With stiff lips Ned at sunrise time blew first call for a cavalry camp pretty well frozen up; and the cheery notes of reveille failed to awaken much enthusiasm among the soldiers. At assembly for roll-call the men fell in wrapped to their noses, their overcoat-collars turned high and clothes tied down over their ears.
However, the snow had ceased, the sun was peeping out, and evidently the storm had passed. Now the April sun would soon lay bare the plains.
General Custer had not seemed to mind the storm; and out of it had gained some fun, as usual. Ned heard him telling a joke, with great peals of laughter, to his brother Colonel Tom Custer and several other officers.
“Ha-ha-ha!” How they all roared and chuckled, none more loudly than the general himself.
Nobody expected that the Indians would come in to-day, which was the tenth, for the snow and the cold would keep them housed. Two soldiers rode away with a dispatch-bag crammed with letters from officers and men, for Riley and the East; and the general’s letter to Mrs. Custer, which Ned delivered at the very last moment, must have been the fattest of all. No dispatch bearer went from march or camp without, as appeared, a letter from the general for Mrs. Custer. He kept a regular diary.
The sun shone, but the weather remained biting cold. However, it was thought that the Indians would come in on the morrow, which was the eleventh. In the morning Pawnee Killer sent word that he had started with his people for the fort, when they had discovered a large herd of buffalo; so they had stopped to get meat.
This excuse did not please General Hancock or any of the officers; and even Major Wyncoop was hard put to explain why buffalo should be more important than a council engagement.
“They don’t mean to come in, gentlemen,” declared Wild Bill, to General Hancock and Custer and others. “They’re playing for time; that’s all. The first thing you know, they’ll have cleared out. It’s no part of their intentions to hold any sort of a pow-wow. This snow’ll fetch along the grass; and after that, look out!”
“If they don’t come to us, we’ll go to them,” announced General Hancock. “We’ll give them twenty-four hours more to keep their promise.”