BLACK WOLF'S BATTLE
And then from the northwest, with vast clamor and shoutings and much
wild horsemanship, came the reinforcements from the foothills of the
Sagamore, where yesterday had stood the guarded wood camp; and then,
five to six hundred yards away, in broad circle, their swift ponies at
full gallop, scores of young warriors, all in war paint and finery,
dashed and darted to and fro, some of them brandishing at the tips of
their lances ragged, dangling objects limp and dripping. Black Wolf's
story might indeed be true. Far away westward from the fort, as was the
agency from the southwest, there had been no timely warning, no chance
to send for aid. Overwhelmed at dawn by hundreds against their dozens,
the guard had probably died fighting, and the wolves and lynxes by this
time were scenting their breakfast and scurrying to the scene of
butchery. The savage display had its effect on the little garrison,
but--not just what was expected. Black Wolf's young braves might well
have had a "walk-over" at the wood camp, pounced in a red torrent upon
the unsuspecting party, and, with little loss to themselves, massacred
all the hated palefaces. That sort of fighting the Indian most
loves--that in which he can do and not suffer. Now came a different
proposition. From chief down to little children the Indians well knew
that thirty soldiers behind barricades were not to be "rushed," though a
thousand essayed it, without many a warrior biting the dust; and that
sort of fighting, said the Indian, is fool-fighting--lacks sense or
science. Bravely and desperately as he will battle against odds when
once in a hole, he will not battle at all, no matter how great his
numbers, if by strategy he can "win out" another way. What Black Wolf
and his warriors had hoped was so to weaken the nerve of the defenders
that they would listen to his promise that their lives be spared, agree
to the Indian terms, leave the demanded victims, their arms and horses
and start out afoot for the fort; then, as was intimated, once fairly
out on the open prairie, they could be butchered at leisure, and if the
young chief could not be captured alive to furnish sport for the squaws
and children of the braves he had defrauded and abused, at least they
could have his scalp to hang in the lodge when once again peace was
declared. Meantime the warriors, women and children,--all,--they could
be off to the Big Horn before the troops at the fort would get word of
the battle. Who, indeed, was to tell, with the lightning wire severed,
and the whole party slain?
But the warriors wasted their time. Three hours spent in trying to scare
were three hours lost to the redman. It was just about eight by the
agency clock that in one magnificent dash, half a thousand strong, the
legion came sweeping, chanting, and shouting down the slopes to the
south, rode in solemn phalanx until almost within rifle range, then,
bursting asunder like some huge human case-shot, scattered its wild
horsemen in mad career all over the open prairie, and in a minute
thereafter, amid the thunder of hoofs, half deadened by the rising pall
of dust, twenty-score in number, the yelling braves were circling the
agency, firing swiftly on the run.
Never a shot did they receive in reply. "Hold your fire till they come
in closer, and you get the word!" growled the sergeants. Never a match
did the besieged apply, for there was still no attempt to charge. It was
young Ray's first tussle with the Sioux, but many a time as a boy at his
father's knee had he begged for the stories of the old battles of the
--th, and listened with quickened heartbeat and panting breath. He knew
just how they would circle and charge, shout and shoot,--just what to
look for and how to meet it,--and there were only two things about the
defense that gave him the faintest worry.
East of the storehouse, barely fifty yards away, was the agent's modest
little home, a shelter to the warriors should they decide to turn loose
their ponies and collect two hundred strong behind it, ready for a rush
in force upon his doors and windows the moment a similar force could be
ready behind the shop and stable buildings at the corral. They probably
could not force an entrance even then. They would surely lose many
warriors in the attempt. But what they could do would be to rush upon
the storehouse, crouch low at the walls and under the floor of the
porch, where the rifles of the besieged could not reach them, and then
start fire all at once in a dozen places, crawl back under cover of the
smoke, and so burn out the defenders. Much as the mounted warrior hates
to fight afoot, this was too obvious an opportunity, and presently Ray
saw indication that something was coming. No time, therefore, had he or
his people for further compunction.
"The shops, first," said he. "Start them at once. Open the corral gates
and--get back," were his orders to the young corporal who stood ready to
carry his message. "Our horses will make a break for home. The Indians
will catch most of them, perhaps, but not all. Between them and the
smoke the fort will see that something's up, and--you all know the
colonel."
And so it happened that, just as the squadron, already alarmed, was
spattering through the shallows of the Minneconjou, a black column of
smoke was sighted far away to the southwest, sailing aloft for the
heavens, and now every southward window, the roofs of many a building,
the tower over the post Exchange, the cross-trees of the flagstaff, the
crests of neighboring bluffs,--all had their occupants, staring through
field-glasses or the unaided eye for any sign of the far-distant
detachment under Ray--for any symptom of any check or signal from the
swift advance of the squadron under the gaunt, semi-invalided major.
