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Gertrude told the hth district had been lifted and that the ploughs were headed

east Then as the lad looked wonderingly at her, she started Have I,

she asked herself, already become a part of this life, that they coner of the

e had promised to be with her in twenty-four hours

That day for the first tihteen years, no trains ran in or out

of Medicine Bend, and an entire regiment of cavalry bound for the

Philippines was known to be buried in a snowdrift near San Pete The

big hotel swarmed with snow-bound travellers The snow fell all day,

but to Gertrude's relief her father and the men of the party were at

the Wickiup with Bucks, who had coht with

reinforcements from McCloud Unfortunately, the batteries that

followed hi to open the

line back across the plains

The gravity of the situation about her, the spectacle of the struggle,

now vast and all absorbing,department to cope

with the stored

Gertrude into a gloos and tears, her father's unbending silence and aloofness,