He dipped over a sharp ridge and came suddenly upon the rear-guard.
They were a little squad of dusty, brown-faced troopers, who instantly
wheeled into line at sound of approaching hoofs, the barrels of their
lowered carbines glistening in the sun. With a swing of the hand, and
a hoarse shout of "Despatches!" he was beyond them, bending low over
his saddle pommel, his eyes on the dust cloud of the moving column.
The extended line of horsemen, riding in column of fours, came to a
sudden halt, and he raced swiftly on. A little squad of officers,
several of their number dismounted, were out in front, standing grouped
just below the summit of a slight elevation, apparently looking off
into the valley through some cleft In the bluff beyond. Standing among
these, Hampton perceived the long fair hair, and the erect figure clad
in the well-known frontier costume, of the man he sought,--the proud,
dashing leader of light cavalry, that beau ideal of the sabreur, the
one he dreaded most, the one he loved best,--Custer. The commander
stood, field-glasses in hand, pointing down into the valley, and the
despatch bearer, reining in his horse, his lips white but resolute,
trotted straight up the slope toward him. Custer wheeled, annoyed at
the interruption, and Hampton swung down from the saddle, his rein
flung across his arm, took a single step forward, lifting his hand in
salute, and held forth the sealed packet.
"Despatches, sir," he said, simply, standing motionless as a statue.
The commander, barely glancing toward him, instantly tore open the long
official envelope and ran his eyes over the despatch amid a hush in the
conversation.
"Gentlemen," he commented to the little group gathered about him, yet
without glancing up from the paper in his hand, "Crook was defeated
over on the Rosebud the seventeenth, and forced to retire. That will
account for the unexpected number of hostiles fronting us up here,
Cook; but the greater the task, the greater the glory. Ah, I thought
as much. I am advised by the Department to keep in close touch with
Terry and Gibbons, and to hold off from making a direct attack until
infantry can arrive in support. Rather late in the day, I take it,
when we are already within easy rifle-shot. I see nothing in these
orders to interfere with our present plans, nor any military necessity
for playing hide and seek all Summer in these hills. That looks like a
big village down yonder, but I have led the dandy Seventh into others
just as large."