THE WOLF HUNTERS 



on the same errand as us — huntin' the Kiowas — 

 an' he'd had better luck, for he caught 'em up on 

 the RepubHcan Fork an' had a nice little fight 

 an' killed a whole lot of 'em. 



"I'm givin' you all this preamble to give you a 

 clear idee of the situation that led up to the killing 

 of Peacock. There was a slight split among the 

 Kiowas durin' this war, for ol' To hausen — Little 

 Mountain — their head chief, with a few of the 

 cool-headed older warriors of the tribe, had re- 

 fused to join Satank an' the hostiles in makin' war 

 on the whites, an' To hausen, with his little band, 

 had kept out o' the way for fear of bein' mistaken 

 by us for the hostiles. But the biggest part of the 

 tribe, under the leadership of Satank an' Satanta 

 an' Big Tree, was a-doin' their level best to wipe 

 out every white man, woman, an' child on the 

 plains. 



"Satank was the recognized leader of the hos- 

 tiles an' was always very bitter in his hatred of 

 the whites. 



"As our two commands, Sturgis's an' Sedg- 

 wick's, had kep' him on the jump purty lively 

 durin' the summer, an' he'd got the worst of it all 

 'round, 'long in the last of August or fore part of 

 September, I think it was, Satank seemed to con- 

 clude — as the time was soon coming when the 

 Injun agent at Bent's Fort would be a-giving out 

 the annuities that Uncle Sam sends out every fall 

 to the peaceable Injuns — that he'd better make a 



104 



