“About four hundred; but we have eight hundred men here, so I guess they will not attempt any tricks.”
Carl rode back to his camp in company with the colonel, who summoned his officers and held a short consultation with them. Parker and the rest of the young officers, who had never seen a hostile camp before, listened to what Carl had to tell them, and then turned their attention to the pass through which the courier had come out. But it was a long time before the Indians arrived. Just as the sun was setting they came into view, and there were so many of them that Parker grew alarmed.
“Have those Indians all got guns?” he asked. “I don’t see anything to indicate the fact.”
“They have guns, for you never saw an Indian go on the warpath without one; but they have them hidden where we can’t find them,” said Carl. “When the order is given to disarm them, you will see what sort of weapons we are going to get—old, worthless things that you wouldn’t pick up in the street.”
“Then the soldiers will search their tepees for them,” said a young officer decidedly.
“Of course; and that is what is going to bring on the fight.”
“Are we really going to have a brush with them?”
“I think so, and you may make up your mind to hear how a bullet whistles as it goes by your head.”
“Well, why don’t they begin it, if that is what they are up to?”
“It is too late to do anything to-day, but it will keep. You wait until to-morrow and you will wish that you were back at the fort.”