“We must make it within three hours, sir,” said Buffalo Bill, and Captain Edward Keyes answered:
“Go ahead, Cody, and we’ll be with you.”
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BLACK TROOPERS AT BAY.
As Buffalo Bill knew just how urgent the demand for haste might become, he set a pace that, though he knew many of the troopers might not be able to keep up, yet many would do so, and these could make the attack on the Indians, while the others would constantly be coming up as reënforcements.
Major Armes had also promised to send a wagon with rations, a six-pounder gun, and a company of infantry, mounted, as a reserve, in case the Indians should be in still larger force than Buffalo Bill had supposed them to be.
To the black troopers in the little hill retreat it was a sad sight to see Buffalo Bill leave them, though they knew that by his going alone was there a chance for their rescue.
They knew their danger, and the warning the scout had given them, that “if he could get into their retreat an Indian could also do so,” had made them keep the closest watch, and not an instant did they close their eyes.
“If I wakes up arter a nap, I wants it ter be in this world, not de next, so I doesn’t go ter sleep,” said a trooper, and he voiced the sentiments of all.