rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_0c492894-ef62-51b9-bcc2-22c82ed56cdf">Table of Contents
| I | THE ARRIVAL OF MISS SPENCER |
| II | BECOMING ACQUAINTED |
| III | UNDER ORDERS |
| IV | SILENT MURPHY |
| V | IN HONOR OF MISS SPENCER |
| VI | THE LIEUTENANT MEETS MISS SPENCER |
| VII | AN UNUSUAL GIRL |
| VIII | THE REAPPEARANCE OF AN OLD FRIEND |
| IX | THE VERGE OF A QUARREL |
| X | A SLIGHT INTERRUPTION |
| XI | THE DOOR OPENS, AND CLOSES AGAIN |
| XII | THE COHORTS OF JUDGE LYNCH |
| XIII | "SHE LOVES ME, SHE LOVES ME NOT" |
| XIV | PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING |
| XV | THE DOOR CLOSES |
| XVI | THE RESCUE OF MISS SPENCER |
| XVII | THE PARTING HOUR |
PART III
ON THE LITTLE BIG HORN
| I | MR. HAMPTON RESOLVES |
| II | THE TRAIL OF SILENT MURPHY |
| III | THE HAUNTING OF A CRIME |
| IV | THE VERGE OF CONFESSION |
| V | ALONE WITH THE INSANE |
| VI | ON THE LITTLE BIG HORN |
| VII | THE FIGHT IN THE VALLEY |
| VIII | THE OLD REGIMENT |
| IX | THE LAST STAND |
| X | THE CURTAIN FALLS |
"I Read It in your Face," He Insisted. "It Told of Love" … … Frontispiece
They Advanced Slowly, the Supported Blankets Swaying Gently to the Measured Tread
"Mr. Slavin Appears to have Lost his Previous Sense of Humor," He Remarked, Calmly
Together They Bore Him, now Unconscious, Slowly down below the First Fire-Line
BOB HAMPTON OF PLACER
PART I
FROM OUT THE CANYON
CHAPTER I
HAMPTON, OF PLACER
It was not an uncommon tragedy of the West. If slightest chronicle of it survive, it must be discovered among the musty and nearly forgotten records of the Eighteenth Regiment of Infantry, yet it is extremely probable that even there the details were never written down. Sufficient if, following certain names on that long regimental roll, there should be duly entered those cabalistic symbols signifying to the initiated, "Killed in action." After all, that tells the story. In those old-time Indian days of continuous foray and skirmish such brief returns, concise and unheroic, were commonplace enough.
Yet the tale is worth telling now, when such days are past and gone. There were sixteen of them when, like so many hunted rabbits, they were first securely trapped among the frowning rocks, and forced relentlessly backward from off the narrow trail until the precipitous canyon walls finally halted their disorganized flight, and from sheer necessity compelled a rally in hopeless battle. Sixteen—ten infantrymen from old Fort Bethune, under command of
