This aroused the Colonel, who caught up the flag and signaled to them not to attack, but to make all haste into the Fort.
"If they get back safe it will give me a hundred and ten men to send out to that battlefield," said he, after thinking a moment. "You will have to go with them. Don't leave the ridge until you see that you are sufficiently strong to hold them at bay."
"But you want me to go to the battlefield," said the Major.
"But don't go into that ambush whatever you do. Steer clear of that. Bring the bodies of all the men you can find with you."
Then the Colonel relapsed into his melancholy mood again, and Major Powell knew that he had to do everything that was necessary for getting the relief party under way, and he lost no time in doing it either. While he was thus engaged, the gate flew open and the wagon train, well loaded with fuel, came in with a rush. A more frightened set than the teamsters were it would have been hard to find, and even the old soldiers, who had passed through more than one Indian fight, were heard to draw a long breath of relief as they came into line.
"Oh, Major, it was just awful!" said the Lieutenant, who was the first to salute him.
"Fetterman has gone up," said Captain Kendall; and there were traces of tears on his face that he was not ashamed of. "I never saw so many Sioux before. Where's the Colonel?"
"Up there on the platform," said the Major. "Go up and report to him. And, mind you, don't say anything to him that will make him feel worse than he does now, for he is completely prostrated."
"But I shall have to tell him the truth, or I might as well stay away from him," protested the Captain. "It was nothing that he could help, but we are just a hundred men short."