CHAPTER XV.A VERY STRANGE FIND.
“The goo’ Lor’ bress you, Massa Bill!” came a cry in chorus from a dozen men, as the scout approached the retreat.
Sergeant Mobile Buck came out to meet Buffalo Bill, and wrung his hand hard, while he said:
“You did it, sir—you saved us, and just in time, for my men were giving way.
“I lost five killed, sir, and half a dozen wounded, though only two seriously.
“It will do the men good, sir, this fight, and they’ll follow you, Mr. Cody, to the devil!”
“And I want you and every man of them for my squadron of scouts, sergeant, as I will need yourself, a corporal, and twenty-four men.
“Now look to your wounded and then bury your dead, for I’ll have breakfast sent to you from the main camp over in the timber yonder, where they are now cooking for Captain Keyes and his men, who will remain where they are until I can flank yonder hill, for we have as many more men in reserve and a gun.”
“That’s good, sir, and Mr. Injun will get it bad, won’t he?” said the delighted sergeant, while Buffalo Bill rode through the retreat and called out:
“You had it hot and deadly here, I see, boys, but youfought like wild cats, all of you, and I am proud of my black scouts, for I want you all.”
A cheer answered the words of the scout, and he rode rapidly back into the timber, where the stragglers had come up with the pack animals, a camp had been formed, and breakfast was being prepared.
Sending a white scout on his trail of the night before to bring his pack horse, saddle and bridle from where he had left them on the river bank, Buffalo Bill hastily had breakfast with a half a hundred troopers, and led them by a flank movement to get in the rear of the Indians on the ridge. He had long before sent a courier to tell the reserve force, the troopers with their gun, to branch off at a trail, which would head him off at a point where they could reach the rear of the redskins.
All went just as he had hoped it would, the reserve met the command under Buffalo Bill, and by hard riding, were after the Indians, halted on the ridge and watching Captain Keyes in the valley in their front, feeling that he was afraid to attack them, were surprised by a shell bursting in their midst on the hill.
It fairly dazed them with surprise and dread, and only when shell after shell began to crash among them, and Captain Keyes mounted his men for a rush on the ridge, did they break in a wild stampede.
These, too, saw that they were between two fires, Captain Keyes and the force of Buffalo Bill with thegun, and there was but one way to escape, and that was to desert their ponies and take to the deep cañons leading into the mountains where a horse could not find footing.
It was hard for an Indian to do, to leave his pony, but it was a question of life and death, and they fled on foot, thus making it a glorious victory for the palefaces.
Sending a courier to have his pack animal and a fresh horse brought him, Buffalo Bill went on the trail of the redskins, to see if they continued their flight, or halted to try and make an effort to regain their horses when night came, and Captain Keyes came up with his men to go into camp with the entire force.
It was nearly midnight when Buffalo Bill, on foot, returned to the camp.
“They’ve got enough for the present, sir, and are all on the jump for their village; but I will go out mounted at dawn and alone, keeping on their trail for a day, at least, until sure what they will do,” he said to Captain Keyes.
“And shall I camp here, Cody, or return to the fort?” asked the captain.
“Better rest here until day after to-morrow, sir, and then return by slow march toward the fort, so I can overtake you, if they meet other bands and return, for there may be more of them.
“If I see nothing suspicious, sir, please say to MajorArmes that I will return to the fort within two or three days.”
“All right, Cody, and I hear you are going to have a squadron of negro scouts?”
“Yes, sir, for it will give the colored troops confidence, and I believe I can make good scouts of them, while the Indians are as scared of the black soldiers as the latter are of them—they don’t just understand their being black and call them ‘Heap Black Paleface Braves.’”
“Not a bad name, either, if they will only prove braves; but the Indians are experts in giving names.
“Now get what rest you can, for you need it, and I know of no man who could do what you have.”
Ten minutes after Buffalo Bill was fast asleep; but at dawn he woke up, and his pack horse and a fresh riding animal having come up, he had breakfast, mounted, and rode away on his lone trail.
That day every sign pointed to the fact that the Indians had been so badly beaten that though they had met a couple of bands of their comrades, they did not turn back, but went on to their villages together.
It was toward evening of his second day’s trail, as he came to a good camping place, that Buffalo Bill decided to halt for the night, when he was startled by hearing a human voice calling to him, and the words spoken in a low tone.
Out of a thicket staggered a tall, gaunt form, with black face, haggard, and showing deep lines of suffering, while his clothing was in rags, his feet wrapped in deerskins, a foxskin cap upon his head, a tattered blanket, and a rifle, revolver, and knife his weapons.