And yet not a hostile Indian has been seen; not one, even as distant
vedette, has appeared in range of the binoculars, since the scouts rode
in at daybreak to say that big bands were in the immediate neighborhood.
It has been a long, hard summer's work for the troops, and the Indians
have been, to all commands that boasted strength or swiftness, elusive
as the Irishman's flea of tradition. Only to those whose numbers were
weak or whose movements were hampered have they appeared in
fighting-trim. But combinations have been too much for them, and at last
they have been "herded" down to the Elk, have crossed, and are now
seeking to make their way, with women, children, tepees, dogs,
"travois," and the great pony herds, to the fastnesses of the Big Horn;
and now comes the opportunity for which an old Indian-fighter has been
anxiously waiting. In a big cantonment he has held the main body under
his command, while keeping out constant scouting-parties to the east and
north. He knows well that, true to their policy, the Indians will have
scattered into small bands capable of reassembling anywhere that signal
smokes may call them, and his orders are to watch all the crossings of
the Elk and nab them as they come into his district. He watches, despite
the fact that it is his profound conviction that the Indians will be no
such idiots as to come just where they are wanted, and he is in no wise
astonished when a courier comes in on jaded horse to tell him that they
have "doubled" on the other column and are now two or three days' march
away down stream, "making for the big bend." His own scouting-parties
are still out to the eastward: he can pick them up as he goes. He sends
the main body of his infantry, a regiment jocularly known as "The
Riflers," to push for a landing some fifty miles down-stream, scouting
the lower valley of the Sweet Root on the way. He sends his wagon-train,
guarded by four companies of foot and two of horsemen, by the only
practicable road to the bend, while he, with ten seasoned "troops" of
his pet regiment, the ----th Cavalry, starts forthwith on a long détour