this was a very slow way of traveling. We had inadvertently got about half
a mile in advance, but our Cheyennes, who were generally a mile or two in
the rear, remained with him. There were some dark-looking objects among
the hills, about two miles to the left, here low and undulating, which we
had seen for a little time, and supposed to be buffalo coming in to water;
but, happening to look behind, Maxwell saw the Cheyennes whipping up
furiously, and another glance at the dark objects showed them at once to
be Indians coming up at speed.

Had we been well mounted and disencumbered of instruments, we might have
set them at defiance; but as it was, we were fairly caught. It was too
late to rejoin our friends, and we endeavored to gain a clump of timber
about half a mile ahead; but the instruments and tired state of our horses
did not allow us to go faster than a steady canter, and they were gaining
on us fast. At first, they did not appear to be more than fifteen or
twenty in number, but group after group darted into view at the top of the
hills, until all the little eminences seemed in motion; and, in a few
minutes from the time they were first discovered, two or three hundred,
naked to the breechcloth, were sweeping across the prairie. In a few
hundred yards we discovered that the timber we were endeavoring to make
was on the opposite side of the river; and before we reach the bank, down
came the Indians upon us.

I am inclined to think that in a few seconds more the leading man, and
perhaps some of his companions, would have rolled in the dust; for we had
jerked the covers from our guns, and our fingers were on the triggers. Men
in such cases generally act from instinct, and a charge from three hundred
naked savages is a circumstance not well calculated to promote a cool
exercise of judgment. Just as he was about to fire, Maxwell recognised the
leading Indian, and shouted to him in the Indian language, "You're a fool,