“My God, Cody!”
“It is so. I saw them. I was captured by Bennett, indeed. It was within a few miles of Oak Heart’s big village.”
“Ha! And did you see the wily old scoundrel himself?”
“Oak Heart?”
“Yes.”
“No; but I saw a representative of the chief;” and he repeated the story of his coming upon the field of carnage and his adventure with Bennett and the White Antelope, while Keyes hurried him down the hillside toward the troopers’ camp.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE BORDER KING’S PLEDGE.
With him Captain Keyes had over a hundred cavalrymen, a company of mounted infantry, and two mountain howitzers, numbering, with the artillerymen and scouts, nearly two hundred men—a strong flying column, that could move rapidly and stand off a big force of Indians. They were then encamped not twenty miles from the main village of the Sioux, and not much more than half that distance from the coulée where Danforth’s squadron had been overcome.
The coming of Buffalo Bill, although it had been most timely for Captain Keyes, and had undoubtedly saved his life, cast a mantle of gloom over the encampment. Although the men had been warned to turn in early, because of the work before them on the morrow, they stood or sat around the camp-fires until late, discussing the terrible intelligence the scout had brought.