In Cowboy Land 285 



Indians stoutly denied all knowledge of the 

 missing man ; but when it became evident that 

 the search party would shortly find him, two 

 or three of the chiefs joined them, and piloted 

 them to where the body lay; and acknowl- 

 edged that he had been murdered by two 

 of their band, though at first they refused to 

 give their names. The commander of the 

 post demanded that the murderers be given 

 up. 



The chiefs said that they were very sorry, 

 that this could not be done, but that they were 

 willing to pay over any reasonable number of 

 ponies to make amends for the death. This 

 offer was of course promptly refused, and the 

 commander notified them that if they did not 

 surrender the murderers by a certain time he 

 would hold the whole tribe responsible and 

 would promptly move out and attack them. 

 Upon this the chiefs, after holding full coun- 

 sel with the tribe, told the commander that 

 they had no power to surrender the murder- 

 ers, but that the latter had said that sooner 

 than see their tribe involved in a hopeless 

 struggle they would of their own accord come 

 in and meet the troops anywhere the latter 

 chose to appoint, and die fighting. To this 

 the commander responded: "All right; let 



