Page:Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains.djvu/570

440 long hair rope on; I caught him and led the way, and he made a good leader for the others to follow.

We got to the horses a few moments before the soldiers got to the Indian camp, and at the first shot we all raised the yell, and as I led the white pony away all followed, and we did not halt until we were five or six miles off. Here we came to a small stream that meandered through a little valley. There we stopped awhile to let our horses drink and rest, and while there we counted our horses and found that we had seventy-eight.

We reached camp about six o'clock the next morning, but the soldiers did not get in until noon. When the fight was over the Lieutenant put out a strong picket guard and remained there until morning in order to catch the Apaches that might be secreted in the sage-brush. When daylight came he succeed in jumping up eleven, which he considered ample pay for staying there a few hours. In this fight sixty-six Indians were killed, besides we got all their horses, blankets, ropes and such other articles as they had.

We did but little in the way of scouting for the next few days. Lieut. Jackson said that we had made a good beginning and we did not want to do much before Gen. Crook came. "For," said he, we will have all the fighting we want when the General gets here."

The morning of the third day after the fight we started out with the entire scout force in squads of four, there being three squads, with the understanding that we were to keep in from one to three miles of each other, and all to camp together at night.

We took along with us four days' rations, but a scout