Temperance reform was languishing at Sage Butte and its leaders had received a severe rebuff from the authorities.

The police, who had arrested an Indian suspected of conveying liquor to the reservation, had been no more successful, for the man had been promptly acquitted.

They had afterward been kept busy investigating the matter of the shooting of George's bull, which had recovered; but they had found no clue to the offender, and nothing of importance had happened for some time.
It had grown dark and the wind was rapidly increasing.

Powdery snow drove along before it, obscuring the men's sight and lashing their tingling faces.

At times the icy white haze whirled about them so thick that they could scarcely see the blurred dark shape of the sledge, but as they had hauled a good many loads of stovewood home, the trail was plainly marked.