242 SPORTIXG ADVENTURES 



bullets went whizzing 1 or droning past us, while the fierce 

 screams of the prairie braves were fairly demoniacal in their 

 intensity. Had they been less careful of their persons they 

 could have annihilated us in a few moments, but, Indian-like, 

 they wished to destroy us without any injury to themselves; 

 hence they kept beyond the range of our rifles except for a few 

 minutes at a time, when they tried their useless system of 

 charging. The stirring combat was kept up uninterruptedly, 

 however, until we saw the gap that yawned in the mountain 

 and offered us our only refuge. This caused a thrill of joy to 

 pass through both body and mind, and we, for the first time, 

 answered the shouts of our foes by hearty cheers. A few of 

 the more daring and best mounted warriors made a bold and 

 determined attempt to charge us, but they were glad to relin- 

 quish that system of fighting in a very short time. A little 

 later, and we were dashing into the rocky pass or chasm, and 

 once inside we halted, and climbing promptly to an eminence, 

 gave our pursuers as defiant a shout as ever issued from human 

 throats. We were horror-struck, however, to see a group of 

 the fiends dancing and yelling about some object, and on 

 inquiring if any of the party were missing, found that a man 

 named Evans was not seen after the head of our column 

 entered the pass, he being the last in the line. This loss 

 affected iis very much and we were almost enraged when we 

 saw the way in which he was being tortured, for the cowards 

 were evidently wreaking their revenge and losses on him. 

 Much as we felt inclined to save him or his remains from the 

 mutilating hands of his captors, we felt that we were powerless 

 to do so, and that we might be risking our own lives to no 

 purpose. The Indians did not, of course, dare to follow us into 

 the pass, so we pursued our journey unmolested. We stib- 

 sequently learned from friendly Indians that our foes were 

 some of Red Cloud's renegade band, and that we had killed 

 and wounded fifteen of them. They captured our camp, how- 

 ever, but the men in charge escaped by leaving it as it 

 stood, and fleeing towards the settlements when they saw us 

 retreating. 



After resting a short time in the chasm we resumed our 



