Page:Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains.djvu/560

432 that they had started on a hunt and I would keep my eye on them to see where they would camp for the night. By this time I had all the water in this region located, and when I would see a band of Indians late in the evening I could tell about where they would camp.

As soon as I had decided where those would camp I telegraphed to Lieut. Jackson the situation. Where these Indians camped was within six miles of our quarters, but a miserable place to enter with horses, but I thought we could ride within a mile of the place on horseback.

The Lieutenant, however, was well acquainted with the ground, and as soon as he read my message he mounted his cavalrymen and started, and met me within a mile of the Indian camp. Dismounting, he and his men started on foot to the camp, and he told the soldiers to walk lightly, and when in sight of the camp to get down and crawl, but to be very careful not to break a limb or twig. I was very much disappointed in not getting to see this fight, for after I had sent my message to headquarters my horse fell with me and dislocated my right knee.

Lieut. Jackson said that he had never seen Indians fight harder in the dark than they did. He had three to their one, and said if it had been daylight he thought they would have held the soldiers in check for some little time. He did not think that he got all of them. In this action he lost--two men killed and seven wounded, two of whom died afterwards from their wounds.

I was laid up for a month with my knee, having to go on crutches most of the time, and it has given me