' An' if all th' boys
layin' out there on th' prairie in their graves c'd tell, I'm bettin' my
six-shooter ag'in' what you all know about th' Rooshian langwidge that
they'd say as how th' Old Man died with a sword in one hand an' a gun in
th' other, a-lookin' right into th' sun.

"Well, we made a wide circle--a detower--an' come up ag'in 'way behind
th' village, an' right there th' Old Man made his great mistake. I ain't
blamin' him none, but it sure shows how a big man c'n lose his head just
by bein' crazy mad an' wantin' t' fight. Even th' rookies, what had
seen a lot o' service, knowed that he was makin' himself liable--an' him
a general--t' be called up on a drumhead court-martial.

"There he was, a thousand miles from anywhere, dividin' his force in th'
face of a superior enemy. An' that enemy th' greatest fighters that ever
th' sun shined on. You know we men that fighted Injuns knows what they
was made of. All this talk 'bout Injuns not bein' fighters, an' not
bein' game, an' one white man bein' as good as ten Injuns, makes me feel
like th' organ-grinder Dago what said, 'It makes me sick, an' makes th'
monkey sick, too!'

"Well, to git back. Gee, you fellers'll think I'm a Williams J. Bryant
runnin' f'r President. Notice I said runnin'! No, I ain't tryin' t' be
funny. I just wish I could be. It'd sort o' take th' weight off th'
awfulness of what I remember as what happened, an' what I can't tell
right 'cause I ain't got eddication an' brains enough.

"Th' Old Man, he split us up, him takin' companies C, E, F, I, and L,
givin' Benteen four companies an' Reno three companies. He ordered Reno
t' go t' th' left an' cross th' Little Big Horn an' attack, th' Injuns
from th' rear. Benteen he told t' go straight ahead, an' he himself took
th' right. I was with Reno, an' I saw personal what he was up ag'inst.
We crossed th' Little Big Horn an' went right into what seemed a million
warriors.

"I was right alongside of Lieutenant Hodgson, Lieutenant McIntosh, an'
Doctor De Wolf when they fell, an' I see Charlie Reynolds--he'd refused
t' go with th' Old Man--put up a fight that if I was a artist, an' c'd
draw pictures, I c'd make a fortune puttin' it on paper. He started with
a Springfield, then went to his six-shooter, an' wound up with a knife
before he went down with a bullet through his heart an' at least a dozen
Injuns piled all 'round him. Suicide, I reck'n it was. He knowed he was
right, but he also knowed he'd di