Major Reno had been ordered by General Terry to take his portion of the Seventh and scout southward, to examine the country for Indian signs and perhaps to sight General Crook. He had not sighted General Crook, who was a hundred miles distant, shut off by a wide stretch of rough, perilous country. But swinging in a circle back he had come, with news that on the Rosebud River he had struck a large trail, trending up-river, made by many Sioux. This was news indeed, and welcome news.
Steamboats ran on the Yellowstone. The Government supply boat Far West, Captain Grant Marsh, had arrived from the Missouri. General Terry and General Gibbon and General Custer had consulted, aboard her where she was tied to the shore unloading her supplies; and the results were known.
The “Montana column” were to be crossed to the south bank; and they, and the infantry, under General Terry and General Gibbon, were to proceed south up the Big Horn River, which was the next river beyond the Rosebud. The Far West was to accompany as far as it could. But the whole Seventh Cavalry were to march up the Rosebud, to the Indian trail, and see where the trail went to. Then, if the Indians tried to escape by the east or the southeast, the Seventh would turn them; and if they tried to escape north down the Big Horn, the other column would turn them.
Every soldier was now much interested, but none more interested than “Autie.” So he had sought out Ned the veteran, to confer with him. “Autie,” being the general’s nephew, always was chock-full of inside information that he picked up among the officers. So together they made a good team.
“How many Injuns will there be, do you think?” asked “Autie,” by the camp-fire.
“Major Reno says he counted sign of three hundred and eighty lodges, didn’t he?” answered Ned. “Charley Reynolds says that means about fourteen hundred in all; four or five hundred warriors, if we include the boys. Indian boys over fourteen can fight as hard as the men. They did down on the Washita.”
“Bloody Knife and the Rees are scared already,” declared “Autie.” “They’re making medicine. But Half-Yellow-Face and Curly and the other Crows aren’t scared. (Some Crow Indians had joined the Arikari scouts, to fight against the enemy Sioux.) I like them the best, anyway. They’re as jolly as any of us.”
“Yes,” agreed Ned, wisely; “they’re about the best Indians I’ve ever seen.”
“Sioux can whip ’em,” grunted a voice. It was that of Isaiah, the black squaw-man scout. “Sioux best fighters on plains.”
“They can’t whip us, though,” retorted “Autie.” “Is that Sitting Bull’s trail we’re going to follow, Ike?”