“I don’t think all Indians are vermin,” said Buffalo Bill. “I have met some pretty good ones. And I don’t think they are all ungrateful, either, for I’ve known some, at least, who were as grateful as any white man could be.”
CHAPTER III.
AN IMPENDING ATTACK.
The afternoon wore away, but no bands of hostile Indians appeared in sight. Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill headed scouting parties, and rode some five miles from the fort, but they saw no signs which led them to suppose that an attack was imminent.
The party of soldiers who had chased Wild Bill’s pursuers returned to the fort during the course of the afternoon, and reported that they had followed the Indians about ten miles without coming up to them.
Then they saw another party of Indians, at least five hundred strong, riding across the prairie to join the fugitives, so the lieutenant in command wisely gave the order to turn the horses’ heads back toward the fort. The Indians did not chase them.
More settlers came in during the afternoon, and they lighted fires in the courtyard of the fort, and prepared to cook their dinner, for there was no proper accommodation for them.
As their bear steaks and deer meat frizzled and sizzled on the fire, they told one another queer yarns of Western life, for they were all men who had seen the rough and humorous side of the frontier.
“We’ll come out of this yer business all right,” observed one of the men. “I’ve come through worse gol-durned contraptions than this, by a long sight.”