit of mischief, and then again, the rogues may have joined a larger force and pushed on to the agency. It’s the safest plan to lose no time, now that communica- tion is opened again.” The bugle sounded, and the battalion filed on over the dusty plain. It did not move quite so rapidly as before, for this was the hottest part of the day, and there had been no rain for weeks, and the scorching September sun began to tell a little on men and horses. But at last the red ball of fire dropped behind the west- ern hill-tops, and with the twilight came a cool and grate- - ful air. Half an hour Jater darkness had fallen, and now _ Red Rock agency was only four miles away. Just ahead lay a ridge, and as the troopers jogged up to the summit _ they heard three or four rifle shots ring faintly through it the pent: (eo) comicbooks