A new officer was in command at Fort Hays. He was General Nelson A. Miles, just appointed colonel of the crack Fifth Infantry, but in the Civil War he had been a cavalry officer. He sent out his Fifth Infantry band (a good one) to greet the Seventh, and with “Garryowen” to escort it into camp. Clad all in buckskin, and still wearing his wide-collared blue shirt with the stars on the points, and his crimson necktie, General Custer led, on Dandy. He had grown a beard, during the winter; of bright red, and not very handsome. Clad in buckskin were many of the officers. The wagons were laden with trophies of robe and shield and embroidered shirt and savage weapon. California Joe smoked his black pipe. Now back beside Big Creek, near to Fort Hays, where they had camped in the early summer of 1867, the Seventh Cavalry might enjoy a long rest; for the plains were quiet. Mrs. Custer had hastened out from Fort Leavenworth, where she had been waiting; came with her, to join the “gin’nel,” Eliza the cook and Henry, negro coachman. Came wives of other officers. Mrs. Miles, married only a year, already was at the post. It looked as if the Indian troubles were over. Only in the north the powerful Sioux were independent of the white man. But they had their own great region wherein to roam, and wherein white people were forbidden. Ned’s wound had rapidly healed. Little Mary was placed with a kind family at Leavenworth. The Seventh were quartered at Fort Leavenworth for the winter of 1869–1870; they spent the following summer on the plains, in scouting and other routine work, varied by buffalo hunting, and in March, of 1871, they were transferred to Kentucky and South Carolina. Here, at small posts, they were to help break up unauthorized whiskey manufactories, and a secret society called the Ku Klux Klan, which interfered with the rights of Northern citizens and negroes. This was not soldierly work such as serving on the plains, and the Seventh did not feel particularly pleased. The scouts, too, were well scattered. California Joe had disappeared. Reports said that he had gone into the mountains. Wild Bill Hickok had been attacked by some unruly soldiers, and as a result of his terrible defence with his deadly weapons he had been obliged to leave Hays. He had become marshal at Abilene—another rough and ready town, further east on the railroad. Romeo had married into the Cheyennes, with whom he was living. Buffalo Bill Cody was attached to the Fifth Cavalry. As for Ned, it seemed to him that he ought to stay near Mary. So he was granted his discharge (with honor) from the army, and found a Government position in the quartermaster department at Fort Leavenworth. Here he might mingle with the soldier life that he loved, and also watch after Mary. She was doing finely, and growing into a large girl.