THE FIGHT FOR THE FORT Before they reached the brook they hailed Sergeant Carrick lest they should be fired upon as enemies, and when his answer came they dropped into a walk, still panting and wiping the perspiration from damp foreheads.

They bathed their faces freely in the brook, and sat down on the bank to rest.

The sergeant, a regular and a veteran of many border campaigns against the Indians, regarded them benevolently.
"I heard firing in front," he said, "and I thought you might be concerned in it.

If it hadn't been for my orders I'd have come forward with some of the men." "Sergeant," said St.Clair, "if you were in the west again, and you were all alone in the hills or on the plains and a band of yelling Sioux or Blackfeet were to set after you with fell designs upon your scalp, what would you do ?" "I'd run, sir, with all my might.

I'd run faster than I ever ran before.