236 The King of the Thundering Herd 



sounded the charge for the disastrous battle 

 of the Little Big-horn. 



Half an hour later he and all his com- 

 rades, in General Ouster's immediate com- 

 mand, were lying dead upon mother earth. 

 They had died like good soldiers, the 

 ground about each man being sprinkled 

 with empty cartridges, but Sitting Bull and 

 his braves had been too many for them. 

 Now the bison was to suffer because the 

 Indian had fought his white brother. 



Troop E from Fort Blank in Kansas was 

 on its way to Northern Montana, where, 

 among the Black Hills, the last of the 

 bison had taken refuge. The troop had 

 orders to find and destroy all of the bison 

 that were left, and thus bring the red man, 

 whose buffalo had always been his chief 

 means of subsistence, to terms. 



To one of the troopers this was a mourn- 

 ful errand. Bennie Anderson, now called 

 Benjamin, for he had grown to a stalwart 



