"That's a pretty good idea," said Hugh, "scatter out, boys, and let's go up to the top of the hill. Joe, you take Fox Eye's gun and go to the North; son, you go to the South, and I'll go up in the middle; I guess those fellows saw us coming in plenty of time and have skinned out."
Well spread out, the three rode to the top of the hill and looked carefully over. There, a long way off, galloping over the prairie as hard as they could to the East, were seen three horsemen. They were too far off to be overtaken, and a little search along the hillside showed that there were no more enemies there.
They returned to Fox Eye, and as well as they could, with handkerchiefs and with pieces torn from their shirts, they bandaged his wounds. His horse was dead, and Joe put its saddle on the animal he had been riding, and prepared to go forward on foot.
"I heard two shots and felt that I was hurt."—Page 244
"This is how it happened," said Fox Eye, when Hugh asked him to tell the story of the attack. "I had left my horse behind and crept up close to the bull, and when I shot, it didn't get up; it just died there. Then I went back for my beast and bringing it up to the bull, I began to cut out some meat. I was busy, and I think didn't keep a good look-out, though every moment or two, as I thought, I looked about me, and then the first thing I knew I heard two shots and felt that I was hurt, and saw my horse fall. They had shot him for fear that I should run away. As I fell, I saw the three men running down to strike me, and I raised myself on one elbow, and when they were pretty near, I fired, and the first man fell. I think the others thought I had a double-barrel gun, for they separated and ran back and hid. I was charging my gun as quickly as I could, but it took me a long time to get the ball down, then I quickly crept in between the legs of the bull and used its body for a breastwork. When I looked again, I saw that the man I had shot had disappeared. I think he was only wounded.
"I wondered whether you would hear the shots and come back, and I wondered whether the three men would charge on me again. I could see their heads every little while, as they looked over the hill and I thought that they would charge; but pretty soon they started up the ridge, two of them helping the man that was hurt, and then they disappeared, and soon I heard you coming."
While Fox Eye had been talking, the other three had cut out the buffalo's tongue and taken the meat from his hump, and had put it on Hugh's horse. Hugh and Jack went back up the hill to the point where the man shot by Fox Eye had fallen. There they found blood on the grass and a trail of blood leading down a little sag to a ravine, where the man had crossed. Here there was more blood and moccasin tracks in the sand, which led up the hill. They returned to Fox Eye, who was then helped into the saddle, and Hugh and Jack mounted, and with Joe on foot, the four started down the hill. Before they had gone very far, they came in sight of the moving column, which by this time had quite overtaken them.
When they had come close enough to the camp for the people to get an idea of what had happened, a number of men rode out to meet them, and in a moment, as it seemed, the news had spread through the marching column, that enemies had been seen, and one of the people wounded. The four were at once surrounded by men, anxious for the news, and the shrieks and cries of women who did not know how great the misfortune might have been, resounded in their ears. Thirty or forty soldiers rode away hotly, to visit the scene of the encounter, and if possible to overtake the enemies. Fox Eye was put on a travois and the village started on again and camped that night on Milk River.