"THE BUCKS WERE COMING UP ALARMINGLY FAST."
"When General Forsyth arrived," continued the scout, in his
description of the battle of Wounded Knee Creek, "he ordered the male
Indians to come for a talk. They come out, scowling and sullen, and
gathered in a half-circle in front of Big Foot's tent. The chief was
inside, ill with pneumonia.
"The general told them they must surrender their arms in groups of
twenty. By this time they were thoroughly enraged, but most of our
boys thought they were so cowed they would obey without much trouble.
I didn't like their looks, and told Jenkins at my side to hold
himself ready, for I believed them fellows meant mischief, and a
fight was sure.
"'I guess not,' he answered; 'they're obeying orders.'
"The first score slunk back without a word. We waited a long while,
and by-and-by they came out agin, and how many guns do you 'spose
they brought with 'em. Just two miserable pieces, worth so much old
iron.
"The major was impatient because of the delay, and, when he saw this,
he too was angry. He turned and talked a few minutes with General
Forsyth, both speaking so low that I couldn't catch what they said,
though I seen the general was as angry as the major, but he kept
cool. You see, the major was managing the business, but he made sure
that everything was done as General Forsyth wanted.
"The cavalry was now ordered to dismount, and they done so, forming a
square about fifty feet back and closed in, standing within a
half-dozen yards of the Indians that was in the centre.
"It was plain that the latter didn't mean to obey orders, though they
pretended to. Accordingly a body of cavalry was sent to make the
search themselves. When they came out, which they did in a few
minutes, they brought sixty good rifles with 'em. That was doing the
business up in style; but the general and the major didn't intend
there should be any half-way work about it. The soldiers were
directed to search the bucks themselves, for there was no doubt that
all of 'em had their guns hid under their blankets.
"The Sioux stood scowling, ugly and savage. When about a dozen had
been searched and their rifles brought out, they couldn't stand it.
They were furious. Like a flash, the rest of 'em whipped out their
guns from under their blankets and let fly at us. It was so sudden
that before we knew what it meant, a hundred guns had been fired, and
the reports sounded like one volley.
"It was all done in a twinkling. There we were, close enough almost
to touch the redskins, and the flash of their rifles was right in our
faces. I remember that I was looking into the muzzle of one of 'em,
when the gun went off, and I felt the bullet nip my ear; but others
weren't so fortunate, and the poor boys dropped as though so many
thunderbolts had fallen among 'em.
"It didn't take us long, howsumever, to get in _our_ work.
"I can tell you," added Scout Jackson, "there were lively times for
twenty minutes or half an hour. During the battle we stood off some
distance when firing at each other, but it was like you and me
standing near enough almost to shake hands, and blazing away. Them
redskins fought hard. It was bang, bang, with the soldiers dropping
all around, and no saying when your own turn was to come.
"But the hostiles got the worst of it. Some of 'em, seeing how it
was going, broke through our lines and dashed for the hills to the
south-west. We followed 'em, and the fighting kept up as bad as
ever, though the shots wasn't so rapid. We lost about thirty, and
more than that wounded, and of them some are likely to die."
"Where were the squaws and children during the fight?" asked Brinton.
An expression of scorn passed over the face of the scout as he made
answer--
"Where was they? Fighting like so many wild cats. You'll be told
that we chased and shot down women and children. There's no question
that a big lot of 'em was killed, and how was it to be helped? Them
squaws was dressed so much like the bucks that you couldn't be
certain which was which. From the way they fought, you might have
believed each one was ten bucks rolled into one.
"But of course we cleaned 'em out, for that's what the Seventh always
does, when it undertakes that sort of thing; from what I've told you,
you'll know there was hot work for a time. A youngster about like
yourself had charge of a Hotchkiss gun. and the way he handled that
all through the fight made us feel like cheering, even when we didn't
dare to stop shooting long enough to do so.
"When the Sioux fled, this youngster dragged his gun from the knoll
where he had been stationed. Leftenant Hawthorne was at his side,
and the fighting had become skirmishing on the crests of the ravines,
where Big Foot's band had taken refuge. The bullets were singing and
whistling through the air, but that boy wheeled his Hotchkiss to the
mouth of the gulch, where the firing was the heaviest. The minute he
done that, he and the men attached to the gun become the targets of
the Indians, who was determined to shoot 'em down. The bullets
splintered the wheels of the gun, and sent the dirt flying right and
left and in the air. A ball struck Leftenant Hawthorne's watch,
glanced off, and wounded him; but the youngster pushed the gun
forward and shelled the pockets in the ravines.
