238 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



ment herders, and promptly killed him in a 

 sudden fit, half of ungovernable blood lust, 

 half of mere ferocious lightheartedness. They 

 then dragged his body into the brush and left 

 it. The disappearance of the herder of course 

 attracted attention, and a search was organ- 

 ized by the cavalry. At first the Indians stout- 

 ly 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 acknowledged 

 that he had been murdered by two of their 

 band, though at first they refused to give their 

 names. The commander of the post de- 

 manded 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 counsel 

 with the tribe, told the commander that they 

 had no power to surrender the murderers, 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 them come into 



