232 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



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 bedding that lay by 

 the smouldering camp-fire. The wounded and 

 such of the dead as did not lie in too exposed 

 positions were promptly taken away by their 

 comrades ; but seven bodies fell into the hands 

 of the three hunters. I asked Woody how many 

 he himself had killed. He said he could only 

 be sure of two that he got ; one he shot in the 

 head as he peeped over a bush, and the other 

 he shot through the smoke as he attempted to 

 rush in. " My, how that Indian did yell," 

 said Woody, retrospectively , " he was no great 

 of a Stoic." After two or three hours of this 

 deadly skirmishing, which resulted in nothing 

 more serious to the whites than in two of them 

 being slightly wounded, the Sioux became 

 disheartened by the loss they were suffering 

 and withdrew, confining themselves thereafter 

 to a long range and harmless fusillade. When 

 it was dark the three men crept out to the river 

 bed, and taking advantage of the pitchy night 

 broke through the circle of their foes ; they 

 managed to reach the settlements without 

 further molestation, having lost everything ex- 

 cept their rifles. 



For many years one of the most important 

 of the wilderness dwellers was the West Point 

 officer, and no man has played a greater part 

 than he in the wild warfare which opened the 

 regions beyond the Mississippi to white settle- 



