Campfire Stories of Indian Qiaracter 545 



That their hearts were firm as ever and that all they 

 needed was a little physical strength the next few days 

 effectually proved. 



The twelfth they lay eating and resting, and when on the 

 thirteenth, Wessells's column returned to the attack, the 

 Indians were found six miles farther to the west, well 

 entrenched on the Hat Creek Bluffs, and there again 

 an ambush was encoimtered in which two troopers were 

 wounded. 



On this day a twelve-pound Napoleon gun was brought 

 into action, and forty rounds of shell were thrown into the 

 Indians' position, without dislodging them. 



The same day Captain Wessells and Lieutenants Craw- 

 ford and Hardie crept near the rifle-pits with an inter- 

 preter and called to the Cheyennes to bring out their women 

 and children, promising them shelter and protection. A 

 feeble volley was the only reply! 



Realizing the Indians had now reached a cattle country 

 in which they could kill meat and subsist themselves, Cap- 

 tain Wessells had brought out a pack-train, with blankets 

 and rations, to enable him to surround the Indians' posi- 

 tion at night, and, should they slip away, to camp on their 

 trail. 



This night they were surrounded, but at dawn on the 

 fourteenth, Lieutenant Crawford discovered the wily enemy 

 had again slipped through the picket lines, headed south- 

 westward along the high bluffs which lined the southern 

 edge of Hat Creek Basin. 



For six days more the same tactics on both sides pre- 

 vailed; the Indians were daily followed in running fight, or 

 brought to bay in strong positions practically impregnable 

 of direct attack, surrounded at nightfall, only to glide away 

 like veritable shadows during the night, and of course more 

 or less were killed in these daily engagements. 



