286 Hunting the Grisly 



them come into the agency in half an hour." 

 The chiefs acquiesced, and withdrew. 



Immediately the Indians sent mounted 

 messengers at speed from camp to camp, sum- 

 moning all their people to witness the act of 

 fierce self-doom; and soon the entire tribe of 

 Cheyennes, many of them having their faces 

 blackened in token of mourning, moved down 

 and took up a position on the hillside close 

 to the agency. At the appointed hour both 

 young men appeared in their handsome war 

 dress, galloped to the top of the hill near 

 the encampment, and deliberately opened fire 

 on the troops. The latter merely fired a few 

 shots to keep the young desperadoes off, while 

 Lieutenant Pitcher and a score of cavalrymen 

 left camp to make a circle and drive them in ; 

 they did not wish to hurt them, but to capture 

 and give them over to the Indians, so that the 

 latter might be forced themselves to inflict 

 the punishment. However, they were unable 

 to accomplish their purpose; one of the young 

 braves went straight at them, firing his rifle 

 and wounding the horse of one of the cavalry- 

 men, so that, simply in self-defence, the lat- 

 ter had to fire a volley, which laid low the 

 assailant; the other, his horse having been 

 shot, was killed in the brush, fighting to the 



