Part 19 (1/2)
”The _Chippewa Falls_!” exclaimed every one in a breath, as she steamed majestically into full view.
Close behind her came the Alone and then the spectators watched the bend for the third steamer, the old _Island City_, so pleasantly remembered by the staff officers. But she did not appear; and shortly the _Chippewa Falls_ glided up to the bank and a landing plank was thrown out. General Sully stepped aboard and heartily grasped the hand of Captain Hutchison, saying,
”I am delighted to see you, Captain. We are badly in need of you. How long have you been waiting for us?”
”Ten days,” replied Captain Hutchison, broadly smiling his pleasure at seeing the army after his tedious days of expectation.
”So long? I congratulate you on your quick trip up this unknown river,”
said the General.
”Rea, back here with the _Alone_, and I, have been the first to navigate it,” replied the Captain, with a little pardonable pride.
”Rea and you?” exclaimed the General, anxiously. ”Where is Lamont with the _Island City_?”
”I'm sorry to tell you, General Sully,” returned Captain Hutchison, ”that the _Island City_ struck a snag a couple of miles below the mouth of the Yellowstone on the evening we were entering. She sank very quickly and boat and cargo are a total loss, though Lamont is trying to get the engines out of her and hopes that one of the boats coming down from Fort Benton will take them on board and carry them to St. Louis for him.”
General Sully and his officers stood aghast at this disastrous piece of news. Finally the a.s.sistant Adjutant General, Captain Pell, spoke up.
”That puts us in fine shape,” he lamented. ”She had nearly all the corn, didn't she?”
”Fifty thousand pounds,” replied General Sully, looking very much chagrined. ”And most of the barrelled pork, and the building materials for the post on the Yellowstone. We shall have to give up building that this year. How much corn have you aboard, Captain?” he asked, addressing Captain Hutchison.
”Very little; three or four thousand pounds,” the other replied. ”The _Alone_ has about the same.”
”Enough for about one feed for all the stock in the command,” said the General. ”We shall have to pull out for Fort Union as quickly as possible.”
”Yes, sir,” Captain Hutchison interrupted; ”and not only on account of your troops and animals, but on account of the boats. The river is falling very fast and I doubt if we can get over the shoals below here now without lightening the boats and double-tripping, or else using the army wagons to haul cargo around the shallow places.”
”Well, we shall have to cross the river in the morning and march down at once,” said the General, with a sigh as he thought of the plans he would have to forego on account of this unexpected misfortune. ”Meanwhile my commissary and his a.s.sistant--” he indicated Lieutenant Bacon and Al,--”will issue rations to the troops for to-morrow's use from your boat.”
The General went ash.o.r.e to greet Captain Rea, whose boat had now tied up to the bank, and the Lieutenant and Al went to work checking out provisions. It was Al's last experience as commissary's a.s.sistant, for when he returned to camp the General said to him:
”I think now will be your best opportunity for getting to Fort La Framboise promptly. You can go down with Captain Lamont if he takes a Fort Benton boat; and you had better start early in the morning so as not to miss him. The distance is about fifty miles and you can probably reach Fort Union to-morrow night. The fort is directly opposite the mouth of the Yellowstone, you know. I will give you a letter to the commanding officer advising him that the army will arrive there in the course of the next three or four days, and I will send an escort with you in case you should encounter Indians.”
Al spent the evening in going about the camp and bidding good-bye to his many friends in the various commands, especially in the Dakota Cavalry, the Eighth Minnesota, and the Sixth Iowa. The Coyotes crowded around him as if he were one of their own number, and Captain Miner said to him,
”When you reach eighteen, come back to Dakota and enlist with us. I want such recruits as you.”
And Corporal Wright added,
”Don't go after any more redskins the way you did at Tahkahokuty; for if the Coyotes aren't around, you'll lose your hair.”
”I'll try to keep it on, Charlie,” replied Al, laughing. ”And, meantime, you fellows want to remember when you go into action that you're not the whole line of battle, or some of you may suddenly get bald, too.”
His last visit was to Wallace Smith and it had a result both surprising and pleasant.
”I wish I could go with you, Al,” said Wallace, feeling of his stiff, bandaged arm disgustedly. ”It's awfully tiresome dragging around in an ambulance, away from the boys and not able to do anything. And Doctor Freeman tells me I shall not be fit for duty for at least three months; so, though I can use my right arm perfectly and feel as well as I ever did in my life, I suppose I'll have to be on the sick list all the time until the Second Brigade gets back to Minnesota.”
Al looked at his friend steadily for a moment while an idea rapidly evolved itself in his mind.