WHY SATANK KILLED PEACOCK 



speak to him/ and I gave way and let Bayard 

 come In between me and Pawnee. Bayard called 

 on him a couple of times to halt, on the second 

 demand firing a shot in front of the Indian as a 

 warning, and when he found that the Indian 

 only jeered and made faces at him the lieutenant 

 reined in a little and let the Kiowa go ahead, and, 

 as he did so, dropped his pistol to Pawnee's back, 

 saying, *Take it, then,' and let him have it — shoot- 

 ing him through the heart. Pawnee threw up his 

 hands and fell off his horse dead." 



"Well, by rights," said Jack, "you'd overtook 

 the Injun first an' had the best right to have done 

 that job, but Bayard took advantage of his bein' 

 an officer over you to hog the honors." 



"I didn't consider that there was any particu- 

 lar honor in killing that Indian, under the circum- 

 stances," I replied, "but I should have done so if 

 the lieutenant had said the word. But Bayard 

 seemed to think that the Indian would halt and 

 surrender on his demand, and when the Kiowa not 

 only refused to yield but defied him, why, there 

 was nothing else to do but to kill him. We 

 thought it strange at first that Pawnee should act 

 so defiantly when we had the drop on him, but 

 Peacock told us when we got back to the ranch 

 that this Indian carried a medicine or charm hung 

 around his neck that was supposed to protect him 

 from a white man's bullet, and when the lieuten- 

 ant fired a shot and missed him he was sure he 



lOI 



