CHAPTER XXVI.
BUFFALO BILL SAVES TEN.
During the darkness and excitement of the expected attack, while the Sioux were pulling themselves together, the prisoners were forgotten. Price managed to slip his bonds, and released Bloody Ike; not that he had any particular love for the ex-miner, but because misery loves company, and rogues cling together in adversity.
The pair found some blankets and arms, and mingling with the braves worked down the stream until they came to the motte of timber at the river bank. They preferred to remain prisoners among the Indians to being captured by the soldiers, which they momentarily expected to charge on the Indian encampment.
The Indians, too, believed that U. S. Cavalry only awaited daylight to charge. That explained why the red men had failed to follow Cody and his party.
Scouts were hurriedly sent out to investigate the position and number of the enemy, and reported that they could not find any troops. Daylight revealed the great plain, instead of bristling with U. S. soldiery, as barren as the evening before.
The Indians were mystified. They had heard the bugle call, the giving of orders, and the galloping of officers’ horses. Spies, too, had been in the camp by the dozen, according to the reports of those who had come in contact with Cody, and the ponies had been stampeded and scattered over the plain.
The Indians felt great relief that the army had vanished, but they held a superstitious presentiment that the paleface riders and walkaheaps might drop from the clear sky, or arise out of the ground at any moment.
Braves were sent out to round up the ponies, and a council of the chiefs decided that it would be better to move to the hills and find some spot where such a surprise would be impossible.
Price and Bloody Ike hid in the timber until they heard the Sioux move away; then they came out and searched the camp ground for food. Some pieces of buffalo meat were found and broiled over the coals, and eaten without salt.
“Pretty tough lug for you and me, Ike.”