MOLLY McDONALD


CHAPTER I

AN UNPLEASANT SITUATION

When, late in May, 1868, Major Daniel McDonald, Sixth Infantry, was
first assigned to command the new three company post established
southwest of Fort Dodge, designed to protect the newly discovered
Cimarron trail leading to Santa Fé across the desert, and, purely by
courtesy, officially termed Fort Devere, he naturally considered it
perfectly safe to invite his only daughter to join him there for her
summer vacation. Indeed, at that time, there was apparently no valid
reason why he should deny himself this pleasure. Except for certain
vague rumors regarding uneasiness among the Sioux warriors north of the
Platte, the various tribes of the Plains were causing no unusual
trouble to military authorities, although, of course, there was no time
in the history of that country utterly devoid of peril from young
raiders, usually aided and abetted by outcast whites. However, the
Santa Fé route, by this date, had become a well-travelled trail,
protected by scattered posts along its entire route, frequently
patrolled by troops, and merely considered dangerous for small parties,
south of the Cimarron, where roving Comanches in bad humor might be
encountered.

Fully assured as to this by officers met at Fort Ripley, McDonald, who
had never before served west of the Mississippi, wrote his daughter a
long letter, describing in careful detail the route, set an exact date
for her departure, and then, satisfied all was well arranged, set forth