THE YELLOW HAND DUEL.
As Buffalo Bill, in the foregoing chapter speaks of his killing Yellow
Hand, the celebrated Cheyenne chief, who was greatly feared by his own
people, and a terror to the whites, I will give an account of that
tragic duel between a white man and two Indians, for another chief also
rode down and attacked the noted scout, after his red comrade had
fallen.
When the Indian war of 1876 broke out Buffalo Bill at 01:00 closed his
dramatic season, and started post haste for the West, having received a
telegram from General E.A. Carr asking for his services as scout in the
coming campaign.
He joined the command at Fort D.A. Russell, where the famous Fifth
Cavalry Regiment was then in camp, and arriving received a boisterous
welcome from his old comrades, who felt that, with Buffalo Bill as Chief
of Scouts, they would surely have warm work with the Indians.
The Fifth Cavalry was at once ordered to operate in scouting the country
on the South Fork of the Cheyenne and to the foot of the Black Hills,
and it was while driving the Indians before them that the news came of
Custer's fatal fight with Sitting Bull on the Little Big Horn.
General Merritt, who had superseded Carr in command marched at once to
the Big Horn country, and while _en route_ there came news of a
large force of warriors moving down to join Sitting Bull.
Instantly five hundred picked men of the Fifth started back by forced
marches, and Buffalo Bill, splendidly mounted, kept on ahead of the
command a couple of miles.
Discovering the Indians, he at the same time beheld two horsemen whom he
saw to be whites, riding along unconscious of the presence of foes.
He knew that they must be scouts bearing dispatches, and at once
determined to save them for they were riding in a direction down one
valley that would bring them directly upon the red-skins, who had
already seen them, and had sent a force of thirty warriors out to
intercept them.
Instantly Buffalo Bill dashed over the ridge of the hill that concealed
him from the view of the Cheyennes, and rode directly toward the band
going to attack the two white horsemen.
They halted suddenly at sight of him, but, seeing that he was alone,
they started for him with wild yells.
But still he kept on directly toward them, until within range, when he
opened upon them with his matchless Evans rifle, a thirty-four-shot
repeater, and a hot fight began, for they returned the fire.
This was just what Buffalo Bill wanted, for the firing alarmed the
horsemen and placed them on their guard, and he knew that the Indian
volleys would be heard at the command and hasten them forward.
Having dropped a couple of red-skins and several ponies, Buffalo Bill
wheeled to the rightabout, dashed up to the top of a hill, and,
signaling to the two whites to follow him, headed for the command at
full speed.
As he had anticipated, the two men were scouts with important dispatches
for General Merritt, and Bill's bold act had not only saved their lives,
but also the dispatches, and the result of it was that the Fifth Cavalry
went at once into line of battle, while the Cheyennes also formed for
battle, though evidently surprised at being headed off at that point.
But they saw that they were double the force of the whites, and were
determined upon a fight, and their chiefs reconnoitered carefully their
foes' strength and position.
Buffalo Bill also volunteered to go out and get a closer look at them,
to see what they were up to, and General Merritt told him to do so, but
not to venture too near and expose himself.
As he left the line two Indian horsemen also rode out from among their
comrades, and one was some lengths in front of the other.
At a glance Buffalo Bill saw that the two were full chiefs, and they had
not advanced far toward each other when he discovered that he was the
especial object of their attention.
But though one halted, the other came on, and the scout and the chief
came within a hundred yards of each other.
Then the Indian cried out in his own tongue:
"I know Pa-e-has-ka the Great White Hunter and want to fight him."
"Then come on, you red devil, and have it out," shouted back Buffalo
Bill, and forgetting General Merritt's orders not to expose himself, and
to the horror of the regiment, every man of whom saw him, as well as did
the Indians, he dashed at full speed toward the chief, who likewise,
with a wild yell rode toward him.
Together both fired, the chief with his rifle, and Buffalo Bill with his
revolver, and down dropped both horses.
Buffalo Bill nimbly caught on his feet, while the Indian was pinned by
one leg under his horse, and with his war-cry the scout rushed upon him.
As he advanced the chief succeeded in releasing his leg from beneath his
horse and again fired, as did Buffalo Bill, and both of them with
revolvers.
The Indian's bullet cut a slight gash in Bill's arm, while he struck the
red-skin in the leg, and the next instant sprung upon him with his
knife, which both had drawn.
The hand-to-hand fight was hardly five seconds in duration, and Buffalo
Bill had driven his knife into the broad red breast, and then tore from
his head the scalp and feather war-bonnet, and waving it over his head,
shouted in ringing tones:
"_Bravo! the first scalp to avenge Custer!_"
A shout of warning from the cavalry caused him to turn quickly and he
beheld the second chief riding down upon him at full speed.
But Bill turned upon him, and a shot from his revolver got him another
scalp.
But hardly had he stooped to tear it from the skull, when the Indians,
with wildest yells, charged upon him.
They were nearer to him than was the regiment, and it looked bad for
Buffalo Bill; but the gallant Fifth charged in splendid style, met the
Indians in a savage fight, and then began to drive them in wild
confusion, and pushed them back into the Agency a sorely whipped body of
Cheyennes, and grieving over heavy losses.
Upon reaching the Agency Buffalo Bill learned that the two Indians he
had killed in the duel were Yellow Hand and Red Knife, and Cut Nose, the
father of the former swore some day to have the scout's scalp.
But Buffalo Bill laughed lightly at this threat, evidently believing the
old adage that "A threatened man is long lived."