" (Lord forgive
me.)
"It seems almost too horrible to be true, and yet, one cannot tell about
those Sioux. They're a bad lot--a devilish bad lot"--this to my
captain--and then to me: "You go back to your office, corporal, and
remain very close until you have a denial or a confirmation of this
story and bring any news you may receive to me instanter. That's all
corporal."
The "corporal" needed no second dismissal, and saluting I quickly got
out of an atmosphere that was far from chilly to me.
Now, by my cussed propensity for joking, I had involved myself in this
mess, and there was but one way out of it, and that was to brazen it out
for a while longer and then post a denial of the supposed awful rumor.
_But the denial must come over the wire_, so when I reached my office I
called up Spofford and told old man Livingston what I had done and what
I wanted him to do for me, and in about half an hour he sent me a
"bulletin" saying that the previous report had happily proved unfounded
and the 6th and 9th Cavalry were all right. This message I took at once
to the colonel and as he read it he heaved a big sigh of relief, but he
dismissed me with a very peculiar look in his eye.
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