n the bank of a buffalo-wallow--a circular
depression in the prairie two or three feet deep and eight or ten feet
in diameter, made by buffalo wallowing in a muddy pool during the rains.

Instantly Jim sprang to the ground, gave his bridle to Loving, who lay
helpless under his horse, and turned and poured a stream of lead out of
his Henry rifle that bowled over two Comanches, knocked down one horse,
and stopped the charge.

While the Indians temporarily drew back out of range, Jim pulled Loving
from beneath his fallen mule, and, using his neckerchief, applied a
tourniquet to the wounded leg which abated the hemorrhage, and then
placed him in as easy a position as possible within the shelter of the
wallow, and behind the fallen carcass of the mule. Then Jim led his
own horse to the opposite bank of the wallow, drew his bowie knife and
cut the poor beast's throat: they were in for a fight to the death,
and, outnumbered twenty to one, must have breastworks. As the horse
fell on the low bank and Jim dropped down behind him, Loving called out
cheerily:

"Reckon we're all right now, Jim, and can down half o' them before they
get us. Hell! Here they come again!"

A brief "Bet yer life, ole man. We'll make 'em settle now," was the
only reply.

Stripped naked to their waist-cloths and moccasins, with faces painted
black and bronze, bodies striped with vermilion, with curling buffalo
horns and streaming eagle feathers for their war bonnets, no warriors
ever presented a more ferocious appearance than these charging
Comanches. Their horses, too, were naked except for the bridle and a
hair rope loosely knotted round the barrel over the withers.

On they came at top speed until within range, when with that wonderful
dexterity no other race has quite equalled, each pushed his bent right
knee into the slack of the hair rope, seized bridle and horse's mane in
the left hand, curled his left heel tightly into the horse's flank, and
dropped down on the animal's right side, leaving only a hand and a foot
in view from the left. Then, breaking the line of their charge, the
whole band began to race round Loving's entrenchment in single file,
firing beneath their horses' necks and gradually drawing nearer as they
circled.

Loving and Jim wasted no lead. Lying low behind their breastworks
until the enemy were well within range, they opened a fire that knocked
over six horses and wounded three Indians. Balls and arrows were
flyi