36 ADVENTURES OF DR. ALLEN. 



to outstrip his comrades, leaning forward on his war horse. 

 Our boys lay flat in the grass, as silent as death. The un- 

 earthly yells pierced our very hearts and when the Indians 

 were within seventy yards of us, Thomas Randall, of Chi- 

 cago, sent the first ball from his Remington rifle 45 ,,105. 

 This was followed by nineteen deadly bullets of all sizes. 



We sprang to our feet in a cloud of blue smoke, and, 

 as we all had repeaters, there was one blaze of fire. Horses 

 were rolling down upon us, and the report of rifles was deaf- 

 ening. One Indian who had determined to die on the field, 

 or who could not manage his horse, rushed toward Nickel- 

 son and myself. He was nude and his hair was streaming 

 in the air. Our two rifles crashed and he fell forward, but 

 raised again and fired a carbine at my face. Fortunatelv 

 for me, I was only powder-burned, and he fell to the earth. 



The Indians were gone as quickly as they came. The 

 smoke cleared away and around us lay fourteen Sioux war- 

 riors,, five dead horses and three with broken legs. These we 

 shot. We held a council and decided that if the news of this 

 affair should reach the Red Cloud Agency we would be 

 speedily annihilated by overwhelming numbers of Sioux. 

 A deep washout was near at hand, so horses and Indians 

 were dumped in and covered with bushes and old dead sage. 

 Passing on our way we soon found two trappers and their 

 burned wagons. From Red Canyon to Centennial Prairie 

 and Pumpkin Buttes half-burned bones and wagons, dead 

 horses and camp requirements were strewed about where 

 scores of men had yielded up their lives to the deadly attacks 

 of the Sioux and the Cheyennes. 



We felt that the best thing for us to do was to return 

 to Spearfish, and there organize a strong train, which should 

 be well armed, or give up the trip, so dangerous with lurk- 

 ing foes at every point. Our plan of operations we voted 



