The foe’s hands dropped limply; yet Cody held on and squeezed his throat for a minute longer. Then he dropped the fellow like a bag of bones to the ground.
In a moment he seized his own rifle and dropped lightly beside him. The Indian had not stirred; he was without doubt dead. Cody took his weapons and removed his scalp, and went his way with some confidence that there was certainly one more “good” Indian.
He dodged the gravel bank this time, and came down the side of the cañon at another point—some rods beyond that at which he had found the first of the reds established. There were fewer trees here, and, looking from above, the scout was able to observe considerable of the more open hillside. Dark as the night was, he saw several forms crouching behind stumps and boulders.
He made a further détour, came down the hill again, and found the same conditions. On this side of the trail the Indians were extended along the hillside for five hundred yards and more. It was a big ambushing party. Cody reckoned it to be no less than two hundred braves at the least, and probably more. Captain Taylor’s command was not prepared to meet such a foe—especially when the foe would have every advantage of cover.
Had it not been so dark, or had Cody known the ground better, a flank movement might have been made which would have overwhelmed the reds. But this would have taken much time, too, and, meanwhile, the garrison at Fort Advance was in sore need of reenforcements.
Cody returned swiftly to the rendezvous he had appointed with Judd, to learn what that individual had discovered upon the other side of the cañon.
Now, the warriors lay very silently indeed in their ambuscade, but three hundred men cannot be in a small place like that together without making some sounds. Judd, too, discovered the ambush, although he did not know just how many Indians were awaiting the coming of the bluecoats.
“There’s a good bunch of them. Perhaps Oak Heart has drawn off half his gang,” said Cody. “We’ve got to fool ’em, Judd.”
They hurried back to the group of scouts, and there Cody issued his instructions. Judd and three others were to watch the Indians as well as possible. Meanwhile Cody proposed to ride back and meet Captain Taylor’s command and take them, by another way, to the valley in which Fort Advance was situated.
Cody rode back in haste and reported the danger ahead.