“To be sure I did, sir,” said he. “I thought ‘Remember Custer’ all the time I was doing it. Halloo, there’s one. I guess I will fix him so that he won’t kill any more soldiers.”
Murphy stopped in front of a wounded Sioux, who raised on his elbow and looked at him with a countenance full of vindictive fury. He was shot through both legs, and of course he fell to the ground. The soldier felt all over his person but could not find a cartridge left.
“No matter,” said he, throwing himself off his horse. “You’ve got a knife there, and I can soon put you out of the way with that.”
“Hold on, Murphy; that won’t do,” said Parker. “Get back on your horse and let him go.”
“If I don’t kill him somebody else will,” said the soldier, very much disappointed to hear this order. “He is good for all the men who can get around him. See that?” he added, sticking the muzzle of his carbine into the warrior’s face.
The brave proved that if his legs were shot through his hands were all right, for he seized the gun and tried to draw the soldier toward him. If he had got him within reach of the knife he held in his hand, he would have struck him down without mercy.
“Don’t you think he ought to be killed after that?” inquired Murphy.
“We are not here to make war upon crippled Indians,” said Lieutenant Parker decidedly. “Disarm him and let him go.”
Now, to Carl it seemed as if it was a matter of some importance to take away the Indian’s knife. One of his race, when he becomes frightened and can run, gets as frightened as anybody; but when he is wounded so badly that he is brought to a standstill, he becomes really a dangerous foe. He will fight as long as he has strength left to draw a weapon. The soldier advanced toward him, but his knife was raised in the most threatening manner. But Murphy was equal to the emergency. In an instant his carbine was poised in the air; the blow descended, beating down the Indian’s guard and landing with its full force on his unprotected head. He was stretched out as dead, apparently, as any of the Indians that surrounded him. His muscles grew rigid, he sank back upon the ground, and the eyes which had gazed so ferociously at his assailant became glazed.
“Well, you have killed him now, at all events,” said the lieutenant in disgust.