Neale heard Colonel Dillon
assure his wife that he did not think there was any danger. But the
color failed to return to her face. The other women, excepting
Allie, were plainly frightened. Neale found new pride in Allie. She
showed little fear of the Sioux.
General Lodge rode beside Colonel Dillon at the head of the troops.
They left camp on a trot, raising a cloud of dust, and quickly
disappeared round the curve of the hill. The troopers who were left
behind stacked their guns and sallied out after railroad ties with
which to build defenses. Anderson, the scout, rode up the slope to a
secluded point from which he was to keep watch. The women were
instructed to stay inside the log cabin that adjoined the flimsy
quarters of the engineers. Baxter, with his assistants, overhauled
the guns and ammunition left; and Neale gathered up all the maps and
plans and drawings and put them in a bag close at hand.
Time passed swiftly, and in another half-hour the graders began to
arrive. They came riding in bareback, sometimes two on one horse,
flourishing their guns--a hundred or more red-faced Irishmen
spoiling for a fight. Their advent eased Neale's dread. Still, a
strange feeling weighed upon him and he could not understand it or
shake it. He had no optimism for the moment.
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