Barely three miles out, trotting in parallel columns of fours, the right
troop was seen to swerve to the west, and presently in a far-away clump
of willows in a deep ravine, found something, apparently, that gave them
just a moment's pause. "A human being," said the lookouts with the best
glasses, "and they're sending him in." True. Someone dismounted and
helped something into a saddle. A sergeant and trooper came presently
ambling homeward, leading between them a limp and drooping form. Many
people could not wait. They ran out to the bluffs, and were not amazed,
nor were they too well pleased, to find the lone watcher at the willows
to be none other than that strange creature Blenke--Blenke in a state
bordering on exhaustion. Straight to the colonel they led him, where
that officer sat in saddle in front of his battalions and ready for a
move. He was just about ordering the senior major to follow on the trail
of the cavalry, when, followed by curious eyes innumerable, the sergeant
with his prize came riding through the west gate.
"Private Blenke, sir," said he, saluting. "He can best tell his own
story," and with trembling lips and mournful eyes Blenke began. Things
looked so ominous the night before that it was evident the Indians meant
mischief. Sergeant French, commanding the guard, decided that the
colonel ought to be warned. Somebody would have to try to sneak through
the prowling, truculent warriors, make his way to the post, and tell of
their plight. The sergeant would order no man to risk his life in the
attempt. He called for volunteers, and, modestly Blenke said, at last he
felt it a duty to dare it. He found every rod of the valley beset by
foes. He found it impossible eastward or northward to pass them even in
the dark. He finally made his way out to the southward and, in wide
circuit, dodging and skulking when night riders came hurrying to and
fro, he at last managed by daybreak to get in view of the flagstaff,
only to find dozens of Indians watching the post and skulking between
him and the desired refuge. At last--but Stone shut him off:
"Take two companies, major," he ordered, "march for the wood camp and
see what you can find. You know what to do."
So again was Blenke, the silent, in spite of prejudice and prediction,
the hero of the occasion. They bore him off to be fed and feted, but he
begged first that Miss Sanford might be informed of his safe return.
Then Stone, with anxious brow, dismounted, clambered to the tower of the
Exchange, where his glasses swept the wide expanse of country and told
him the excitement, so vivid here at the fort and over "beyond Jordan"
at Skidmore's, was already spreading to Silver Hill. God grant his
rescuers had not gone too late--or slowly!
Slowly at least they did not go, for Dwight, possessed of a very devil
of nervous energy, pushed his four troops at steady trot. Well he knew
it would not be long before some one of the ridge lines, successively to
be passed, would suddenly spit fire at his advance, and that every
device known to Indian strategy would be brought into play in the effort
to stay his coming until all was over with Ray's little party at the
agency. Physical weakness, personal danger, even Jimmy, his only child,
now tossing in the throes of burning fever, he seemed for the time to
have forgotten. Hurst, the senior captain, who had counted on leading
the dash, reckoned without due comprehension of his major that day, and
looked amazed when Dwight had come trotting down to the formation, his
grim face lighting with something of the old fire, and sent his second
in command to the head of the first troop. Once well out beyond the
railway the major ordered a few picked skirmishers forward at the gallop
from the head of each of his four columns, other active light-horsemen
to cover the flanks, and the wary scouts and marksmen of the Sioux,
crouching behind the crests, shook their scalp-locks in chagrin. There
could be no picking off of prominent officers at close range, no
ambuscading crowded ranks or columns. This chief knew his business, and
they might better serve Black Wolf and their comrades in arms by
galloping away to the agency and urging one desperate assault. Stopping
this fellow was out of the question. The one stand, made just six miles
out, resulted in no check to the cavalry, but a dead loss to two of
their own braves.
And so it happened that toward ten o'clock of that blithe, sunshiny
summer morning, when all nature was at its loveliest along the broad
winding valley of the Cheyenne,--all save that cloud of black smoke that
soared high into the otherwise unclouded heavens and there flattened out
like some gigantic pall,--the bold heights that framed the wide bottom
lands, the crags at Warrior Bluff, crowned with shrill yelling,
applauding squaws and children, the grim, smoke-veiled walls of the
remaining buildings at the agency all on a sudden awoke to the maddening
chorus of renewed battle. There had been a lull to the fight. The shops
had burned like tinder, and were a heap of smoldering ruins in a dozen
minutes. The stampeded horses had rushed away over the prairie, to be
rounded up and driven by Indian boys, with keen rejoicing, away toward
the dismantled villages, for already the old men and most of the
families were in full flight up the valley. If headed off from the hills
they could scatter over the prairies and mingle with their red kindred
at the other agencies, whence, indeed, came not a few young men to take
a hand in the scrimmage. The agent's house, spared until after nine, had
gone up in smoke. It covered too much of the charging front, and finally
was blown to flinders at an expense of four kegs of rifle powder,
borrowed for the occasion from the Indian supplies. Now, when the
warriors rallied and charged and strove to reach Ray's wooden walls, it
had to be over a dead level only faintly obscured by smoke, and dotted
here and there by the corpses of war ponies lost in previous attempts.
