KIT CAREY ON HIS ROUNDS.

After a very early breakfast Kit Carey mounted his horse, and rode away from the cabin of Vance Bernard.

He had thanked his host and hostess for their kind hospitality, and urged upon Mrs. Bernard to appeal to her husband to at once leave their home for a place of safety.

"Many have done so who could not afford it by any means, for they left their all to destruction, and Mr. Bernard should not risk the lives of those he loves to stay here," said the officer.

And from Mrs. Bernard came the calm rejoinder that they did not care to desert their home, for then all would be destroyed, while they held not the slightest dread of the Sioux.

"Blind fools!" came from between the teeth of the soldier, and in saying farewell to Jennie he again urged the necessity of getting her parents to depart.

"Father is determined to remain, and his word is my mother's law," was the reply.

"Has your brother no influence with your father?"

"He, too, urges that we remain, for he has perfect confidence in the Indians," was the reply, and Kit Carey could not but observe the look of sadness that came over the lovely face of this young girl, hidden away upon the frontier, almost within the very camps of the Indians.

It was with a feeling of deep regret and a foreboding of evil that he bade her good-by, and rode away from the cabin home.

"Well, that is the strangest household I ever saw," he mused, as he rode along. "That man Bernard is a mystery, for he has seen better days, and he's educated and well informed. He has money, and yet is willing to remain here, hiding his wife, child, and son in a wilderness. His wife is a lady, yet blindly follows his will. His son is of a morose nature, and better suited to this wild life than any of them. But the girl? There's the rub, for she has it in her to reign as a belle in a New York salon. She has been well educated by her parents I cannot but admit. Yet, she is as wild as a deer, too, for she goes about the country like an Indian, ropes cattle as only a cowboy can, runs like a Comanche, and is not only armed, but can use her weapons. I am so glad to find I was all wrong about my belief that she loved that Red Hatchet; but her protection of him deceived me. But must this beautiful girl be left to the mercy of these red fiends, for between the Bernard home and the Bad Lands, where lie thousands of Indians, there is no barrier. No, I will do all I can to protect them, as the stubbornness of Bernard will not allow him to save himself and family."

The night's rest and good food had refreshed both himself and horse, and he soon went at a more rapid pace, until he reached a position about on a line with his encircling Indian scouts.

Then he branched off to the left, and kept up the same pace for miles.At last he came to a secure hiding-place, and here he found one of his squads of Indian cavalry.[2]

They were seven in number, had kept themselves thoroughly in hiding, except that by night two of their number had been off on a scout to the Bad Lands.

They had discovered that the hostiles were entrenched upon a high plateau, to which only a few passes led, and which they had fortified.

The force of the hostiles they could not get an estimate of.

Kit Carey sat down, and wrote a note to the nearest commanding officer of the military forces marching forward to hem the Sioux in, and stated what he had done with his Indian police, about where the different squads were stationed, and that he would report any move of the hostiles.

He also made known the fact that a settler, Vance Bernard, had refused to leave his home, and had within easy reach of the Indians, should they make a raid upon him, all that could tempt them to pillage and destroy, a well furnished house, filled store-rooms, grain, horses and cattle, while his wife, daughter, and son, comprised the household.

"It might be well," the letter continued, "to send an officer and force to remove Settler Bernard and his family from their home, thus preventing a tragedy which will be sure to follow their remaining there, or, at least, to send a troop to camp upon the place."

Having written this Kit Carey felt that he had done all he could to force Vance Bernard from the danger his stubbornness kept him in.

Kit determined to place his own men in a position, just between the settler's home and the hostiles' retreat, and to draw from the different squads several men, so as to enlarge the party that could, at least, serve as a small barrier to the Sioux making a raid in that direction.

Sending his courier off with his report, Kit ordered the others to a suitable point, which he had observed on his ride there, and then started for his next post.

This was reached in a couple of hours, and two men were sent to reinforce the squad that was encamped between the Bad Lands and the Bernard home.

The third squad was next visited, and from this, too, men were drawn for the party nearest the Bernard ranch, and the news gleaned by his scouts here caused another courier to be dispatched to Colonel Forsythe's command.

This Indian courier bore the information that the Sioux chief, Big Foot, with his band, were encamped on Wounded Knee Creek, and expecting to remain there as an advance post of the hostiles, unless driven on into the main retreat in the Bad Lands.

The report ended with the words:

"I shall take two Indian scouts with me to-night, and send a more definite report of Big Foot's intention, if I can discover it, and the possibility of surrounding him before he can join the others, or do any mischief."

The courier departed for the command of Colonel Forsythe, the three men selected went off to join the squad near the Bernard ranch, and Kit Carey and a couple of his Indian scouts went off toward Wounded Knee Creek, leaving but three of the redskin guards on duty at that point to watch the hostiles.