In Cowboy Land. 433 



opened a perfect fusillade, wasting their cartridges with a 

 recklessness which Indians are apt to show when ex- 

 cited. The hunters could hear the hoarse commands of 

 the chiefs, the war-whoops, and the taunts in broken 

 English which some of the warriors hurled at them. Very 

 soon all of their horses were killed, and the brush was 

 fairly riddled by the incessant volleys ; but the three men 

 themselves, lying flat on the ground and well concealed, 

 were not harmed. The more daring young warriors then 

 began to creep toward the hunters, going stealthily from 

 one piece of cover to the next ; and now the whites in 

 turn opened fire. They did not shoot recklessly, as did 

 their foes, but coolly and quietly, endeavoring to make 

 each shot tell. Said Woody : " I only fired seven times 

 all day ; I reckoned on getting meat every time I pulled 

 trigger." They had an immense advantage over their 

 enemies, in that whereas they lay still and entirely con- 

 cealed, the Indians of course had to move from cover to 

 cover in order to approach, and so had at times to expose 

 themselves. When the whites fired at all they fired at a 

 man, whether moving or motionless, whom they could 

 clearly see, while the Indians could only shoot at the 

 smoke, which imperfectly marked the position of their 

 unseen foes. In consequence the assailants speedily 

 found that it was a task of hopeless danger to try in such 

 a manner to close in on three plains veterans, men of iron 

 nerve and skilled in the use of the rifle. Yet some of the 

 more daring crept up very close to the patch of brush, and 

 one actually got inside it, and was killed among the bed- 

 ding that lay by the smouldering camp-fire. The wounded 



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