y until you get in the midst of them, and then don't
wait for each other, but turn loose, and each do our best, and let us
get every one of them if we possibly can," and it was surprising to me
to see how cool the whole three men were in attempting to kill these
Indians while they slept. There was not a sound until we were in the
midst of the sleeping Indians, and then it seemed as if every man shot
at once and aimed to kill, and there were only five Indians out of the
thirteen that had time to spring to their feet, and these did not try
to defend themselves, but made for their horses with the attempt to
get away. Only one of them reached his horse, and as he sprang on his
horse's back, I gave him a cut with my knife across the small of his
back and almost cut him in two. He tumbled to the ground without a word,
and as he did so, one of the boys shouted, "We have got them all. That
was the last one, and that was the easiest little fight that I was ever
in."

I asked if either of them was hurt. One man said, "Hurt? No, why durn
their shadows, they were not awake enough to hurt a fly if it had been
in their mouths."

I could not help laughing at his droll way of expressing his contempt
for the easily won battle if such it could be called when all the
fighting had been on our side.

We staked our horses out to let them eat the sweet grass that was so
abundant there, and we sat down and ate our own luncheon beneath a large
tree, and after we had satisfied our hunger, we laid around and rested
a while, and then we mounted our horses, I taking the lead and the boys
driving the Indians' horses after me.

We struck out for camp and reached the place where Capt. McKee and his
men were in camp a little after dark.

The Capt. was surprised indeed when we rode into camp with the band of
strange horses, and the men commenced to cheer us as soon as they saw
what we had with us.

One of my scouts said, "We don't want to go with you any more, Capt.
McKee, for you do your work at night and our boss does his work in the
daytime."

We dismounted and gave our horses to the man who had the care of the
horses and sat down to a supper of fried fish, and we surely did justice
to that meal, as we were very hungry.

After we had finished the meal, I told the Capt. all about our day's
work in trailing the Indians and surprising them as they slept, and how
we wiped the whole band out before they were awake.

The Capt. said, "Tomorrow m