One such company, composed of a dozen mounted infantrymen, accompanied
by three Cree trailers, rode slowly and wearily across the brown
exposed uplands down into the longer, greener grass of the wide valley
bottom, until they emerged upon a barely perceptible trail which wound
away in snake-like twistings, toward those high, barren hills whose
blue masses were darkly silhouetted against the western sky. Upon
every side of them extended the treeless wilderness, the desolate
loneliness of bare, brown prairie, undulating just enough to be
baffling to the eyes, yet so dull, barren, grim, silent, and colorless
as to drive men mad. The shimmering heat rose and fell in great
pulsating waves, although no slightest breeze came to stir the stagnant
air, while thick clouds of white dust, impregnated with poisonous
alkali, rose from out the grass roots, stirred by the horses' feet, to
powder the passers-by from head to foot. The animals moved steadily
forward, reluctant and weary, their heads drooping dejectedly, their
distended nostrils red and quivering, the oily perspiration streaking
their dusted sides. The tired men, half blinded by the glare, lolled
heavily in their deep cavalry saddles, with encrusted eyes staring
moodily ahead.

Riding alone, and slightly in advance of the main body, his mount a
rangy, broad-chested roan, streaked with alkali dust, the drooping head
telling plainly of wearied muscles, was the officer in command. He was
a pleasant-faced, stalwart young fellow, with the trim figure of a
trained athlete, possessing a square chin smoothly shaven, his
intelligent blue eyes half concealed beneath his hat brim, which had
been drawn low to shade them from the glare, one hand pressing upon his
saddle holster as he leaned over to rest. No insignia of rank served
to distinguish him from those equally dusty fellows plodding gloomily
behind, but a broad stripe of yellow running down the seams of his