"That boy kept it up, pushing steadily on and sending the shells
wherever they could do the most harm. When the battle was over, he
was found wounded, leaning against the shattered wheel of his gun,
too weak to stand erect. Big Foot was among the killed."
Brinton Kingsland was so interested in the story of his companion,
who was too modest to dwell upon his own exploits, that he forgot for
a few minutes his own situation and the absence of his friends. With
only a brief comment on what had been told him, he said, starting up--
"But, Nick, of what have I been thinking? Here the morning is fully
come, and I have not learned anything of father, mother, and Edith.
How could I forget them so long?"
"It was my fault more than yours," replied Jackson; "there's nothing
to be made by staying here; let's ride out of the gully and look
around; I've had a bite, and have something left over; will you have
it?"
"Not just now," replied Brinton, as he rode side by side with him out
of the depression where he had spent the night.
Reaching the higher ground, they looked over the surrounding country.
The youth gave his chief attention to the rear--that is, in the
direction of the Big Cheyenne, for he believed that Wolf Ear and the
other hostiles were not far off. But, if so, they were not in sight.
The scout, however, had discovered something in front, and at a
considerable distance, which interested him. Shading his eyes with
one hand, he gazed intently toward the north.
"By gracious!" he exclaimed, "I believe that's them."
"Where?" eagerly asked his companion.
"I don't mean your folk, but that waggon train with supplies from
Rapid City."
Brinton's heart sank, for his hopes had been high; but he found some
consolation, after all, in the declaration of the scout.
A mile away, across the prairie, a party seemed to be preparing to
leave camp. At that distance it was impossible to identify them, but
Jackson was positive that they were the train in search of which he
had left the camp at Wounded Knee.
Brinton's hope was that his parents were with them. It would have
been hard for him to explain just why his hope was so strong in this
respect, but it seemed reasonable to suspect that the light of the
camp had attracted their notice during the darkness, and that they
had gone thither, after finding it impossible to rejoin him.
The real, but slight, ground on which he based this fancy was that
his pony Jack had been found while he, his owner, was travelling in a
direct line from the Big Cheyenne toward the camp. Since the animal
must have kept company for a time with the other two, the Kingslands
had continued the same course, and might have descried the twinkle of
the camp fire.
"I myself would have seen it, had I not ridden the other way and gone
into the gully, where I couldn't detect anything a dozen feet away."
"Yes, I'm almost sure it's them," added Jackson, after further
studying the camp; "let's find out."
The proposition suited Brinton, and the two headed their ponies
toward the camp.
Although at the moment of starting there was no danger in sight, and
the supply train did not seem to have been disturbed, Nicholas
Jackson was too experienced to forget every precaution, and while he
studied the scene in front, he kept glancing toward the other parts
of the compass.
And it was well he did so, for a few hundred yards only were passed
when he said in a low voice, in which no excitement could be noted--
"It looks as if them bucks would like to j'in our company."
Brinton glanced back, and saw the half-dozen hostiles with whom he
had had his stirring experiences the night before dashing towards
them from the direction of the Cheyenne.
There was no need to engage them in a fight: indeed, it would have
been the height of imprudence to do so. Jackson and Brinton were
well mounted, and they instantly struck their horses into a run. The
Indians shouted on perceiving that they were discovered, and they
also urged on their animals. Several shots were fired, but the
distance was too great to do execution.
The race had continued but a little while when it became apparent
that the pursuers were gaining, Jackson's horse was doing his best,
but Brinton's was not. He could draw away from the Indian ponies,
but his rider held him back to keep the scout company.
The chase could not last long, for the camp was comparatively near at
hand, but the bucks were coming up alarmingly fast.
"There's no use of both of us being overhauled," said Jackson; "ride
ahead and save yourself."
"But I can't desert you."
"Faugh! don't be foolish; you can't help me, and you're sure to be
shot if you stay; off with you!"
"But what will become of you?"
"That's nothing to you; it looks as if I must bid you good-bye;
Billberry has gone lame, but I'll make the best fight I can, and if I
go down, some of 'em have got to go with me."
Brinton was much perplexed what to do, but he knew that the question
of life and death must be decided within the next few seconds.