WHY SATANK KILLED PEACOCK 



command in this part of the country when Pea- 

 cock was killed; an', as I've heard two or three 

 different stories about that affair, I'd like to know 

 the straight of it. Tell me jist how it happened." 



'^Well, sir," began old Tom as he raised up and 

 began whittling another pipeful of tobacco, "I 

 can give you the straight facts about that scrape, 

 for I got 'em from Charley Rath an' the sick man 

 — you know at the time Satank killed Peacock 

 there was a man sick in bed in the ranch that the 

 Injuns never touched, an' he was the only one of 

 Peacock's men left alive, 'cept Wild Bill an' John 

 Adkins, an' they was away from the ranch some- 

 where. After peace was made with the Kiowas 

 an' they got to comin' around to the Walnut Creek 

 ranch to trade ag'in, Charley Rath was runnin' 

 it, an' he got all the particulars about it from the 

 Indians who was with Satank when he killed Pea- 

 cock. So I think I got it pretty straight. 



"You'll remember that we — that is. Major Sedg- 

 wick's command of four companies of First Cav- 

 alry from Fort Riley — had been chasin' the Ki- 

 owas 'round over the plains all summer, but hadn't 

 been able to get a fight out of 'em 'cept that little 

 scrimmage our detachment of forty men under Jeb 

 Stuart had with Satank an' a little bunch up north 

 of Bent's Fort, where we killed eight of 'em an' 

 captured all their women an' children an' packs. 



"Captain Sturgis, with four companies from 

 Fort Arbuckle, had also come up into this country 



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