up and paint up and get ready to
scout."

Curly at this point reaches the camp of General Custer, and the remainder
of the fascinating story of this warrior, orator, and scout, who followed
with unfailing fidelity the fortunes of the United States soldiers, will
be told in the chapter on "The Indians' Story of the Custer Fight."

[Goes Ahead--Custer Scout]

Goes Ahead--Custer Scout

Goes-Ahead-Basuk-Ore

Goes-Ahead carries about a tall, attenuated, and weakened frame. He is
standing on the verge of yonder land. He is stricken with a fatal
disease. In manner he is as quiet and unobtrusive as a brooding bird.
When reminiscent his wonted smile disappears, his eye lights up with a
strange mysterious fire. He talks straight on like a man who has
something to tell and is eager to tell it. We may gain better glimpses of
his life if we let him tell his own tale:

"When I was quite a lad I went to war. I was the first in the battle and
the others all said: 'There he goes ahead of us.' I have been first in
battle ever since and thus I got my name, Goes-Ahead. The greatest
pleasure I had when I was a boy, I remember, was in killing wolves. After
we had shot the wolf we would run up and put our coup stick on him and
play that he was our enemy. Another sport we had was playing buffalo. We
divided up and part of the boys would be buffalo and part would be
hunters. The boys who were playing buffalo would paw up the dust and we
would run after them and shoot arrows at them, and then the buffalo bull
would chase us back until he caught one of the boys, then we went on until
we conquered the buffalo. When I was a young man we had buffalo skulls
with the meat and skin all taken off and we would tie ropes to them and
put them on the ice. The girls would sit on the buffalo head and we would
draw them along the ice. That was one of our greatest pleasures. I was
about fifteen years old when I first went on the war trail. It was in the
winter time and I was on foot. I used a bow and arrows and my arrows were
not very good. The young fellows who went with me had old Springfields,
using powder and bullets. We used to make a shack by the edge of the
woods, the others would kill the buffalo and then we would roast the meat
by the fire. I used to cut the buffalo meat in strips, and dried it, and
then put it in sacks and carried it along for the war party. When we