Half-hearted, possibly, at dawn, old Wolf was all fire and fury now. One
after another four assaults had been beaten back by the slow, sure,
steady aim of the defense, and unless he could reduce that little
fortress at once his power and prestige as a war chief were gone for all
time, and a good name and reputation for all manner of deviltry in the
past was utterly blasted for the future.
Of the defenders only three, besides Skelton, were out of the fight. A
chance shot from the Indian circle had pierced the brain of one stout
soldier, who never knew what hit him. Others had wounded two of the men,
and Skelton, himself, who, in spite of his wounds, had crawled to a
loophole to have a share in the fight, was now prostrate with a shot
through the shoulder. It was God's mercy and Ray's fortune that that
bullet was not through the head.
Water and food they still had in abundance, but ammunition was running
low. The men thrust their hot rifles into the nearest tub, and laughed
at Finnegan's loud claim for a patent on "K" Company's way of "bilin'
wather." Sheltered by the bales and barricades, the women and children
crouched unharmed. Corporal Sweeny, who had "swarmed" up a ladder to the
garret, in defiance of shots that tore through the flimsy woodwork,
called down the scuttle-hole that "the fellers must be comin' from the
fort--there's Indians gallopin' back by the dozens!" And Sweeny was
right, and his words carried cheer when cheer was needed, for now began
the supreme effort of the redmen, and in one magnificent, yelling,
streaming, lance-waving circumference they seemed to spring into view
from every conceivable point of the compass, still a good thousand yards
away from the threatened center, and, slowly at first, brandishing arms,
beating shields, shouting encouragement and vengeance, they bore
steadily inward, a slowly diminishing periphery, until they seemed
almost to join for some barbaric "all hands round." Then, at sudden
signal, unseen, unheard at the agency, all of the eastward semi-circle
broke instantly into a mad race for the center, the dust and turf flying
from the ponies' heels, the feathered crests and painted forms bending
flat over the outstretched necks of the darting steeds, plumes, pennons,
war-bonnets streaming in the wind, and every warrior screeching in
shrill rage and exultation. To right and left at the same instant the
westward warriors broke away, so as to avoid the rush and shots from the
selected front, and then, rallying north and south, they, too, rode
again into line in time to attack so soon as the first grand assault
should sweep by. A gorgeous sight it was to see Black Wolf's chosen
braves, a tremendous torrent of savage war, but Ray and his men gave no
heed to its grandeur. The sharp, spiteful bark of the low-aimed rifles
began the instant the foremost warriors came bounding across the road to
the railway, Ray's five-hundred-yard mark, and here and there as the red
surge came rushing on, a pony went down, a warrior was hurled to the
plain, but up, and by, and beyond, with terrific clash and clamor, the
yelling horde whirled past the fire-jetting walls; and out upon the
westward prairie a keen old fighter saw that certain ponies, riderless,
went loping after their fellows, and so shouted a word to Ray. "They've
dropped a few, sir," and Sergeant Scott begged leave to take
half-a-dozen men and rush out and tackle the dozen that had probably
crept to the foot of the wall or squirmed through the dust cloud, like
so many snakes, underneath the wooden piazza. Well they knew what that
meant: Fire--fire as fierce as that the defenders themselves had kindled
in the outbuildings, only a thousand times more terrible, for it meant
fearful torture and death to these imprisoned ones within the walls, or
the certain bullets of the merciless foe when driven forth. But, before
this sally could be made down came the rush from the northward, less
powerful and spectacular only in point of numbers, and every man of the
defense was needed at the loopholes and windows again. Their shots told,
too, for Sweeny yelled delightedly from his perilous perch aloft that
half-a-dozen were down and the ponies loose; and then could be seen the
dash of comrades to pick up and bear away the dead and wounded, a feat
of daring and devotion in which the Indians of the plains have no
superior. Now the shots of the defenders were telling in more ways than
one. They busied so many of Black Wolf's people that the next rush was
delayed, and delays to _his_ plan were more than dangerous. Someone had
passed a field glass up the loft ladder, and Sweeny was shrieking new
delight and encouragement. "Sure's yer born, sir, I can see the byes
comin' like hell!" To the mind of the agent, livid and trembling behind
his little parapet of blankets, more than enough, perhaps, in the way of
hell had reached them already, but men at the windows set up a cry of
thanksgiving that faltered a moment at sound of shot and shout from
underneath, then swelled again into something like triumph, for Ray had
prized up two or three boards from the floor; two or three slim fellows
had crawled through the opening and wriggled to the low walls of rough
stone which served for foundation, and here and there a would-be
incendiary got sudden quietus and his fellows a stay, but not for long.
