"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.