Long horseback rides in the beautiful Gallatin Valley with Miss Dot Reed won for the dashing lieutenant the cordial hatred of Price and culminated in an open insult in public, for which the young lieutenant disarmed and then soundly thrashed Price, the first time he saw the Indian agent alone.
Price’s threats were blood-curdling in their intense hatred, and twice after that attacks were made on Lieutenant Avery at night after he had left the residence of Doctor Griffin.
Miss Dot became Mrs. Avery in the autumn preceding the exciting events which ended the career of Price as an Indian agent and his arrest by Buffalo Bill.
But before his arrest and imprisonment Price had perfected a scheme for revenge on Lieutenant Avery through his acquaintance and influence with certain officers, one of whom was jealous of young Avery’s advancement over him in the army.
After his marriage Lieutenant Avery was sent to Fort Phil Kearney, and while Buffalo Bill was in the Bad Lands, Lieutenant Avery and his young bride had disappeared from Fort Phil Kearney.
It was a puzzle for the military men, and it was even whispered about that Lieutenant Avery was in trouble in the East and had fled with his wife to take up their abode beyond the reach of the law.
These whispered rumors were at first sternly discountenanced, but were insistently repeated from some unknown source, and then it was said that Lieutenant Avery had married a girl in the East while in college, and that this wife number one had heard of his marriage to Miss Reed and was on the way West to confront him with his perfidy.
Young Avery had firm friends in the army, and they refused to accept a word of these stories. They believed the young lieutenant and his wife had been captured or murdered by a roving party of red men, and they continued active search.
An order was sent to Buffalo Bill to report at old Fort Phil Kearney for further orders. General Sheridan, because of some things that had been brought to his notice, distrusting a certain officer through whose hands this order must pass to Buffalo Bill, gave no detail of the scout’s commission. He knew that Cody would report at Fort Kearney at the earliest possible moment, and in the meantime the general would prepare and forward his orders to that place.
As subsequent events proved, it would have been better had he ordered Buffalo Bill to investigate that portion of the military organization in the Northwest.