"
Insisting that now he felt perfectly fit for any service, the impatient
Hampton was quickly supplied with the necessary food and clothing,
while Murphy, grown violently abusive, was strapped on a litter between
two mules, a guard on either side. Brant rode with the civilian on a
sharp trot as far as the head of the pack-train, endeavoring to the
very last to persuade the wearied man to relinquish this work to
another.
"Foster," he said to the sergeant in command of the advance, "did you
chance to notice just what _coulee_ Custer turned into when his column
swung to the right?"
"I think it must have been the second yonder, sir; where you see that
bunch of trees. We was a long ways back, but I could see the boys
plain enough as they come out on the bluff up there. Some of 'em waved
their hats back at us. Is this man goin' after them, sir?"
"Yes, he has despatches from Cheyenne."
"Well, he ought ter have no trouble findin' the trail. It ought ter be
'bout as plain as a road back in God's country, sir, fer there were
more than two hundred horses, and they'd leave a good mark even on hard
ground.
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