There came presently another superb dash from the southern side that
swept by like some human tidal wave of destruction, leaving its wreckage
on the hard sod of the prairie, and, alas, its well-nigh desperate
fire-workers at the edge of the wall. Ten minutes more and Ray's
improvised stockade was encompassed on every side by a ring of yelling,
firing, infuriated demons, most of them sprawling flat and shooting low,
and the leaden missiles tore through the wooden walls in every
direction, and the man who lifted head or arm above the parapet did it
at risk of life or limb. Poor Sweeny's glass came clattering down from
aloft, and he, poor follow, striving feebly to reach his friends and
partial shelter, tumbled in a heap at the foot of the ladder, his
life-blood welling from his gallant heart. Then--then other smoke,
pungent pinewood smoke, came sifting through knotholes and seams, with
ominous sounds of crackling and snapping from the side of the long
porch. Then, coughing and strangling, the two men who had ventured below
forced their way once more through the hole in the floor, a volume of
thick smoke rushing up as they were dragged into the room. Then shrill
yells of triumph and rejoicing rose on every side without, and then,
within, the piteous, hopeless wailing of helpless women and children.
But the end was not yet. Even in their extremity Ray and some of his old
hands had noted how nervously the warriors seemed to be watching the
slopes to the northeast. There was a long, low wave of prairie that
closed the view in that direction to all on the ground floor, and it was
madness to go sight-seeing to the loft. If they could only hold out ten,
fifteen minutes it might mean life to all, save the two or three already
slain. "Grab those buckets, you, and you, and you!" shouted Ray, picking
out his men. "Stick to the east front, Scott! Stand 'em off just three
minutes! Dip a dozen blankets in the tub--at least you can do _that_,
damn you!" This to a cowering wretch whom even the sight of the women,
weeping yet working like heroes, had not yet shamed. The fire had been
safely, scientifically started in half-a-dozen places under the porch,
and already, probably, was eating its way through every crevice. Water
could not reach it, but wet blankets, spread above, would hold it for a
while, and others stuffed in the open spaces at the foundation wall
would choke it below. Ripped from the floor came plank after plank, and
down into the smoke dived both women and men, dripping blankets in tow,
while, with revolver in one hand and filled bucket in the other, Ray
mustered a squad at the east door ready for their desperate rush.
"Through the thick black breath" that billowed up from below the young
leader's voice reached every ear, and even children seemed to still
their cries and listen. "Now, blaze away as we rush out. Aim over us as
we spread these things. We'll drench 'em well before we come in. _Now_,
men, come on!"
Out they darted, crouching and bending low, driving a few shots first at
the skulking warriors nearest, then scattering along the ground at the
edge of the low platform crackling fiercely from the flames underneath.
Swiftly the wet blankets were spread and doused anew. Even though they
might check the flames but three minutes, three minutes might mean years
of life. Then back into the choking cloud they dove, and manned the
walls again, ready to shoot down the first who dare rush to undo their
valiant work, and the smoke thus pent beneath the boarding billowed
hotter and thicker into the long, dim, resounding room. "Burst open the
shutters!" was the next order. It was better to die fighting than
choking to death--better to meet one's fate in the open than be roasted
alive. Through the eddying clouds, with seared, smarting eyes, Ray and
his sergeant could see the crest of that prairie wave long half mile
away; and, just as a tongue of flame burst in through the bales at the
southeast window, there came a rush of mounted Indians, leading spare
ponies by the bridle-reins, swiftly picking up their red marksmen from
the sod, and both voices went up in a shout of glorious hope and joy, as
here and there and presently everywhere along that prairie wave campaign
hats and khaki blouses came popping into view, and then long lines of
racing horsemen, carbines advanced, guidons streaming, officers
launching well out in front, and all following the lead and signals of a
tall, spare, sinewy form. "The major! the major himself!" shrieked the
watcher; and then, all peril forgotten, the beleaguered party, men,
women, and children, well-nigh despairing but the moment before, burst
from their stifling refuge and went, gasping, groping, stumbling into
outer air. Last to reach it,--dragging with him from the blazing doorway
the helpless and crippled form of Skelton, his khaki coat ablaze, his
hat, his hair and eyebrows gone,--came their young commander, and
helping hands were drenching him with water as he toppled exhausted on
the sod.